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Auto dialers are for more than just telemarketing firms, but how can a business know if an auto dialer is right for them?

For large call centers, auto dialers obviously make sense. But auto dialers can serve more applications than just full-time telemarketing operations. Auto dialers also can be useful for businesses that have a lot of customer appointments, as such dialers can call customers and remind them of upcoming appointments so there are less no-shows.

Auto dialers can also serve as announcement systems, letting constituents know about a school closing or a canceled event. They can be used for reward programs, offering up special discounts and alerts. Auto dialers also are good for sales teams, even if the team is small and calling customers is not the only task for these employees.

There are many uses for auto dialers that extend beyond just full-time telemarketing operations.

One issue that businesses face is giving auto dialers a try, however; a business might see opportunities to use auto dialing technology, but the use case is unsure and investing in the technology without an adequate test is too big a leap.

Thankfully, the cloud can help. One advantage of cloud services is that businesses can test out software solutions without having to make a big commitment. With cloud solutions, there is minimal setup, no hardware or software to buy, and the business can cancel at any time. The cloud makes “testing” relatively easy and cheap.

Many auto dialer makers now offer auto dialer technology as a cloud service. This gives businesses a good opportunity to try the technology without the investment. Later, a business can then invest in on-premise auto dialer technology to reduce overall costs—or continue using an auto dialer in the cloud, of course, if CapEx is a problem.

For example, SpitFire Predictive dialers by OPC Marketing offer both on-premise and hosted auto dialer options (they also offer co-location services, too, a mix between hosted and on-premise). The Spitfire hosted dialer solution can easily be connected to the business via the SIP protocol used by VoIP services, and as a hosted solution there’s no commitment in case auto dialers end up not making sense.

By having the auto dialer in the cloud, businesses also benefit from robust security, uptime guarantees, redundant power so the system always “just works,” and no upgrade issues.

The cloud can be useful for testing out new business processes. With the value proposition for auto dialers being strong even for smaller firms, hosted auto dialer solutions make a lot of sense as a way to try out the benefits of auto dialer technology.