Although conditions have turned around slightly, the automobile industry has still yet to fully recover from the recession that struck more than two years ago. To compete in today's sluggish economic times, companies in the automotive industry need to eliminate capital expenditures, minimize operational expenses and market themselves efficiently.

Many automotive organizations have been able to accomplish these goals by adopting auto dialer solutions, such as those provided by CallFire. Automated outbound dialing products cut through all the hassle of the lead generation business, leaving agents to do what they do best – sell and market their products.

To improve the efficiency of their outbound sales and marketing process, automotive companies can simply upload their contacts list to CallFire's auto dialer system and let it go to work. The system can dial out on as many as four phone lines per caller and will notify agents as soon as they are on with a live customer. If no one picks up, the auto dialer will leave a message for the agent.

In addition, the CallFire auto dialer will eliminate the need for agents to deal with busy signals or bad phone numbers. The California-based VoIP provider said that the auto dialer system can increase outbound calling efficiency by 20 to 30 percent over manual dialing.

Automotive companies can benefit from other next-generation VoIP-based products as well. CallFire's ready-to-deploy Hosted IVR services enable automotive companies to easily set up complicated call trees, automate inbound or outbound customer satisfaction surveys and create custom appointment reminders. All of these services are offered on a pay-as-you-go model.

The company also boasts a Voice Broadcast platform that enables users to create Press-1 campaigns, using pre-recorded voice messages. Automotive organizations that are looking to broaden their advertising initiatives can also purchase unique toll-free phone numbers from CallFire and then track and record each call. By using different toll-free numbers for each billboard, TV ad or magazine spot, automotive companies can monitor which campaign is the most successful and adjust their advertising budgets accordingly.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein