Direct Inward Dial

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What Does Direct Inward Dial Mean?

Direct inward dial (DID) is
a special service provided by telecommunication companies for users of private branch exchange (PBX) systems. With the
help of this system, a company can gain different set of numbers for different
sections of the office. This means that the company can have different phone
numbers over the same machinery. Thus, if a customer of the company is using
this service and wants to call with a specific problem, they can directly
contact the required person for resolving their enquiries. This is very
important for a business as it saves time and ensures customer satisfaction,
all in a very low budget.

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Direct inward dial (DID) is also known as direct dial-in.

Techopedia Explains Direct Inward Dial

A direct inward dial system can be
understood more clearly with an example. Say a given
company has hired a telecommunications company with eight trunk lines (or physical
lines). It has rented 100 phone numbers from that company. However, as it has eight
trunk lines, it can accommodate a maximum of eight calls at once, and all other callers receive a busy signal. Those people can either wait until the call is disconnected,
or leave a message. In both cases, the satisfaction level of the customer would
be low, and it can be very risky if the customer is even a little impatient. However,
if the company uses a DID system on the PBX, it can automatically divert the
call to the necessary operator or workstation. This saves time and money,
as an additional PBX operator is not required.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.