Predictive Dialer Features

By Neil Zawacki
Updated: April 15, 2011

Predictive dialers are a special type of program that allow contact centers to maximize the talk time of their employees. They perform all the necessary dialing duties and use a complex statistical algorithm to determine how frequently the system should attempt to connect to outside lines. They also tend to be very easy for a company to operate and maintain.

How Predictive Dialer Works:

The predictive dialer calls multiple phone numbers at once and connects employees to live calls. The system then starts dialing a new phone number after a certain amount of time has passed, so the employee will have a new person to talk to once the phone call is ended. This tends to increase the agent utilization rate by an additional sixteen minutes per hour.

The predictive algorithm takes into account such factors as the average number of rings it takes for a person to answer the phone, the standard length of most phone calls, and the average percentage of unanswered calls. The algorithm also considers the number of employees talking on the phone and the number of phone lines that are currently available within the system. Please note that the FCC requires the drop call rate of the algorithm to be less than 3% of the overall number of calls that are connected.

Benefits of Predictive Dialing Feature

There are several potential benefits to using this type of system. A predictive dialer can substantially lessen the amount of time that employees spend dialing phone numbers and listening to the phone ring. They connect most phone calls in less than a second, and pace the phone calls in an appropriate manner to make sure that employees have sufficient time to speak on the phone. They also provide the ability to manage call lists and switch between predictive and manual campaigns.

Furthermore, most predictive dialers are highly customizable and can be quickly scaled up or down by a company as needed. There can be separate dialing parameters for multiple sales campaigns going on at the same time. The software also tends to have the ability to automatically detect answering machines and choose to ignore them in some cases and connect employees to them with others. Other common features include dynamic preview dialing, GUI-based home system integration, and campaign-level metrics to assist with marketing campaigns.

Predictive dialers do not come standard with most contact centers, but can generally be included for an additional cost. The decision on whether to add one is normally based on the specific focus of the contact center. If the contact center is primarily being used for customer support, there may not be sufficient need for the system. If the contact center is being mainly utilized by the sales department, however, the employees can often make great use of this feature.