HOW PREDICTIVE DIALING WORKS

Predictive dialers all work on a theory of dialing ahead to attain the results they do in order to supply
the sizeable boost in dial rates and representative efficiency attained. If a system has 100
representatives working on it, the dialer will dial a greater quantity, typically based on a
predetermined ratio, like 1.5:1, 2:1, etc. This indicates that for 100 representatives logged on, the
system will make 150 outgoing calls. While these calls are made to the telephone network, the dialer
will observe each call and decide what the result of the call was.

From our 150 calls dialed, the system will right away take out any inefficient results, like busy calls
(these are normally sent for automatic redial), no answers, answering machines, wrong numbers,
etc.

From what is left over, if a call is established as having been answered by a live person, this call is
only then passed through to a representative. From those calls that are actually answered by a
person, the hope is that there will be sufficient representatives that are able to take those calls.

If not enough calls are made ahead, the representatives will sit inactive, if too many calls are made
and there are not enough representatives to take them, then the call is usually dropped (the person
just dialed is hung up on - if you have ever received a mysterious phone call where there was no
one on the other end, then it is likely a predictive dialer was trying to reach you).

The technique for predictive dialer companies is to build their systems intelligent enough that they
are able to respond quickly by amplifying or reducing the dialing ratio used in order to produce more
or less calls to dial.

Benefits You May Not Have Predicted About Predictive Dialing

You can describe predictive dialing as a technique to automate the management of unsuccessful
calls. A humble mission? Hardly. An average of fourteen calls out of one hundred manually dialed
result in a connection to the right person. What happens to the rest of the 86?

Typically:

 25 numbers will not get a reply after the ring.

 10 will have a busy signal.
 30 numbers will be answered by an answering machine.
 5 will receive a recorded message from the telephone company.
 14 will be answered but not by the correct person.
 2 will be modems or fax.

As these figures make clear, physically dialing means that some action will need to be taken on all
of the unsuccessful calls, even if just to jot down the number so that you can make another call later.
Tedious work, for sure. The person appointed to this (needless) task can end up with incredible
frustration. Predictive dialing can relieve this frustration by automating the handling of unsuccessful
calls, but it can also do a great deal more. Predictive dialing can improve an establishment's
incoming and outgoing operations, as we will soon see.
THE BENEFITS
A cost advantage analysis of only the likely productivity gains is for very often enough to persuade
them to adopt predictive dialing technology, for numerous businesses. This has been true for the
most part in collections and telemarketing where the math is evident. Enhanced call quality (very
important when customer service issues are involved) and, because of better job fulfillment and a
smaller amount of stress and frustration, a reduced staff turnover number are other benefits that are
not as easily quantifiable, but just as doable.

A campaign supervisor sets the strategy for dealing with each type of fiasco and what you should do
to follow-up, and can be changed as the campaign moves forward. Going by the figures above, you
can achieve productivity increases of 300 to 400 percent (or more) with measuring payback intervals
in months, not years.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

A predictive dialer is supplied with lists of telephone numbers to be called, together with necessary
information on the consumer by a host computer. The dialer is striving to have a call answered
every time as a representative becomes available to take the call when an outgoing call is placed.
The dialer presents a screen of information to the representative and instantly connects the phone
call to the agent headset (this synchronization of voice and data is often mentioned as screen
popping) when a call is answered. The information shown can be easy or multifaceted, varying from
a screen of data to scripts that permit a representative to construct the entire conversation.

In result, representatives are kept completely occupied with real person to person communication
and value is enhanced. When representatives are able to do what they are essentially paid to do,
the working situation can end up being happier. The predictive dialer is programmed to speed up
automatically and make more calls to keep a consistent rate of contacts to the representative during
quieter stages of the work schedule (when a smaller amount phones are actually answered).
PACING AND NUISANCE CALLS
To observe and control dialer procedures, advanced predictive dialers (Call Management Systems)
utilize easy-to-use graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Being able to manage the speed at which the
predictive dialer will place calls is another more important use of these dialing controls. The
connection between aggressive pacing and nuisance calls is important to understand; The higher
the pacing (which translates to a smaller gap among any one representative's calls), the higher the
likelihood of placing a call that is not able to be helped by a representative.

The skills of the call center employees and the predictive dialer's software needs to have a top
quality alliance to keep the issue of nuisance calls placed avoided. It is imperative to make certain
that the representative's talk times are consistent from call to call and consistent with other
representatives on the same campaign if nuisance calls are to be steered clear of when dialing
aggressively. Usually, businesses do not prefer to put out nuisance calls, and will set the pacing of
their dialer to give a 16 to 25 second delay between the finishing a call and having the next one
delivered to a representative. A place of business that can be asked to help lessen this issue of
dialing outside of a call center's ability to handle the call is to use outbound messaging. This way,
the individual being called has a recorded message to hear instead of a very silent line.
BLENDING INBOUND AND OUTBOUND
It is very hard to correctly guess inbound call volumes. But some effort must be made to choose
how many agents are needed to service the arriving call traffic well. Customer service mainly makes
this choice versus productivity or utilization. Frequently, the result is too many calls being put on
hold or too many agents sitting idle. Botching this balance is costly in terms of slow labor, chances
missed, or unhappy consumers.
By letting representatives take care of both incoming and outgoing calls, the goals of high efficiency
and good customer service can be met concurrently. Those representatives who handle both
incoming and outgoing calls are frequently referred to as "blend" representatives. Blend, incoming
only and outgoing only representatives work jointly on predictive dialers. While the day goes on and
the volume of incoming calls increase, the dialer acknowledges the change and automatically shifts
blend representatives to incoming duty to take calls as needed. The blend representatives switch
back to the outgoing campaign when the volume of incoming calls is reduced.
CONCLUSION
Even someone casually observing predictive dialing can appreciate that it is a productivity tool, but
the individuals who see it in greater detail realize predictive dialing can improve not just a business'
outgoing mission, but incoming also. Predictive dialers deserve close inspection and contemplation
by businesses that wish to create and build competent and useful interaction with their consumers
while improving bottom-line results.

Are You Properly Using Your Dialer?

Automatic Dialers
By getting rid of the possibility of reaching an incorrect number, saving time, and making contact
center representatives more useful, automatic dialers boost contact center efficiency. Dialers
guarantee that agent time is worthwhile in non-value-added mechanical and monotonous tasks by
automatically dialing and screening for busy signals, no answer, and answering machines. The
solutions will only send the call to the next available representative when the dialer reaches a live
contact, with a delay that should take no than a second.

The six forms of outgoing dialing are: predictive, progressive, preview, database, speed dial, and
manual. Each one has the above mentioned screening capabilities as well as general management
tools and procedures for reporting and list creation, but that is where the likeness ends. This is why
the dialing mode to relate to any given campaigns must be wisely selected, since each dialing mode
available has inherent advantages and shortcomings, as well as cost and efficiency considerations.
PREDICTIVE DIALING
Let's start with the most frequently used dialing method: Predictive dialing. There is no doubt that
this is the most productive for representatives, because it is a widely used mode. To figure
representative availability, predictive dialers use historical statistics and complex algorithms. So,
going by past tendencies, the solution will know precisely how many dialing attempts and how much
time are essential to reach a live contact, as well as precisely when an agent will become accessible
to take that next outgoing call. For this reason, the dialer can begin dialing to reach the next
available customer/prospect even before a representative becomes free and connect this live
contact as soon as or shortly after a representative becomes free.

Since the predictive algorithm analyses many factors, including the amount of available telephone
lines and representatives and the likelihood of a call not being fulfilled (e.g., line busy, no answer,
etc.), it becomes impossible to create a "magic" rule to decide the number of representatives
needed for the planning of algorithms of the predictive mode to opt for the perfect rhythm. However,
a forceful rule can be assembled according to three closely connected criteria; they are in order of
importance:

 call length
 length of after-call wrap-up
 the amount of representatives for one campaign and its sublists
 When used correctly, predictive dialing can affect the contact center dramatically. The busy
rate for representatives between manual and predictive modes generally increases by 30% to
60%.
 The Golden Rule for predictive dialing optimization is uniformity
 Whether the number of representatives is 5 or 25, it is important that all of them have an
average talk time and an after-call wrap-up time that does not vary much from one
representative to another, so that there is regularity to the events for the predictive algorithm.
It is obvious that the shorter the calls are, the more the regularity of one call to another can be
respected. So, a number of best-of-class contact centers are using the predictive dialing
mode for some of their outbound campaigns with as little as 6 or 7 representatives and with
an average abandon rate of 4% to 5%, because calls are short and very standardized.

It is therefore best to form groups of representatives with equal knowledge and skills, since
the predictive algorithm is at its best when all calls from a particular representative group have
comparable talk time, after call work time, and not ready time. New representatives should
consequently belong to a separate group until their productivity becomes more aligned with
other groups, then they can be matched with other more proficient representative groups.

With restrictions being imposed on the amount of abandoned calls by governments in several
different countries, smart use of a predictive dialer is not a choice any longer-it's a necessity.
In predictive dialer terms, an abandoned call is frequently one where the dialer releases the
line after a person answers because there is no representative on hand to take the call. It is
obvious that the abandon rate will be directly connected to the productivity criteria. So, some
contact centers use the predictive mode even with as little as five representatives and hold
steady a normal abandon rate, while other contact centers, with three times as many
representatives, do not even attain a good rhythm in predictive mode, because their calls last
too long and lack consistency in talk time, after call work, and not ready time.
 The campaign pace is the key
 Numerous dialers permit contact center administrators to set an adequate abandoned call
rate. Government requirements and DMA (Direct Marketing Association) suggestions are
typically under 5%. The dialers will adjust the call initiation rate automatically as the
abandoned limit approaches or recedes. It is consequently important to remember that the
faster the pace, the more abandoned calls will take place, but too slow a pace can affect profit
potential.

Also recommended is to optimize management of dialing rates in predictive mode by

adjusting the percentage of the representative busy rate. This boundary allows a level of
consistency between telephone performances to be accomplished, and can have a very
positive effect on abandon rates and wait time between calls. However, adjusting this
 boundary too often can knock off balance the dialing algorithm by escalating the abandon rate
or the wait time between calls.
 PROGRESSIVE DIALING
 The Progressive mode is another broadly used dialing mode. It works similarly to the
Predictive mode; except that dialing only starts once a representative becomes available,
which will of course almost totally do away with abandoned calls. Elix's benchmarking studies
have shown that the abandon rate with progressive dialing is under 1%, and that this is
because some consumers are hanging up before the dialer can send the call to a
representative once a live answer is detected.

This dialing mode still has positive advantages and will greatly optimize representative
productivity, even though a call is not ready right away when a representative becomes on
hand, because the dialer quickly handles all the call screening. Really, studies show that the
busy rate for representatives should go up by 15% to 30% using this mode.
 PREVIEW DIALING
 Clearly, particular sales strategies cannot be applied in either Predictive or Progressive mode,
especially if a representative must study the details of the customer profile before making the
call. In these instances, Preview dialing can be the best choice. This dialing mode shifts the
dialing control from the dialer to the representatives. In doing this, it allows representatives to
carefully study a contact before any dialing goes on; the representative give the dialing
command to the dialer. This is the only time the dialer will screen for a live contact. If one
cannot be reached, the representative can still add notes to the client file, choose whether to
reschedule this call, and continue on.

Therefore, the preview dialing mode is mainly used for business-to-business sales, where the
amount of contacts are limited, but they are each of great worth, and where opportunity,
preparation, and strategy are vital elements. This dialing mode still offers good benefits,
especially for outbound campaign management and observing, and because the acquisition
and deployment costs of this mode tend to be considerably lower than for other modes, the
earnings on investment remains very fascinating.

To conclude, when used as part of a thoroughly planned campaign and with respect for
policies regarding abandoned call rates and Do Not Call requirements, predictive dialers can
generate remarkable results. There is a considerable increase in representative productivity
and sales because the amount of calls handled is higher. Efficient dialing and screening for
machine answers lower working costs. Representative consistency is a pleasing outcome,
also. Real-time campaign observing and historical covering are also major benefits of any
dialing solution, because you can measure only what you can manage.