The Predictive Dialer

By Spencer Chin
TMCnet Web Editor

There’s no secret the life of a call center agent is not an easy one.

Call handling quotas, irate customers, delays in getting callers the information they need all add up to a never-ending series of challenges for the call center agent.

Since the calls are not likely to go away, agents need all the help they can. One tool that can help is the predictive dialer.

According to Wikipedia, a predictive dialer is a computerized system that automatically dials batches of telephone numbers for connection to agents assigned to sales or other campaigns.

The predictive dialer is rooted in the autodialer, which automatically dials telephone numbers for call center agents who are idle are awaiting a call. A predictive dialer is more sophisticated in that it uses various algorithms to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers.

An intelligent device, the predictive dialer monitors the answers to the calls it places, and detects how the calls it makes are answered. Moreover, the predictive dialer discards unanswered calls, engaged numbers, disconnected lines, fax machine answers, answering machine and other automated devices. The predictive dialer only connects calls answered by people waiting sales representatives.

Given the capabilities of a predictive dialer, there’s no secret the device is sought after by many calling centers trying to increase the productivity of their agents. The predictive dialer is considered highly desirable because it makes an agent’s job less time consuming, and helps a business save money for each transaction.

A predictive dialer can be used by market survey companies and debt collection agencies to quickly contact a number of people by telephone. Because of its ability to make a number of calls at once, a predictive dialer helps a call center mitigate the inevitable problems of dropped calls, minimizing agent downtime and frustration. A predictive dialer can be considered a morale booster for a business and help circumvent the problem of high attrition among call center agents.

The predictive dialer comes in several types, including soft dialers that use ISDN messaging, hard dialers that use dedicated telephony switches, and smart predictive dialers that combine auto dialing with voice messaging and phone agents prepared to handle dialer-initiated calls. The smart predictive dialers can deal with answering machines, busy signals, and no answer, but also enable a live caller, when detected, to speak with a live agent if he or she wishes to.

Any business considering purchasing a predictive dialer should consider several factors. They include the long-term system costs, number of call center agents, typical call volumes, existing computer hardware, and future expansion possibilities. Paying close attention to these factors will ensure the money invested in a predictive dialer is spent wisely and avoid the problem of unused capability or a system that becomes obsolete too quickly.

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Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.