Essentials: Predictive Dialer 101

What is Predictive Dialer?

Predictive Dialer is a dialer setting that calls more leads than there are available agents.

The number of calls placed is based on the answer rate of the dialing session and predicts the number of calls that will be answered by leads. This method is to reduce waiting times between answered calls and increase the efficiency of the dialling team.

How does Predictive Dialer work?

1. The Predictive Dialer will call leads in the campaign
2. When a lead answers a call, the Predictive Dialer will connect the lead to a waiting agent 
3. When the call is finished, the agent will be placed back in the queue where they will wait for another connected call. 

The Predictive Dialer logic uses the number of unanswered calls in a dialing session, and the number of available agents to predict how many calls it needs to make per available agent.

Key Things to Know:

• The goal of the dialer is NOT to keep all agents in conversations 100% of the time. If every agent is on a call, the system stops dialing because there’s no one available to connect new calls to.
• Some waiting time is normal and expected. Depending on team size, here’s what you should anticipate:
  • Less than 4 agents → 1-2 waiting at any time
  • 4-6 agents → 1-3 waiting
  • More than 6 agents → 2-4 waiting
• In the morning or after breaks, the dialer will seem slower. With agents connecting gradually, this can cause delays for those who start dialing first, as the system relies on having enough active agents to function efficiently.

What is a dropped call?

If the Predictive Dialer connects with a lead but there are no available agents to take the call, then the call will be dropped.

After a brief moment the line will disconnect. 

What happens when a call is dropped?

Two things will happen: 

1. When a dropped call occurs, the Predictive Dialer will immediately lower the number of calls it places to reduce the probability of more happening. As more calls are connected, the number of calls made by the Predictive Dialer will increase, until another dropped call occurs, and the cycle repeats.
2. The dropped call will be assigned the highest possible priority. The first available agent will be removed from the Predictive Dialer queue, and will immediately call the lead again, from the same outgoing number.

The agent will see a message displayed on their screen that the lead they are dialling has just received a dropped call, and they can apologise to the lead for the poor connection.

How many leads and agents do I need for Predictive Dialer to work?

Predictive Dialer is designed to work with at least eight agents working with a large lead pool.

While it is possible to assign a smaller number of agents, it is not recommended as efficiency will not significantly increase compared to the Power Dialer.

Can I raise the contact rate when using Predictive Dialer?

Adjusting the dialing duration could raise the contact rate. The default dialing duration is 25 seconds, which will cut the call before most answering machines pick up.

In some instances, such as calls to leads in areas with poor reception, it can take longer to connect, so take dialing duration into consideration if you want to affect the contact rate.

In campaign dialer settings, admins can adjust the scaling factor per campaign, and change how many calls the dialer makes compared to the number of available agents. This can potentially increase the contact rate, and we recommend conducting internal experiments to see which dialing factor suits your activities.

Monitoring campaign performance

In Predictive Dialer Performance, admins can monitor statistics from Predictive Dialer campaigns in real time and make any necessary adjustments, such as adding more agents to the session.

Remember, the data you see here is specific only to the current dialing session - see the start time in the first column.