Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

Predictive dialers are automated calling systems designed to increase efficiency in high-frequency telemarketing and outbound call centers. These telephone dialing systems place calls from a predefined list of target numbers and transfer any successfully answered call over to an available agent. It monitors how each call is answered, ensuring that only those calls answered by people are transferred to the call agent. You can configure how to respond to each call scenario; for example, the system can deliver a pre-recorded message to any voicemail and answering machines, while discarding or rescheduling calls that reach a busy line or fax machine.

These applications dramatically increase telemarketing agents' efficiency by enabling them to spend more time talking to prospective customers and less time dialing, reaching busy signals, and listening to answering machines. In fact, a 2002 survey found that call center agents increased their actual talk time from 20 minutes per hour to 50 minutes per hour (though my experience is that agents get burned out if they are talking 50+ minutes per hour).! With numbers like that, it's no wonder why the predictive dialer is so popular with telemarketing organizations associated with B2C (business to consumer), marketing survey, and debt collecting companies.

What makes it predictive? Unlike an autodialer which dials a list of numbers at a steady rate, predictive dialing modifies the calling rate based on historical trends and sophisticated algorithms looking at number of call agents, expected agent break times, average call length, and quality of the dialing list. It automatically adjusts the calling process depending on when it predicts an agent will be available and when a call will be successfully answered. In essence, when fewer agents are available, the system attempts fewer calls, so as not to waste money and resources, or be forced to hang up on someone (abandon a call) because no calling agent is available to field the call.
There's little doubt that predictive dialer systems translate directly into cost savings, enabling call centers to handle more calls with the same number of agents.

Unfortunately, the traditional hardware-based system carried a large price tag, making it difficult for small telemarketing organizations to afford the investment. Today, predictive dialer software offers a low-cost solution for small call centers. This software integrates with existing application software, computer telephony integration (CTI), and PBX equipment, meaning there's less equipment to purchase.

Predictive dialers work by automatically dialing a list of numbers and transferring only the answered calls to live agents. As they become more software-based, they are growing in sophistication. For example, a software solution allows call centers to easily switch between inbound and outbound when needed. During quiet times, inbound agents can place outbound calls.

In addition, predictive dialers software adapts well to distributed, multi-site environments. They aren't tied down to a specific location, allowing organizations to distribute the work regardless of geographic region. And software versions usually incorporate strong reporting features on productivity, call agent availability, and call statistics; and with open architecture, the dialer's reporting tools can be easily integrated with existing third-party CRM applications.

However, software-based predictive dialer systems are not for everyone. In some cases, they offer less functionality than their more-expensive, hardware counterparts. Hardware dialers typically can support more agents and a greater volume of outbound calls. The predictive algorithms used by the hardware platforms are likely to be more sophisticated than those for dialer software and can connect call agents to live customers faster. In many cases, with predictive dialer software, customers may have to wait several seconds before hearing an agent's voice.