A dialer, by definition, is used when agents make outbound calls. It automatically dials-up contacts from a database and, based on agent availability, delivers matured calls to the agents.

It is absolutely critical for a center focussed on outbound calls because only by using dialing technologies can a call center effectively and productively utilize agent resources. It is used to establish contacts with customers, especially in: telemarketing, tele-sales, collections follow-up, and service follow-ups.

Technology Options
There are three kinds of dialing technologies available: preview, progressive, and predictive. Amongst these, predictive dialing is the most popular.

l Preview Dialing: Preview dialers display the contact’s information to an agent, before dialing. Preview is the first level of automation and it combines data from a database with some form of dialing, which doesn’t require the use of a telephone keypad by the agent. Here, a record is presented to the agent who decides whether or not to call the prospect. Agent productivity is lowest in preview because the dialer waits for agent approval. It is not suitable for target-oriented companies with high premium on productivity.

However, they are effective in activities that call for updating databases and in collection environments where agents can instantly preview the prospect’s record. They are also much cheaper than predictive dialers.

Progressive Dialing: Progressive dialers increase agent productivity by automating the job of dialing-up the customers. The agents spend more time talking to customers and less time in figuring out whom to call next. They also spend less time in dialing the customer’s number and waiting for the call to be answered. In progressive dialing, the server will automatically make calls from the campaign database and display the name of the customer on the telephone screen. It will also detect when a call has been completed and wait for a programmable wrap-up timer before automatically dialing the next record.

This approach has given very high talk times and low wait times but it has also sometimes meant lots of abandoned calls. This inefficiency results because of the simplicity of the algorithms being used. These dialers use simple algorithms to determine the degree of over-dialing, such as the reciprocal of the sum of one or more call outcome percentages. Progressive dialing is effective in small call centers, which have a small database and few workstations.

lPredictive Dialing: Predictive dialers can predict when an agent is going to complete a call, based on realtime and historical statistics, and dial before an agent completes the current call. This is the most efficient way to place calls.

The basis of predictive dialing is the incorporation of: double or higher number of the phone lines than agents; a dialing algorithm that predicts when the agent will become available; and a call processor that dials based on algorithms, to have a call ready to deliver to the agent’s workstation when the workstation becomes available.

The effectiveness of the predictive dialer is governed by factors such as: the sophistication of its pacing algorithms, the number of workstations, and the length of the average call. However, this system too has shortcomings. When a call is ready and there is no agent, the call gets abandoned. For this reason, it is difficult for a predictive dialer to be effective with a small number of workstations and where calls are of long duration.