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Predictive Dialers – Maximizing Human Interaction

Predictive dialers are many steps removed from their predessors,
the automatic dialers of the past. Whereas automatic dialing
allowed callcenter agencies to dial numbers quickly and
efficiently, predictive dialing also processes and makes use of
a whole range of information, linking callers to live voices
every single time. In fact, with predictive dialing, agents’
‘talk time’ has increased from an average of twenty minutes per
hour to fifty minutes per hour. This is a fabulous rate of
improvement – instead of wasting more than half of their time on
listening to busy signals and answering machine messages, agents
now spend the majority of their time engaged in producting
interaction. The dialer also manages the line to agent ratio by
pacing the call rate at the desired level. In this way, quotas
are met, and agents are neither idle nor overwhelmed. In other
words, because the hardware and software does its job, agents
are able to spend much more time doing theirs. And of course,
increased contact time means that the center’s goals are reached
much more quickly.

In many ways, it is still true that the real value of a call
center depends on its ‘human capital’ – the agents who interact
with clients and potential clients. The more the center’s human
capital is brought to the forefront, the more everyone benefits.
The aim of technology, therefore, is to maximize the time that
agents are able to spend doing what only they can do –
conversing, communicating, interacting. Predictive dialing and
other call center technology represents a perfect symbiosis
between person and machine.

A predictive dialing system is able to keep track of which
agents are available, while monitoring the responses to the
outgoing calls that it makes. Numbers that are busy,
disconnected, fax lines, or calls that are answered by machines
or voicemail systems are not connected to an agent. Only the
calls that are answered by a live voice are put through to an
agent, which means that the agent spends almost all of his or
her time on the line with a live person. Facilitating and
maximizing talk time is the goal of every call center.

The hidden benefit in all this is the fact that the agent is
much less likely to get bored or disheartened. Human contact is
important to everybody, and particularly to those who select
careers that highlight communication. Many of the agents who
choose to work in call centers are there precisely because they
are attracted to the work due to the fact that they have
excellent communication skills and enjoy interacting with
people. An endless stream of answering machines or busy signals
is bound to frustrate them. When they are able to spend fifty
minutes out of each hour actually interacting with clients,
however, the agents find that time goes by much faster and their
workday is more varied and interesting. Furthermore, they know
that their skills are valued, and that their company supports
them by investing in the appropriate technology.

Predictive dialing technology is improving all the time. One
problem that we occasionally still encounter is a short lag
between the time the outgoing call is answered and the time the
agent gets on the line. Generally, this is only a matter of a
few seconds, and some systems play a short recorded message
during this time. Nevertheless, any sort of lag time increases
the possibility that the potential client will become confused,
and that part of the agent’s talk time will be spent sorting out
the confusion. There is also the chance that the client may hang
up. Therefore, measures are being taken to speed up voice
connects and minimize this lag time to the point where it may
become imperceptible.

Predictive dialing has revolutionized call centers, and has the
potential to continue doing so. Calls are made much more
efficiently, employees are happier, and the goals of the call
center are likely to be me much faster. Now that this technology
is readily available (and improving all the time) it would be
almost unthinkable for any sizable call center not to invest in
predictive dialers.

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