A predictive dialer dials a list of

telephone number A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...

s and connects answered dials to people making calls, often referred to as agents. Predictive dialers use statistical

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

s to minimize the time that agents spend waiting between conversations, while minimizing the occurrence of someone answering when no agent is available.Predictive Dialing for Outbound Telephone Call Centers
Douglas A. Samuelson, Interfaces, 29:5 September–October, 1999 (pp. 66-81). When dialing numbers one at a time, there are two sources of delay. First, only some fraction of dials are answered; for example, if 1 out of 3 dials are answered, a predictive dialer might dial 3 lines every time an agent becomes available. Second, even dials that are answered take some time before being picked up. If it typically takes 10 seconds for someone to pick up, and conversations typically last 90 seconds, a predictive dialer might start dialing at 80 seconds. A predictive dialer does so by discarding all tones and only passing "Hellos" from the lead to the agent. Dialing one number at a time, only when an agent is available, typically keeps agents utilized for 40 minutes per hour (33% idle time). Predictive dialing can increase utilization to 57 minutes per hour (5% idle time). Predictive dialers may be standalone hardware devices, cloud-based, or they may be integrated in software with call center or contact center platforms. A cloud-based predictive dialer provides the functionalities of a traditional predictive dialer without requiring installation on the local device and reduces the dependency on the hardware. The dialer can often also perform less aggressive dialing modes such as, power, progressive, or preview dialing.

Call progress analysis

Call Progress Analysis (CPA), also called Call Progress Detection (CPD), is a generic term for

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing '' signals'', such as sound, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniques are used to optimize transmissions, ...

s that operate on audio during call setup. The goal of CPA is to determine the nature of the callee or the outcome of call setup to an external network (traditional or IP). Specifically, when a call or session is being established, the caller or initiator is interested in knowing if someone answered, if the line is busy, etc. When the caller is an automated application, such as an automated dialer or message broadcasting system, CPA algorithms are used to perform the classification automatically. Modern CPA methods in combination with automated outbound dialing applications, ensure fast and accurate automated call classification, which automatically translate in better

efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...

of agents and higher quality customer interactions. Traditional Call Progress Analysis implementations rely on simple rule-based algorithms which provide sub-optimal accuracy of speed of processing, leading to significant inefficiencies in operations and issues in meeting compliance from new government regulations. Using statistical models based on

Neural Networks A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological ...

to represent the potential outcomes of an outbound call attempt, companies can meet and exceed these regulations. This approach identifies much better the call patterns that represent call progress events and provides CPA results with far superior accuracy, speed and flexibility compared to traditional approaches. This article analyses a live scenario of a Predictive dialing call centre and what the factors to take into account to achieve maximum productivity.

Regulations

In the UK,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

requires that predictive dialers abandon fewer than 3% of answered calls on a daily basis. Ofcom also requires that if an agent is not available within 2 seconds the call is considered "abandoned" and an automated message is played. The automated message must identify the company making the call, the purpose of the call, a free phone or basic rate phone number to call back on and must not contain any form of marketing. A phone call to the return number must not be treated by the company as an opportunity to market, but to be removed from the calling list. In the UK "abandoned" calls must not be called back within 72 hours unless there is a dedicated agent available.

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in parti ...

(General Data Protection Regulation) also requires that the purpose of any call be related to the reason for collecting data in the first place. In the United States, if someone answers but no agent is available within 2 seconds of the person's greeting,

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) regulations consider the call "abandoned" and require the dialer to play a recorded message. The FCC requires that predictive dialers abandon less than 3% of answered calls.http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/Telemarketing-Rules.pdf PART 64 – MISCELLANEOUS RULES RELATING TO COMMON CARRIERS. In 1991 the Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibited the use of an “automatic telephone dialing system” to contact “any telephone number assigned to a mobile telephone service” without “express prior consent” from the party being called. Dialing “accidents” are not an effective legal defense and penalties run from $500 to $1,500 per violating call. In Canada, the maximum abandon rate is 5%, and calls cannot be made to numbers registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, emergency or health care providers.http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/trules-reglest.htm Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules - Part III However, not-for-profit organizations such as survey companies are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry. In India, an idea was mooted in 2003 to create a National Do Not Call Registry, and finally got implemented in 2014. Since then the government is taking various measures to curb the menace that includes termination of the violators telecom resources. As of now there is no regulation for telecallers to classify an abandoned call or allowed percentage as yet, but it will come sooner or later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Predictive Dialer Telemarketing Telephony

Call progress analysis

Regulations

See also

References