Predictive dialing can make the work of a call center even more efficient. It’s important to understand that every second counts when the dialer is calling clients. Predictive dialing allows agents to take more calls without increasing the number of dropped calls and makes the dialer’s work more effective. In the end, everyone wins: clients aren’t called every 5 minutes, and agents work without downtime. In this article, we’ll explore what predictive dialer is, how to set it up in Oki-Toki, and what advantages this mode offers for the call center.
What is automatic dialing?
Automatic dialing is a general concept of all methods of calling clients, in which automatic number dialing is used without the need for manual input. Dialer for clients helps reduce the waiting time for the next call, relieve agents of routine tasks, and process lost calls. Dialer in Oki-Toki can be set up in any mode depending on the tasks set: Callback, Progressive, Power Dial, Predictive or Limitless. More about all dialer modes read in a separate article on the blog.
What is predictive dialing?
Predictive dialing (Predictive mode) is a dialer operating mode that relies on the percentage of dropped calls when dialing numbers. That is, in the dialer settings, you need to specify an acceptable proportion of dropped calls, which will increase the number of connections with potential clients without unnecessary dialing attempts.Dropped calls percentage is the permissible rate of dropped calls (“Drop. No available agent”) during intense dialing, which is specified in the settings. For example: a dropped call rate of 10% was deemed acceptable. This means that 10 dropped calls out of the last 100 is the norm and the dialer does not need to reduce the number of lines.
Compared with “regular” dialer modes, which dial the number of the next subscriber for a call only when the agent is free and ready to talk — Predictive mode starts making the call in advance, even before the specialist can accept and process it. The solution uses a method of predictive statistical analysis, which determines when to dial a number for a call to a potential client and connect him with an agent.For the correct operation of predictive dialing, it is recommended to use 10-15 agents. It is considered that predictive dialing is effectively applied in large call centers, where a lot of calls are processed. Only in this case, there will be enough statistics for forecasting, and Predictive mode will determine how many lines need to be allocated to the agents. This will avoid overloads and guarantee the efficiency of the work.In call centers, the Predictive mode is used to reduce the waiting time for a call by an agent considering the minimum loss of successful calls. In other words, the dialer should make such a number of calls to occupy all agents so that the responding subscribers do not “drop off”. This mechanism is achieved with the help of special algorithms, which predict the number of calls based on data about agents available at the moment of connection, as well as the average duration of the conversation, the percentage of successful connections, etc.
How to set up predictive dialing in Oki-Toki?
To use predictive dialing, you need to create a dialer in Oki-Toki with the Predictive mode and specify the percentage of dropped calls. For testing, you can specify, for example, 10%, meaning out of 100 calls – 10 will be dropped when no agent is available. Then it’s necessary to assign agents to the dialer and upload phone numbers. During the calling clients in the Info tab, you can view the percentage of dropped calls over 5 minutes and use this data for reference. If calls are coming to agents slowly and they are sitting idle – you can increase the percentage of dropped calls to 20%. The average connection waiting time will be slightly reduced but the risk of “annoying” clients will increase a bit.
Important: Dropped calls are not considered as dialing attempts and the dialer will plan a callback at the time specified in the settings.Predictive dialing in Oki-Toki reduces the waiting time for a call by an agent and ensures minimal loss of successful calls. When working in Predictive mode, the system places more calls than the number of available agents because, according to the forecast, clients will not answer some of the calls (drop, busy, incorrect number).
Advantages of predictive dialing of clients
Predictive dialing has a number of significant advantages that greatly enhance the efficiency of client dialing:
- Increase in successful calls: Thanks to the optimization of the dialing process, agents receive more calls, which reduces the waiting time on the line and keeps agents busy;
- Cost reduction: Predictive dialing increases the number of successful connections with potential clients and reduces the number of unnecessary dialing attempts, thereby cutting the costs of operating the dialer;
- Extended functionality: Predictive dialing from Oki-Toki offers a range of features that our clients value: compatibility with any CRM system, time zone determination, checking for agent availability, setting the number of dialing attempts, setting the duration of waiting, and controlling connection problems. Also, dialer function management and receiving reports are available through API.
- User settings: The functionality from Oki-Toki allows taking into account the specifics of the company and the needs of clients. Before launching the dialer, you can set time frames and only use the tool on specific days or hours. The settings of predictive dialing are aimed at increasing the likelihood of a successful call. If a client has several contact numbers, each of them can be included in the automatic dialing list.
- Even distribution of calls: The predictive dialing tool distributes the workload among agents so that each specialist communicates with an equal number of clients or according to priority settings. This helps avoid errors when dialing numbers and missing potential clients.
Predictive dialing is a tool that can enhance the productivity of agents and transform the operation of your call center. Leave a request to freely use the Oki-Toki tools for 14 days. The trial period is enough to assess the interface of the cloud solution and the convenience of using the dialer. You can make a preliminary cost calculation of the dialer on the page with calculator.
