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Glossary · Dialing

What is Predictive dialing?

Reviewed by Sujan ThapaliyaLast updated

Definition

Predictive dialling launches calls ahead of agent availability using a statistical model of answer rates and call durations, so a live answer and a free agent arrive at the same moment. It is the highest-throughput dialling mode and the most tightly regulated.
The three STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels, which underpin how predictive dialing behaves in practice: A asserts both that the carrier knows the customer and that the customer may use the calling number, B asserts the customer only, and C asserts neither. A shared number pool can reach B at best, which is why number ownership keeps recurring in these definitions.
Attestation is the backdrop to most caller-ID and deliverability terms, predictive dialing included.

In practice

How predictive dialing actually works

It needs scale to work: roughly eight to ten agents on the same campaign before the model has enough data to predict well. Below that, you get idle agents or abandoned calls, and a power or parallel dialler is the better tool.

The model has to be adaptive. Answer rates change by hour of day, list segment, and area code, so a ratio fixed at campaign launch is wrong within the hour.

The mode also interacts badly with list quality in a way teams discover late. Pacing is calculated from observed answer rates, so a list with a high proportion of dead numbers makes the algorithm dial more aggressively, which produces more abandoned calls on the live numbers that remain. Cleaning the list lowers abandonment without touching the pacing setting.

Worked example

Twelve agents, a 20% answer rate and a 2.2 pacing ratio launches about 26 calls to keep twelve conversations running. Push the ratio to 3.0 and abandonment climbs through the 3% safe harbour within a day.

Predictive dialing: common questions

How is predictive dialing different from power dialing?
A power dialer places one call per agent, so nobody can answer without an agent waiting. A predictive dialer places several, betting on how many will go unanswered. That bet is what produces both the productivity gain and the abandoned calls.
How many agents do you need for predictive dialing to work?
Enough that the pacing algorithm has room to be wrong — usually at least ten concurrent agents. Below that, a single mis-paced burst blows through the abandonment cap, and the minutes saved were never large enough to justify the exposure.
Is predictive dialing legal?
Yes, within limits. Abandoned calls are capped, a recorded identification message is required when nobody is available, and the underlying consent and calling-hour rules still apply. The technique is lawful; running it without the abandonment controls is not.

Sources

  1. Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication — Federal Communications CommissionThe STIR/SHAKEN framework, the attestation levels carriers sign calls with, and the mandate requiring providers to authenticate caller ID.
  2. 47 U.S.C. § 227 — Restrictions on the use of telephone equipment — Cornell Legal Information InstituteThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act itself — the consent requirements, calling-hours limits, and private right of action.
  3. ITU-T Recommendation E.164 — The international public telecommunication numbering plan — International Telecommunication UnionThe international number format, the 15-digit maximum, and how country codes and national numbers compose.

See predictive dialing in the product

A predictive dialer calls ahead of your agents, using live answer rates and call durations to forecast when an agent will next be free. It keeps agents talking for most of the hour instead of waiting, and it is the highest-throughput dialling mode available to a contact centre.

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