Dialing modes

The dialing mode of a campaign determines the pace at which calls are dialed out and connected with contacts. Whether you want to connect calls to agents first and then dial out to the contacts or want to connect agents to live answered calls, the dialing modes offer options to meet your business needs.

Prior to the 8x8 Contact Center 9.12 release, the 8x8 Auto Dialer was available in preview dialing mode. In the 9.12 release, we have introduced progressive and predictive dialing modes.

In preview dialing mode, agents are presented with customer records for preview before dialing out. The agent is given a choice to select the phone number and start the call, reject the call or skip the call if allowed, and view the next customer record. If no choice has been made within a certain predefined time limit, the system automatically dials out to the customer, provided the dial call action is configured within the campaign properties. If the agent chooses to skip the call, the next record is presented, and the procedure is repeated, until the records in the campaign have been exhausted.

The preview dialing mode is most suited to campaigns which require preparation before the conversation. For example, In a complex sales call where the agent needs to decide the best approach to the call preview dialing is more suited.

The diagram below shows the call flow in preview dialing mode. The agent previews the customer record and begins the call. The agent may preview and reject the call which forces the agent to go on break, The agent may skip (if allowed) the offered call and move to the next record.

Preview dialing allows agents to view the information they need to serve customers efficiently with a complete history of previous customer interactions and notes to review before calling them. This experience may vary if you are using Salesforce in the Outbound Setup. Preview dialing provides agents with enough context to complete the interaction, instead of expecting agents to gather context during the call.

Preview dialing allows the system to initiate the call if the agent does not, and enhances agent productivity via answer machine detection, persistent agent connection, automatic transaction codes for unanswered calls, and carrier call blocking on the Do Not Call lists prior to connection.

The 8x8 Preview Dialer:

8x8 Progressive Dialer is an automated telephone dialing system that only connects agents to calls answered by a live person. The system automatically paces dialing and only dials when an agent becomes available. The dialer screens out busy lines, answering machines, and no answers automatically so that agents are connected to a live caller.

The progressive dialing method is straightforward. In every moment we compute the number of agents who are available and can receive calls at this moment. The corresponding number of calls are made.

The 8x8 Progressive Dialer:

  • Automates the time-consuming process of dialing numbers and removes the need for manual dialing.
  • Reduces wait time, eliminates errors in manual dialing and dramatically increases productivity.
  • Connects only live answered calls to agents.
  • Ensures each connected outbound call is delivered to an available agent.
  • Detects calls with busy signals, answering machines, and disconnected numbers and dispositions them automatically with wrap-up codes.
  • Supports sequential dialing of up to 22 phone numbers for each contact on the call list.

The diagram below shows the progressive dialing mode call flow.

The progressive dialing mode is more efficient than the preview method, since it connects agents to live calls and automatically screens failed calls. On the other hand, agents do not have the opportunity to preview and prepare for the call.

8x8 Predictive Dialer initiates outbound calls based on a preset dialing ratio before the agent is free to handle the next call. Predictive dialing is the most productive and most aggressive dialing mode. In predictive dialling mode the system dials multiple records simultaneously and connects answered calls to agents. Unanswered calls are automatically dispositioned with appropriate wrap-up codes.

The predictive dialer uses a complex algorithm to keep agents as productive as possible. It predicts the rate at which it will find live calls and adjusts the number of calls being overdialed so that an agent is available to handle the calls. As soon as an agent finishes one call they can move on to the next call right away. If you want to maximise agent talk-time, the predictive dialing mode typically provides the best results. This will greatly improve agent efficiency and campaign productivity.

The diagram below shows the progressive dialing mode call flow.

Features

8x8 Predictive Dialer offers the following features:

  • Dials more calls than the number of agents available, only ever presenting live answered calls to the agents.
  • Estimates how many calls need to be placed, in order to get idle agents busy on live calls as quickly as possible.
  • Automates the dialing of the campaign calls, in quick succession.
  • Supports sequential dialing of up to 22 phone numbers for each contact on the call list.
  • Allows campaign admins to customize (from default 3%) the Abandoned Rate which refers to the rate at which calls are being abandoned due to non-availability of agents.
  • Allows campaign admins to customize (the default 15) seconds of ring-time; Usually when answer-rate is low, customers want to increase ring time.
  • Detects unanswered calls, such as answer machines, bad numbers, number busy or unanswered and automatically dispositions them.
  • Allows campaign admins to customize how many retry attempts the system will make for unanswered calls and abandoned calls.
  • Improves agent efficiency and campaign productivity via automatic answer machine detection, persistent agent connection, and carrier call blocking.
  • Monitors the calling statistics in real time using the pacing algorithm.
  • Supports safe harbor audio messages for abandoned calls.

Risks

While delivering a significant performance boost to contact centres, predictive dialing may result in connected calls with live individuals which do not have available agents. In this scenario, the dialer allows you to mitigate the risk by playing a pre-recorded safe harbor message. The message typically should identify the company running the campaign or the company they are calling on behalf of, provide a free or standard cost call back number, and contain no marketing or sales information.

  • Abandoned call: If the live call fails to connect to an available agent within two seconds, but plays a pre-recorded safe harbour message, it is considered as an abandoned call.
  • Silent call: If the live call fails to connect to an available agent within two seconds and doesn't play a pre-recorded safe harbour message, it drops. It is considered as a silent call.

Predictive dialers are routinely used in telemarketing, market research, debt collection, and customer service follow-up.

Next steps

After reviewing the capabilities of each dialing mode, you are now ready to begin configuring the 8x8 Auto Dialer. Learn how to set up the dialer.