Many people are not totally sure what a predictive dialer is. This page is not meant to describe every available feature of a predictive dialer, just to give some basic functions and features of predictive dialers and show some of the differences between predictive dialers and other somewhat similar technology that may have some people confused.

A predictive dialer is a computerized system that connects to multiple agents, has more outbound lines to dial on than agents using the system, and dials phone numbers in a fashion to "predict" when a telemarketer will be available (A predictive dialer must also be able to pass any of it's telephone lines to any of it's agents). Thus, trying to have a live customer ready for them to speak to faster than if the telemarketer is not using a predictive dialer.  Some people may get a predictive dialer confused with a "preview dialer" or an "automatic phone dialer".  These types of software are great for a salesperson who needs help keeping their phone calls/ leads/ appointments in order and they will even automatically dial a phone number when you tell it to.

A predictive dialer uses a complex mathematical formula that will try to "predict" when to dial a phone call while taking into account many different factors which can include the average phone call length, average number of rings before a customer picks up the phone, percentage of dialed phone calls that are answered, average length of talk time on each phone call, number of telemarketers using the system and desired abandonment rate (this is the percentage of people you will not have a live telemarketer available to talk to and will have to hang up on or "abandon").   Currently, the FTC mandates a 3% abandonment rate meaning that for each 97 live people you connect a live telemarketer to you can hang up on or "abandon" only 3.  You are also required to leave each of the potential customers you abandon a pre-recorded message.  This is one reason that you will want to use caution when buying a used system as many used systems are not capable of this.

Here is a real live story of what telemarketing has done for my call center.  The day after I purchased my first small predictive dialer my 4 best telemarketers went home for the summer or left for internships, as I hired mainly college students.  The very first day we used our predictive dialer my remaining 4 "average" telemarketers did as good as my 4 best callers that had left for the summer.  The very next day, and pretty much every day after that, my "average" callers DOUBLED what my best callers were doing per hour.  We still had good days and bad days; however, our bad days were now about 85 sales per 100 hours called when before the dialer a bad day was about 40 sales per 100 hours of calling time.  Our good days were now about 200 sales per 100 hours called when they used to be about 100 sales per 100 hours of call time.  This is why I bought a predictive dialer.  To increase sales!

One thing to look for when purchasing a predictive dialer is what you need the dialer to do.  If you are simply looking for a way to have your telemarketers talk to more people per hour than they are currently, then a basic predictive dialer will do, and may perform better than a much more costly and complicated system.  If you are needing every feature under the sun, like digital recording, IVR, branched scripting, in-depth reporting abilities, inbound/ outbound/ blended features, wage calculators, etc., then you will want something other than a "basic" system.  Just remember that the more options the dialer has, the more time it is going to take to run and maintain the system.  If you do not need the very advanced features, then it may be in your company's best interest to get a "basic" system.  Why purchase and have to maintain an expensive computer network with a ton of features that you don't need?  If you or your current supervisor's job is to help the callers do their job better, then why purchase a system that is going to have to make you, or your supervisor, become a computer technician when their time is better spent coaching, controlling & motivating your telemarketers? 

There are companies claiming to sell one station "predictive dialers" but what do they predict?  They can place multiple phone calls at the same time and help you speak to customers a little faster, but they are not able to predict their dialing the same as a multi-station predictive dialer and are not worth any money in my eyes.  Taking into account the FTC's TSR rule we do not believe they are legal.  (If anyone or any company selling one station predictive dialers can tell us how they are legal, then please let us know. Our purpose is not to bash anyone or any company, just to help inform potential buyers. we think these systems just help give telemarketing a bad name.) Buyer beware when you are looking to buy a one station "predictive dialer".  Hosted or VoIP solutions may be an alternative solution for one person dialing, but we would NEVER recommend purchasing a one station predictive dialer!

There is even a brand out today that when someone picks up it plays a message that says: "My headset is not working, let me call you back". Then dials that person again when the agent is off of the telephone. This seems like bad business to us and we do not and will not sell similar systems.