Power Dialing
Traditionally the users who have bought power dialers and predictive dialers have both come from the same kind of camp, namely automated call centers, where all of the dialing is initiated and controlled by the dialer, and the dialer can dial on two or more trunks for each agent available to take a call. Hence the industry tendency to use the terms power dialing and predictive dialing interchangeably.
True predictive dialers monitor literally everything that is going on in determining the optimum dialing rate at any point in time. Power dialers don’t. They use very simple algorithms to determine the degree of overdialing; such as the reciprocal of the sum of one or more call outcome percentages.
This approach has given very high talk times, and low wait times, but it has also sometimes meant lots of abandoned calls, because of the crudeness of the algorithms being used. See Uncertainty and the topics under Performance Issues for further comments on uncertainty and predictability in outbound dialing.
Avoiding abandoned calls
So how do power dialers cope with actual or potentially high abandoned call rates?
Until recently, high rates of abandoned calls have been very prevalent in some markets, no matter what form of outbound dialing has been used, without any concerted consumer or regulatory reaction. High rates of abandoned calls are becoming increasingly unacceptable, and few responsible users exceed 3-4%, with many well under this.
(N.B. This was written before we visited a certain country in the Southern Hemisphere which is just getting into power and predictive dialing, and where the abandoned call percentages are in the stratosphere, apparently on the basis that this is how it's commonly done in the home of predictive dialing, namely the US. Not so, and not necessary!)
Partly in reaction to this, power dialers implemented technologies allowing them to play messages, when no agents were available, rather than give rise to an abandoned call. This practice is diminishing, and is now rare, as industry bodies and regulators have seen it as an unreasonable invasion of privacy.
Which has left one option, that of standby agents. If power dialers dial at high rates using simple algorithms, then the only acceptable way to avoid the substantial number of abandoned calls that must follow is by diverting the 'excess' connects, i.e. calls that would otherwise be abandoned, to Standby Agents always ready to take such calls. This has been an important innovation, but any attempt to skimp in this area and try and beat the odds, by not providing sufficient standby agents, will see call abandonment targets set by users, whether zero or higher, being exceeded.
Working out agent numbers
If you are power dialing and you want to work out how many logged in and standby agents you will need, then here's what you do:
- You will have defined how many calls you want to make, and also the time you want to make them in
- Make an educated guess as to how many agents you will need, complete the Wizard, and run Oceanic®
- See whether the time taken is greater or less than the objective you have in mind. If greater, then decrease the number of agents; and vice-versa.
- Rerun Oceanic®, making this adjustment, until you have the right answer. You should be able to do this in several runs only, in minutes, if not seconds.
Note
There are quite a few companies out there offering dialing products, especially auto preview, who seem to have usurped the word 'power' into their products. That's marketing for you. But remember that power and predictive dialing as traditionally defined allow overdial; other dialing methods do not.
See also similar warning in Predictive Dialing.