The Difference Between Preview, Progressive and Predictive Diallers

Preview, progressive and predictive diallers are all technologies you might have heard mentioned in relation to call centre productivity; but what is the difference between each method?

While some technologies are confusing, there are very clear definitions here, which should make it easier to make up your mind about which to choose.

Preview Dialling

Simple in principle but potentially very useful indeed, preview dialling simply means your call centre agents can see whose number will be dialled next, giving them an opportunity to open the relevant client file or any other information specific to that person.

It introduces a necessary delay, as the operator must activate the call once the relevant information is to hand, but in certain call centres this might be a worthwhile sacrifice in return for having all of the data available in advance.

You might even want to make it possible for specific names to be skipped in the list, moving the preview dialler on to the next number without making the call, if you trust your agents to make that decision for any reason.

Progressive Diallers

A progressive dialler is the classic ‘auto dialler’ concept – when one call ends, the system automatically dials the next number, without waiting for the go-ahead from the operator.

This removes some of the risk of wrongly dialled numbers (assuming they are correct in the dialler’s database) and much of the time taken up by manual dialling.

Just be certain that your call centre agents are up to speed, so they can seamlessly transition from the end of one call into the beginning of the next, however quickly the system manages to move them on to the next person.

Predictive Diallers

Like progressive diallers, predictive diallers queue up the next call so it is ready for one of your operators to take; however, the efficiency here is taken up a notch by actually dialling more numbers than your agents would be able to handle.

That might sound strange, but a sizeable percentage of calls will go unanswered, connect to a dead line or reach a voicemail service.

By calling the right number of people at any one time, predictive diallers compensate for this by ensuring the number of live, accepted calls is close to the number of call operators you actually have available – no more hanging on a dead line.

Ofcom even accept the inevitability of a few calls going unconnected, so that some people on the customer end will receive a silent call – but good predictive diallers will minimise the risk of this, so that your call centre operates as efficiently as possible.

For more information on Daviker’s predictive diallers click here


Source: http://docphy.com/technology/computers/software/difference-preview-progressive-predictive-diallers.html