Key takeaways
- A predictive dialer may start four or five calls per agent on a list where one call in five is answered.
- US rules cap abandoned calls at 3% of calls answered by a person, per campaign, over each 30-day period.
- Telemarketing calls are limited to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called person’s local time under both the FCC and FTC rules.
- Rapidialer is not a predictive dialer: Power Dial places one call per rep, after wrap-up and a 5-second countdown.
What is predictive dialer?
In plain terms, the predictive dialer meaning comes down to pacing. The dialer watches answer rates and call lengths and adjusts how many lines it dials per agent. On a list where only one call in five is answered, it may dial four or five numbers for every agent who is about to become free. Many predictive dialers also use answering machine detection to screen out voicemail before an agent hears it.
The upside is talk time: agents spend most of the hour in conversations instead of listening to rings. The downside is the people who answer and hear silence or a hang-up. In the US, the Telemarketing Sales Rule treats a call as abandoned if the person is not connected to a live representative within two seconds of their greeting, and its safe harbor limits abandoned calls to 3% of answered calls per campaign, measured over each 30-day period (16 CFR 310.4).
Predictive dialing suits large call centers working big consumer lists with many agents online at once. With only a handful of agents, the algorithm has too little data to pace well, and abandoned calls climb.
Consent is the other legal question. FCC rules require prior express written consent for telemarketing calls to mobile numbers made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice (47 CFR 64.1200). In Facebook v. Duguid, the Supreme Court read that dialing-system definition narrowly, as equipment that stores or produces numbers with a random or sequential number generator (Facebook v. Duguid). Whether a given predictive dialer falls inside it, and what your state adds, are questions for counsel.
Common mistakes. Buying predictive dialing for a team of three, where pacing has almost nothing to work with. And measuring success by dials per hour, when the people who answered and heard silence are a cost too. A small team is better served by a progressive dialer or a power dialer, which keep one line per rep.
How does a predictive dialer decide how many numbers to call?
It divides the agents it expects to be free by the share of calls it expects a person to answer. If two agents will finish their calls in the next ten seconds and the list’s answer rate is 20%, the dialer starts about ten calls so that, on average, two people pick up as those agents come free.
The averages are the catch. Answers arrive in clumps, not evenly, so some seconds bring three answered calls for two agents and others bring none. Operators set a target abandonment rate and the pacing backs off as the campaign nears it, which trades agent wait time against dropped calls. Small teams feel each clump the most.
What rules apply to predictive dialing?
Predictive dialing is legal in the US, but several rules bite harder on it than on one-line dialing. The list below summarizes the federal ones from the FCC’s TCPA rules and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule. This is general information, not legal advice.
- No more than 3% of live-answered calls abandoned per campaign over each 30-day period, with the two-second connection test.
- Unanswered calls ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings, and abandoned calls get a recorded message naming the seller with a callback number.
- Telemarketing calls only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the called person’s local time (47 CFR 64.1200(c)).
- Prior express written consent for telemarketing calls to mobile numbers made with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice.
- No telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry without an exemption, and a company-specific list of people who asked you to stop.
How do predictive, parallel, progressive and preview dialing differ?
The five modes differ in two things: how many calls run per agent, and who decides when the next one starts.
- Predictive: several calls per agent at once; the algorithm starts them.
- Parallel: a fixed batch of lines per rep, often two to ten; the first answer wins. See what a parallel dialer is.
- Progressive: one call per agent; the system starts it as soon as the agent is free.
- Power: one call per agent; the next starts after wrap-up, often after a short countdown.
- Preview: one call per agent; the agent reads the record and starts the call. See what a preview dialer is.
Who should not buy a predictive dialer?
Small teams, named business accounts and warm callbacks get little from predictive pacing. Pacing needs many agents to absorb bursts of answers, and named-account calls need context the agent has no time to read.
A large consumer contact center with dozens of agents online, a compliance team that tracks abandonment per campaign, and lists with consent on file is where a predictive dialer earns its price, and Rapidialer is the wrong tool there. For smaller teams the cost math is simpler: Rapidialer is $5 per seat a month and Twilio bills calls separately, which at about 1,000 billed minutes per rep comes to about $79.95 a month for 3 reps and $266.50 for 10, including minutes, the browser leg, recording and one local number each (Twilio voice pricing).
Predictive dialer in Rapidialer
Rapidialer is not a predictive dialer. Its power dialer, Power Dial, places one call per rep, from the rep’s own browser, and only after the rep has logged an outcome for the previous call, so every answered call is already connected to the rep who placed it. There is no pacing setting, and answering machine detection, when switched on, only offers the rep a choice to leave a live voicemail or skip, and the queue holds back contacts outside a list’s calling hours.
Related terms
- Preview dialerA dialer that shows the next contact’s record and waits for the agent before dialing.
- Progressive dialerA dialer that places the next call automatically when an agent becomes free, one line per agent.
- Parallel dialerA dialer that rings several numbers at once for one rep and connects the first person who answers.
- Abandoned callAn answered outbound call with no agent on the line within two seconds of the greeting.
- Call dispositionThe label recorded when a call ends, such as connected, no answer or callback.
- FeaturesWhat each Rapidialer feature does, how it works, and its limits.
Predictive dialer: questions and answers
What is the difference between a predictive and a power dialer?
A power dialer dials one number per available agent and waits for that call to end before the next, while a predictive dialer dials several at once and drops or holds the extra answers, and the full side-by-side, with team sizes and costs, is in power dialer vs predictive dialer.
Is predictive dialing legal?
Predictive dialing is legal in the US when the dialer and calling program follow the rules, including the 3% abandoned-call limit, the two-second connection test, calling hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time, and consent requirements for automated calls to mobile numbers. After Facebook v. Duguid narrowed the federal autodialer definition, some state laws still reach further. Get legal advice for your specific use.
Is a predictive dialer the same as an auto dialer?
It is one kind. “Auto dialer” is a loose label for any system that places calls without a person dialing each number, from power and progressive dialers to predictive ones; what an auto dialer is covers the range and how each kind works.
How many agents does a predictive dialer need?
Predictive pacing works on averages, so it needs enough agents online at once that a clump of answered calls does not outnumber the free agents. With three or four reps, a single burst of answers can push a campaign’s abandonment rate up, so a one-line mode is the safer choice.
Does Rapidialer have a predictive or parallel mode?
No. Rapidialer’s Power Dial places one call per rep at a time. After the rep saves an outcome, a countdown shows “Dialing in 5…” with Cancel, Skip and Dial now buttons, and only then does the next call start. Rapidialer has no setting to dial several lines per rep, and it never plays a prerecorded message to whoever answers.
How many calls per hour does a power dialer make compared with a predictive dialer?
A power dialer’s pace is set by the rep: ring time, talk time, wrap-up and a short countdown for each contact, one after another. A predictive dialer removes most of the ring time from the agent’s hour by dialing ahead. The trade is that every answered call on a power dialer reaches a rep at once, with no abandoned calls to count.
What does a predictive dialer cost?
A predictive dialer’s price is usually quoted per agent, and some vendors share it only on request. Before you compare quotes, ask for four numbers: the price per agent, the minimum number of agents, the contract length, and whether calling minutes are included. Predictive pacing also places several calls per conversation, so per-call carrier charges rise with it.