Key takeaways
- A progressive dialer places exactly one call per free agent, so it never has an answered call with no agent to take it.
- Rapidialer’s Power Dial works this way: one call per rep, started after the rep saves an outcome and a 5-second countdown the rep can cancel or skip.
- With a list’s retry rules on, Rapidialer brings No answer contacts back after 4 hours and Voicemail contacts after 24 hours by default, up to 20 attempts.
- Rapidialer’s calling hours default to 09:00 to 20:00, Monday to Friday, checked in each contact’s own time zone.
What is progressive dialer?
The names are used loosely. Many vendors treat progressive and power dialing as the same thing: one line per agent, dialed automatically after the last call. Others use “power dialer” for a mode that rings a fixed number of lines per agent, two or three at a time, and keep “progressive” for strictly one line. When you compare products, ask how many calls the dialer places per agent, and when, rather than relying on the label.
Progressive dialing sits between preview dialing, where the agent decides when each call starts, and predictive dialing, where an algorithm dials ahead of the agents. It keeps agents busy without the dropped calls that come from dialing more numbers than there are people to answer them, which is why teams calling consumers or working high-value lists often choose it.
Most progressive dialers add a short pause or countdown before each call, so the agent can read the next record, and let the agent skip a contact or pause the session between calls. The pause is the main setting to tune: too long and the hour leaks away, too short and reps open calls without knowing who they are talking to.
Common mistakes. Treating a progressive dialer as a way to skip wrap-up, so outcomes go unlogged and the retry schedule breaks. Calling the same unanswered numbers again within minutes instead of spreading attempts across the day. Loading a list without checking time zones, so the dialer has nobody it may call at 8 a.m. on the East Coast. And buying a multi-line product labeled “progressive” when the team wanted one call at a time.
How does a progressive dialer work step by step?
A progressive dialer repeats one loop per agent: wait for the agent to be free, take the next callable contact, dial it, connect the agent, record the result. The agent is part of every call from the first ring, which is the whole difference from dialing ahead.
In Rapidialer the loop runs inside the rep’s browser, and each step maps to something on screen.
- Next contact: the queue skips numbers on your internal Do Not Call list and contacts outside the list’s calling hours.
- Countdown: “Dialing in 5…” with Cancel, Skip and Dial now, while the lead card shows name, company, last outcome and last notes.
- Call: the rep hears the ring and is joined the moment the person answers; if voicemail detection is on, a greeting is flagged so the rep can leave a message or skip.
- Wrap-up: the rep picks one of up to 20 outcome buttons, with keys 1 to 9 for the first nine, and Power Dial waits until an outcome is saved.
How many calls an hour does a progressive dialer make?
A progressive dialer makes as many calls as the agent’s time per contact allows, so the answer is arithmetic, not a feature. Add the countdown, the ring time, the talk time and the wrap-up for an average contact, and divide an hour by it.
Here is one worked example, with assumptions you can swap for your own. An unanswered call takes 5 seconds of countdown, 30 seconds of ringing (Twilio’s default timeout, which Rapidialer leaves in place) and 10 seconds of wrap-up: 45 seconds. A conversation takes 5 seconds of countdown, 10 seconds of ringing, 3 minutes of talk and 30 seconds of wrap-up: 225 seconds. At a 12% connect rate, the average contact takes about 67 seconds, so one rep makes about 54 dials and 6 to 7 conversations an hour.
Hanging up early on calls that are clearly ringing out, and keeping wrap-up notes short, move the figure more than any other setting. A list that reaches more people produces fewer dials an hour and more conversations, which is the trade you want.
Is a progressive dialer legal under the TCPA?
A progressive dialer avoids the abandoned-call problem, because it never starts a call without a free agent. The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule still caps abandoned calls at 3% of live answers per campaign and treats a person not connected within two seconds of their greeting as abandoned (16 CFR 310.4), so check that the agent really is on the line at answer.
The other rules apply whatever the dialing mode. Telemarketing calls to residential numbers are limited to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called person’s local time, numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry need an exemption, and do-not-call requests must be honored (47 CFR 64.1200). Whether a given dialer counts as an autodialer for consent purposes turned on a narrow reading of that term in Facebook v. Duguid; ask counsel about yours. This is general information, not legal advice.
When is a progressive dialer the wrong choice?
Choose something else when the call depends on research or when the list is enormous. A rep calling 30 named enterprise accounts needs time to read each one, which is preview dialing with the countdown switched off. A floor of 40 agents working a consumer list with consent on file may get more talk time per hour from predictive pacing, if its compliance team tracks abandonment.
A team of SDRs calling switchboards where one dial in twenty reaches anyone may want a parallel dialer, which rings several lines per rep and accepts dropped answers as the cost. Rapidialer does neither of those: it is a one-line dialer, and that is the right fit only if one call per rep is what you want.
Progressive dialer in Rapidialer
Rapidialer’s power dialer works the way this page describes progressive dialing: one call per rep, placed only after the rep logs an outcome, with a five-second countdown the rep can cancel to pause, and a button to skip a contact. Lists come from a CSV upload of up to 5,000 rows per file, and each list’s calling hours hold back contacts whose local time is outside the window. Untick the Power dial checkbox in the Dialer and it stops dialing on its own: it loads the next contact and waits for you to press Call. Rapidialer is $5 per seat a month, and Twilio bills calls separately on your own account.
Related terms
- Preview dialerA dialer that shows the next contact’s record and waits for the agent before dialing.
- Predictive dialerA dialer that calls several numbers per available agent, predicting when agents will be free.
- Parallel dialerA dialer that rings several numbers at once for one rep and connects the first person who answers.
Progressive dialer: questions and answers
Is a progressive dialer the same as a power dialer?
Often, yes: many products use both names for the same one-line-per-agent mode. Some vendors use “power dialer” for dialing several lines per agent, so check how many calls a product places per agent before you buy. Rapidialer’s Power Dial is one line per rep, which matches the strict meaning of progressive dialing.
Does a progressive dialer cause abandoned calls?
A progressive dialer places one call only when an agent is free, so it should never have a person on the line with no agent to talk to. Abandoned calls come from dialing ahead of agents, as predictive and parallel dialers do. Check that the agent is connected the moment the person answers, since a delay over two seconds still counts.
How long is the pause between calls on a progressive dialer?
The pause is a setting in most progressive dialers, usually a few seconds. Rapidialer’s Power Dial uses a fixed 5-second countdown after the rep saves an outcome, with Cancel to stop and read, Skip to pass over the contact, and Dial now to start the call at once. The countdown is the preview time for the next contact.
Can a progressive dialer leave voicemails for me?
Some progressive dialers offer prerecorded voicemail drop; Rapidialer does not. In Rapidialer the rep leaves any voicemail live, or skips it when voicemail detection flags a greeting, and the call is logged as Voicemail. With retry rules on, a Voicemail contact comes back after 24 hours by default, so the second attempt lands on a different day.
Is a progressive dialer worth it for a solo rep?
A progressive dialer saves a solo rep the dead time of typing numbers and choosing who to call next, and keeps outcomes and retries in order. Rapidialer is $5 per seat a month, and Twilio bills calls on your own account; at about 1,000 billed minutes a month, one rep’s total is about $27 including one local number.
What happens when a progressive dialer reaches the end of a list?
The session stops when no callable contacts remain. In Rapidialer the empty queue says why, for example that remaining contacts are waiting for a retry delay or are outside the list’s calling hours, or that every contact has been called, closed or blocked. Import more contacts or adjust the list’s dialing rules to continue.