Diallers are predominately used to maximise the number of calls delivered to and handled by a number of Agents without breaching regulations defined in the UK by Ofcom. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ Using the dialler in no way guarantees that the regulations will not be breached. You should constantly check for changes to the regulations.
The dialler can handle and reschedule calls that are not connected for a variety of reasons, using a set of dial rules associated with the campaign and call list/queue. In this way, Agent time is not used leaving messages on answer phones, listening to engaged or dead line tones. Only calls that are connected are delivered to an Agent.
The dialler constantly calculates and recalculates how many numbers to dial to deliver an optimum number of calls to the agents. When the dialler first starts to call, it has no information to work on, which it will gradually build up as it dials, getting faster and faster until it reaches an optimum. The dialler gathers information on:
The quality of the data - e.g., how many connections it will be able to make. Cold calls are likely to result in more people not answering than calls to existing customers. This is referred to as the "Connection Rate" which has been highlighted as one of the main causes of variation in the prediction algorithm.
How good the agents are: some agents may be faster at working through calls than others.
How long each connected call is likely to take - e.g., cold calling can result in a high number of very short calls, with a low number of longer calls.
How long each agent will need to spend in "wrap" mode. You should design your scripts so the agents have little or no administration tasks to carry out at the end of the call.
The number of calls agents will reschedule to themselves. The dialler should not be used as a personal lead management system. Manual or agent specific callbacks should be kept to a minimum. Scheduling calls to specific agents effectively takes them out of the agent pool, thus slowing the dialler down. the more agents, the more reliable the averages are, the faster the dialler can reliably dial without abandoning calls.
The dialler will start on an almost one-to-one basis, dialling one call per available agent, and will speed up as it gathers the information above.
Agent Status
When running at full speed, the dialler is constantly making more calls than there are agents to handle, based on a statistical probability of a proportion of them not being connected. This can result in abandoned calls (calls connected where no agent is available to take it) if the agents do not log on and off correctly. This is done using the Dialler Agent Toolbar.
Agents should all log on at once rather than in drips and drabs.
Agents should only log off from the Wrap status and only enter the Wrap status from a call. if an agent logs off from wait, the dialler will have started dialling calls for them, which may result in abandoned calls if the agent suddenly disappears.
Turn the queue or campaign off a minute before break times and shift ends so that agents in "ready" can log off safely.
The Agent Status changes as follows.
Hold Mode - The agent is only in Hold Mode when they first Log on to the dialler.
Waiting for Call - After logging in, the Agent must make themselves available using the toolbar at the top of the screen. resulting in an agent status of "waiting for call". Once logged on, they will return to this status every time they disposition (wrap) a call.
In Call - A call is connected to the agent.
Wrap Mode - The agent hangs up - giving them time to enter a disposition and any comments before the script run ends. The agent can log off from wrap mode, or stay logged on to take the next call. If not logging off, they will go back into Waiting for Call and loop through statuses 1, 2, and 3 until they eventually log off.
