But the bottom line is that it all rests on a common algorithm (explained here). And how reliable is it anyway? This paper debunks the myths and jargon associated with AMD and presents some hard facts for call centers when considering the pros and cons of AMD.
This white paper looks at how the components within Softdial Contact Center are designed from the ground up to meet these requirements, including
Recent developments in VoIP communications technology combined with a flurry of activity from call center technology developers has raised awareness of the real benefits to be gained by call centers and their customers from hosting services.
The advantages are easy to understand - economies of scale applied to the high capital cost of equipment and services together with higher utilisation means that costs per agent hour should be lower.
While significant savings can be made with a well designed and managed hosting service, there are a number of technology issues that must be considered if these savings are not to be negated by unplanned support costs or hidden costs that can surface when you need to expand or update your systems.
This paper is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the Hosting Services model. It discusses the critical technology issues that must be addressed when planning a hosted call center services operation and explains how Sytel's hosting solutions have been specifically developed to address the needs of this market.
The Collections industry in the US is currently exempt from the rules governing the use of predictive dialers there. Sytel believes there are strong reasons why a cap on nuisance calls in the US collections market should now be considered.
The paper looks at dialing behavior in the Collections industry in the US, including type of call, e.g. live versus virtual agent and considers current nuisance call levels.
While Sytel does not necessarily consider the current federal rules on dialers to be appropriate for all industries, neither do we believe that the current unrestricted use of dialers in the US Collections industry is healthy for either consumers or the wider contact center industry.
This paper is offered up as a basis for discussion to arrive at a consensus that matches industry needs whilst protecting consumers from unrestricted levels of nuisance calls.
Have you ever seen a predictive dialer at work? The dialer industry has spawned a generation of supervisors who sit over the dialer monitoring performance minute by minute, making small adjustments to the pacing algorithm in order to get maximum performance.
What is amazing about this practice is that the big brands in the dialer industry have convinced a whole generation of users that this is the way to manage a dialer. Users have been attracted to the idea because it gives them a sense of control of their destiny.
If you are running a number of campaigns, each involving an array of constantly changing data, for example changes in live call rates, talk and wrap times, agent availability, network response conditions and so on, there is simply no way that the human brain is capable of calculating dialing rates with any precision.
What is required is a well tuned dialer management system automatically making continual adjustments to keep the dialer pacing at peak performance throughout a campaign, without the need for any human intervention. As we show in the paper, it is possible to produce a dialer that does exactly this whilst remaining compliant.
When you select a dialer, no reputable vendor would do anything other than claim compliance; quite right too, since compliance is easy to achieve; you simply set a limit for nuisance calls. In order to make the right choice you need to ask the right questions. This paper helps you to do this and also work out the right answers. Some key questions considered are:
If you don’t have satisfactory answers to these questions, then you will be better off keeping your money in your pocket and sticking to preview or progressive dialing
For Example,
One of the most important considerations in deploying a VoIP solution is to ensure that you can achieve the QOS appropriate to the application. The term ‘Quality of Service’ in a VoIP network generally refers to the network’s ability to allow clear, real time voice communication within acceptable end to end delay limits.
This is particularly relevant to contact center businesses, and requires careful planning and preparation. An initial delay during VoIP calls between colleagues in a company may just be acceptable, however, the same delay on telemarketing or market research calls for example, can seriously impact their success rate
As well as introducing the basic concepts involved in deploying a VoIP solution, this paper also looks at the broader configuration / topology issues that must be considered. For example, in contrast to a traditional time division multiplex (TDM) environment which tends to be relatively static due to the hardware and infrastructure dependencies involved, a VoIP solution is free from these constraints and may be implemented in a more dynamic network, where infrastructure, people and applications may be continuously changing.
The paper also provides detailed information that will be helpful in overcoming any misconceptions that prospective users may have regarding the feasibility of VoIP solutions for contact centers.
The key technology that drives most outbound call centers is called predictive dialing. It has been used for many years in countries such as the UK and the US and latterly has been enthusiastically adopted by offshore call centers.
In both the UK and the US, there was a belief in the late 90s and post 2000 that the way to cope with the nuisance calls generated by dialers was for industry to self regulate, following rules laid down by national marketing organizations, for example Direct Marketing Associations. It was an attractive idea but one that not only didn’t work, but frankly was a disaster for outbound markets in these two countries. The lack of any effective penalties on dialer misuse, prior to government regulation, meant that many predictive dialers were used irresponsibly, with the numbers of nuisance calls to consumers often far outweighing the numbers of live calls
Sytel is well known around the world as a strong proponent of responsible dialing and has a long track record of working with both national marketing organizations and also government regulators, advising them on appropriate rules. For example, in April 2002 Sytel was invited by the Federal Trade Commission1 to be the dialer industry representative at its regulatory hearings held in Washington.
Much of the existing rules now in place in other countries first saw light in the form of advice provided by Sytel. Drawing on this experience, we have now set out a detailed outbound template for other countries to consider when drawing up their own dialer regulations.
1 Government regulations in the US have been set by the FTC and also the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who each monitor different market segments. Their regulations are the same. When we refer to the FTC in this paper, it is understood that this includes the FCC as well.