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Predictive dialers are ever-present in the contact center, and with good reason—they cut the fat from the calling process, making sure that agents spend their time working with actual customers and not waiting for people to answer the phone.

Many contact centers do not realize that their predictive dialer offers more than just one mode, however.

The most common mode is predictive dialing, of course, and the majority of contact centers will find this the mode of choice. But there are special situations when one of the other modes makes more sense.

It’s worthwhile to review some of the other options, using the Spitfire Predictive Dialer as the example.

Predictive dialing mode is good for getting through a call list fast, but when that list is composed of important contacts such as donors, it may not be advisable to rely on predictive dialer mode because there’s the chance a contact’s phone will ring and there will be nobody on the other end of the line when they pick up. This can alienate callers.

Quick Connect mode protects against dropped calls by allowing agents to log into campaigns with a one-to-one dialing ratio. With a one-to-one ratio, there’s always one agent per call. So callers never answer without an agent on the other side of the phone.

In other circumstances, a slash-and-burn technique makes more sense. If dropped calls are not an issue at all and volume is the key, a fixed dialing mode can make the most sense. Fixed dialing mode allows managers to manually set the volume of calls that are places. This can be good for political or charity campaigns, for instance. An auto dialer such as Spitfire Predictive Dialer then will automatically dial a predetermined number of lines per agent, maximizing efficiency.

Preview dialing is a third mode. Preview dialing mode enables an agent to view the information in a contact record before the number is dialed. If a contact list is highly detailed and personalized, as is the case with collections calls, this can often be the most appropriate mode.

A fourth mode is manual. While automated dialing makes sense in the vast majority of cases, manual mode is a good option for calling that requires a lot of post-call notations. With manual mode, agents get to pause the campaign, jot down notes, then initiate another call.

Dialers offer more than just predictive dialing, and in specific circumstances these other modes can make sense.