In an outbound call center, the calls are dialled using different dialling modes e.g. Progressive, Click to dial & Predictive mode. Each dialling mode is preferred as per the process requirements in a contact center. Most of the good call center software technology providers will have the provision of all these modes in their outbound dialer.
Pacing ratio is a term which is used closely in relation with the predictive dialing mode. Once the numbers are fed in to the dialer in admin console, Predictive dialer starts dialing the numbers and the thing which makes predictive dialer different from other modes is that it only transfers those calls to agents which have a human response from the other end. Predictive dialer never transfers the calls answered by the voice mail or any other automated response to the agent, it will instead dial the next available number.
To take the best out of the resources available, predictive dialer simultaneously dials multiple numbers for a single agent. It starts dialing the call slightly before when the agent is going to finish his current call. This process of dialling multiple numbers for each of the single agent available is known as pacing ratio. Pacing ratio is calculated on the number of channels & agents available to take the calls.
As per industry standards the maximum pacing ratio is generally 5, that means the dialer will dial 5 calls per agent using the predictive dialing mode. In case where the pacing ratio is configured high with comparison to the number of agents available, it will increase the abandoned calls, as the agents will not be free to answer and vice versa.. Pacing ratio can be increased or decreased based on the data and number of available agents. An intelligent dialer is capable of auto calculating the pacing ratio as well, if wrongly configured in admin console via supervisor.
The factors analysed while configuring the pacing ratio are:
- Number of available dialling channels
- Number of available agents
- Intelligent call routing to the best skill matching agent
- Accuracy of data of getting no answer, a busy signal, call disconnect or an answering machine.
- Call gap between calls required for maximum agent efficiency
- Average call duration
- Average talk duration and the wrap up time taken by agents
- Recent history of inbound and other non-outbound interactions handled by agents
Pacing ratio keeps the agents busy in “in call” status while maintaining the abandon rate goals. An optimized pacing ratio decreases the idle time of the agents by dialing out the maximum number in a defined period of time and results in optimal use of the available resources.
Pacing ratio is an integral part of predictive dialing and it is an excellent tool that brings the best out of the agent force in a lesser period of time.It is not possible that every outbound call made is answered by a caller, but whenever a call gets a human response or a customer, there is a higher possibility to get an available agent to respond.
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