POWER VS AUTO VS PREDICTIVE DIALER
Outbound Dialer Comparison
| Power Dialer | Auto Dialer | Predictive Dialer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How does it work? | The Power Dialer calls every number on your list sequentially. Once an agent marks the survey form, they can click a button to move on to the next call. | The Auto Dialer can make multiple calls per agent at once depending on the ratio you choose during campaign setup. It also skips busy, unanswered and invalid numbers, so agents don’t have to deal with them. | The Predictive Dialer can connect a call to an agent as soon as they are free by dialling numbers ahead of time. This works by calculating the dialing ratio based on stats like answered calls, dropped calls and number of active agents. |
| Dialer features | Calls every number on the list one after the other. Agents manually mark status for busy, unanswered and bad numbers and then click a button to move. | Calls numbers depending on the ratio. 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1. Eg. For a ratio of 2:1, the dialer makes 2 calls as soon as an agent is free and connects the answered call to the agent. You can choose to drop the other call, play a voice recording or re-add it to the list to be called again. Busy, unanswered, and bad numbers are automatically skipped. Status is marked so you can filter them out later. | Ratio varies for dialing numbers. The calls are dialed before an agent becomes free so that they can immediately move on to the next call when the previous call is done. Busy, unanswered and bad numbers are automatically skipped, same as the auto dialer. |
| How many calls can you expect to make? | For a list of average health, a single agent can make about 45 dials per hour and expect to have 25 calls. | For a list of average health, a single agent can make about 70 dials per hour and expect to have about 35 live calls. | For a list of average health, a single agent can make about 110 dials per hour and expect to have about 50 live calls. |
| How many agents do you need? | 1 or more | 1 or more | Works best with 8 or more |
| How is it commonly used? | Calling campaigns where the cost of not reaching a contact is high or agents need to survey contacts. Eg. Fundraising campaigns, event invites, data collection campaigns | Lists with a low engagement. Eg. When making candidate introduction calls to a newly procured voter list. | Time sensitive campaigns where you have to reach a large list in a specific time frame. Eg. Get out the vote campaigns |
Democrats Abroad used the Power Dialer
Democrats Abroad needed to have personal conversations with voters for voter ID.
They needed to get data on their contacts (ex. Voter registration status) to give volunteers context in future conversations. The power dialer was handy, because callers had time to note down important contact details before moving on to the next call.
By the end of their campaign, over 90% of the phone conversations volunteers had with contacts were positive.
NEAT used the Auto Dialer
NEAT used the Auto Dialer with 2:1 ratio to connect supporters to decision makers.
Lots of people sign up on the website to show support, but this isn’t an audience that necessarily has a close relationship with the organization.
So taking into account that not everyone will pick up the call, NEAT used the Auto Dialer with 2:1 call ratio. The agents talked to supporters, educated them about the issue and connected about 10 people to a rep in an hour.
Organizing For Change used the Predictive Dialer
OFC partnered with 24 other organizations to call their members for GOTV.
They needed to reach out to the combined member list of all the participating organizations. That meant using the predictive dialer was the best bet to make sure they could efficiently go through this huge contact base.
The OFC along with their partner groups were able to increase voter turnout by 7% in certain voter segments.
Other dialers to consider:
FastClick Dialling
Agents make calls on their own phones, while viewing and entering data on CallHub. CallHub displays contact details, along with the phone script and attached surveys.
• Can call cell phones
• Can distribute calling cost among your calling agents
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