The Different Kinds of Dialing – Preview Dialing, Force Dialing, and more

I see some places offering preview dialing, what is that? Also, what is force dialing, power dialing, etc.

Preview dialing is when agents view the customer’s information first before requesting the system make the call. As the system goes through the list the agents are also able to view the customer’s call history and can prepare for the call before connecting to any customers. This type of dialing is often used when an agent needs to prepare a script or specific information before making a call. Naturally, this method of dialing is slower than predictive dialing because no calls are made until an agent manually makes or approves a call to be made.

Power dialing (also known as force dialing, speed dialing, or semi-automatic dialing) places calls only when an agent chooses to. This type of dialing is essentially manually dialing through a call list, as opposed to a form of automated dialing. Power dialing is included as a feature in Voicent’s Agent Dialer where it’s known as semi-automatic dialing.

Related to semi-automatic dialing is what’s commonly known as voice drop. This method simply leaves a message on an answering machine or voice-mail then immediately moves on to the next call. This feature is also available with semi-automatic dialing, where you can simply click a button to play a message and then hang up the call to move on to the next number in your call list.