Dialing modes

AI-generated summary

Genesys Cloud provides six distinct outbound dialing modes—Preview, Progressive, Power, Predictive, Agentless, and External—each designed to balance efficiency, agent utilization, and compliance requirements for different campaign objectives. Preview mode offers agents complete control by displaying contact information before manual dialing, eliminating call abandonment but resulting in the lowest efficiency and highest idle time. Progressive mode automatically dials one contact per available agent after performing call analysis, reducing abandonment risk while improving efficiency over Preview mode, though it increases agent idle time and requires agent reservation options for further optimization. Power mode dials multiple numbers per idle agent and dynamically adjusts dialing pace based on abandonment thresholds, significantly reducing idle time but increasing abandonment risk; this mode requires a minimum of 10-15 agents for accurate performance metrics. Predictive mode represents the most efficient option, using a patented algorithm that incorporates average handle time, after-call time, idle time, script stages, and historical contact rates to proactively place calls before agents complete current interactions, minimizing both idle time and abandonment risk while requiring at least 15 agents for accuracy. Agentless mode operates without agents or scripts, utilizing call analysis response sets to automatically respond to live contacts and answering machines, enabling message broadcasting and correct party identification before queue transfer. External calling integrates third-party desktop dialers to ensure TCPA compliance, providing agents full control through manual dialing after reviewing records but resulting in the least efficient mode with high idle time and limited call tracking. Campaign setup involves three fundamental steps: selecting the appropriate dialing mode, defining required resources including contact lists, scripts, and callable times, and creating the campaign with assigned resources. The system supports regional compliance requirements, including UK OfCom policies effective March 1, 2017, ensuring adherence to electronic communications network regulations.

Outbound campaign users in the UK: See the note about recently revised OfCom policies at the end of this article.

Outbound campaigns contact a list of people in a particular way. Every campaign has a dialing mode setting that determines when and how the campaign places calls. The dialing mode lets the agent see information before dialing, or matches an agent to a call after the call connects to a live party. Some dialing modes do not require agents at all.

To define a campaign, the high-level steps are:

Decide which dialing mode to use.
Define all resources required by that dialing mode, such as a contact list, script, or set of callable times.
From the Campaigns page, add a new campaign and assign resources to it.

The following table describes the dialing modes:

Dialing mode	Description
Preview	Description: Campaigns typically use Preview mode to reach high-value contacts. The campaign presents information about the contact to the agent before dialing. The agent reviews the customer record before deciding whether to call or skip to the next record. When ready, the agent manually places the call. The agent hears all pre-connect audio, and determines whether the call reached the contact. Note: If there are multiple numbers for a contact, the agent selects the number to call. You can optionally configure a countdown Preview timer. When you enable a timer, the system automatically dials the contact when the timer runs out, if the agent has not yet placed or skipped the call. If you work with assigned accounts, you can also configure a Preview campaign with agent-owned records. For more information, see Agent-owned records for preview campaigns overview. Note: If you want to present specific contacts to an agent for Preview dial, you can configure a Preview Mode column in the contact list. For more information, see Create a contact list. Summary: Presents contact information to the agent before dialing. The agent starts the call and logs the dial outcome, such as busy, no answer, and so on. Benefits: Eliminates call abandonment. Agents are in full control of interactions. Agents can carefully review customer information and case data in advance. Drawbacks: Least efficient dialing mode. Risk of excessive agent idle time (if Preview timer is disabled).
Progressive	Description: With Progressive dialing, the system automatically dials one contact for each available agent. For example, if six agents are available, the system places six calls. In this mode, the system performs call analysis before it matches each call to an agent. While the risk of call abandonment is lower with Progressive dialing, it is not eliminated entirely. For example, if the system factors a blended agent into the pool of available agents, and that agent takes an inbound call before connecting to the outbound contact, that call becomes abandoned. Progressive dialing also provides the option of precise mode. If you enable precise mode, the dialer can reserve agents before it places a call, which decreases the risk of call abandonment. Reserved agents cannot take inbound calls until the reservation is released. Summary: Never dials more contacts than agents available. Waits for agents to become available, then places one call for each agent. The system places the calls and then uses call analysis to determine the pace of dialing. Benefits: Minimal risk of call abandonment, considering an agent is not blended with other work. More efficient than Preview because calls dial automatically. Drawbacks: Increased agent idle time.
Power	Description: Like Progressive, a campaign in Power mode waits to dial until an agent is available to process the call. When an agent is ready, the system places calls to ensure that at least one live person answers. When a Power campaign starts, the system dials multiple phone numbers for every idle agent. In its call analysis, if it determines that the risk of call abandonment is low, it speeds up, meaning it increases the number of calls it makes for each available agent. Once it reaches the configured call abandonment threshold, meaning it reaches a point where there aren’t enough agents to answer bridged calls, it slows down. Note: Due to the difficulty of calculating average handle time, after-call time, idle time, and contact rate for a small sample size, we recommend using at least 10 to 15 agents in a campaign with this dialing mode. Summary: Predicts the number of calls to keep the agent busy. Places one or multiple calls for each agent once they become available. Uses call analysis to determine the result of dialing attempts. Benefits: More efficient than Progressive. Reduced agent idle time. Drawbacks: Higher risk of call abandonment.
Predictive	Description: In the Predictive mode, the outbound dialer uses a patented stage-based algorithm to make predictions about agent availability and places calls based on the output of the algorithm. This algorithm uses input such as average handle time, after-call time, idle time, the stage setting on the agent script, and historical contact rate to improve accuracy. Unlike the Power mode, this mode predicts when an agent becomes idle. It can launch the call before the agent is available, so that by the time a customer answers the call, an agent is just becoming available. To make an accurate prediction, this mode tracks how long agents spend on script stages to predict when to place calls before the agent completes their current call. The larger the agent pool, the more accurate the predictions can be, minimizing idle time even further than in Power mode and decreasing the likelihood of an abandoned call. Note: Due to the difficulty of calculating average handle time, after-call time, idle time, and contact rate for a small sample size, we recommend using at least 15 agents in a campaign using the predictive dialing mode. If agents log in to other campaigns, they are not “whole agents” in any one campaign. For example, if 20 agents log in to both Campaign A and Campaign B, each of these campaigns effectively have only 10 agents, which is under the recommended minimum for an accurate predictive algorithm. Summary: Predicts agent availability and number of calls to keep each agent busy. Places one or multiple calls for each agent before they become available. Uses call analysis to determine the result of dialing attempts. Benefits: Most efficient dialing mode. Low agent idle time. Drawbacks: Risk of call abandonment.
Agentless	Description: This dialing mode does not use agents or a script. The system responds to live contacts or answering machines based on settings in the call analysis response set (CARS) assigned to the campaign. For example, an agentless campaign could hang up on answering machines while transferring each live party to an outbound flow. Note: The call analysis response set assigned to an agentless campaign can transfer a live party to an outbound flow, but not directly to an agent. However, you can configure the outbound flow to transfer the call to a queue for agent assistance. Summary: Uses call analysis to determine the result of each dialing attempt. Responds to live contacts or answering machines as directed by its call analysis response set. Benefits: Customers can broadcast messages to consumers without the need to spend resources on agents. Enables you to identify the right party contacts before transferring to a flow. Agents aren’t engaged until the right contact is on the phone and in the queue. Drawbacks: If an outbound flow is sending calls to a queue, the campaign must be monitored regularly for call abandonment.
External calling	Description: In the External calling mode, the Outbound campaign uses a third-party desktop dialer for Telephone Customer Protection Act (TCPA) compliance. The campaign presents information about the contact to the agent. The agent reviews the customer record before deciding whether to call or skip to the next record. When ready, the agent copies the phone number and manually places the call with a third-party dialer. When the call is finished, the agent returns to Genesys Cloud to wrap up. Summary: Presents contact information to the agent before they copy the number and dial. The agent starts the call and logs the dial outcome, such as busy, no answer, and so on. Benefits: Built to help comply with TCPA regulations. Agents are in full control of interactions. Agents can carefully review customer information and case data in advance. Drawbacks: Least efficient dialing mode. Risk of excessive agent idle time (Preview timer can’t be enabled). Lack of call-detail tracking and recording of calls dialed with a third-party desktop dialer.

Business scenarios

The following video walks you through four distinct business scenarios and explains how to choose the best dialing mode for each campaign.

Outbound campaign users in the UK: OfCom issued revised policies to address the “persistent misuse of an electronic communications network or service” that took effect on March 1, 2017. For more information, please see .

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Dialing modes

Business scenarios

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