Dialing Modes
Preview, power, progressive and predictive — and when each is the right choice.
Every campaign picks its own dialing mode, so a careful high-value list and a high-volume outreach list can run at the same time under completely different pacing.
The four modes
| Mode | Who initiates | Agent sees contact first | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview | Agent | Yes | High-value calls where preparation matters |
| Power | System | Briefly | Steady one-at-a-time throughput |
| Progressive | System | No | Larger lists with agents kept busy |
| Predictive | System | No | High-volume outreach with many agents |
Preview
The agent is shown the contact record and decides when to dial. Nothing happens until they press call.
Use it when the conversation matters more than the volume — enterprise sales, clinical follow-up, anything where walking in cold would be worse than dialling fewer numbers.
Power
The system dials the next contact automatically as soon as the agent finishes wrapping up the previous call. One call at a time, no overdialing, no abandoned calls.
This is the safest automated mode and a good default when you move off preview.
Progressive
The system dials ahead as agents free up, so there is a call already ringing when an agent becomes available. Throughput improves; the trade-off is that a call can connect a fraction before an agent is ready.
Predictive
Pacing adapts to observed answer rates and agent availability, dialling more lines than there are free agents on the assumption that not all will answer.
This is the highest-throughput mode and the one that demands the most care:
Predictive dialing can abandon calls when more people answer than there are agents to take them. Abandoned-call rates are regulated in many jurisdictions. Do not run predictive without understanding the rules that apply to your programme — see TCPA and calling compliance.
Predictive only makes sense with enough agents on the campaign for the pacing to have something to predict. With two or three agents, power or progressive will give you better results and fewer problems.
Answering machine detection
AMD runs across all automated modes. When a machine is detected the call can drop a pre-recorded voicemail rather than occupying an agent, and the outcome is recorded as voicemail rather than as a connected call — so your connect rate stays honest.
Ring timeout
How long a call rings before it is given up on is configured per deployment. The platform sets it explicitly rather than inheriting Asterisk's 30-second default; if outbound calls seem to give up too early or too late, this is the setting to look at.
Changing mode
Dialing mode is a campaign setting and can be changed between runs. Changing it mid-run applies to calls placed after the change.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — these pages describe the platform as it actually behaves, so a mismatch is a bug we want to know about.