The objectives and list sources of survey researchers are quite difference than those of telemarketers. In addition to the three basic dialing modes, PRO-T-S offers two unique and previously unknown methods for increasing research dialing efficiencies.
The Pacing mode allows the site manager to specify a set delay or "wait-time" after termination of each contact before automated dialing commences. In this scenerio, there is a one-to-one correspondence between interviewers and outgoing lines. Wait-times can be caried by type of contact the interviewer has handled. For example, if a business were encountered, dialing might commence immediately, but a completed interview could call for a delay of one minute to allowe the interviewer to edit verbatim responses. Obviously, difference surveys have different requirements, schedules and complexity, so the wait-times can be customized to individual project needs.
The objective of the Pacing mode is to provide greater control over the interviewing process. Although interviewers still encounter expected wait-times once dialing commences, the Pacing mode eliminates uncontrolled downtimes. It provides a means of control previously unavailable, yielding gains in interviewer productivity with no abandonment rate downside.
For those surveys where predictive dialing has the potential for large productivity gains, the researchPredictive mode offers a totally new approach. Rather than attempting to predict availability of interviewers, the PRO-T-S system predicts the distribution of the dialing outcomes in progress. Conceptually, the system computes a probability distribution of "live" contacts, for the calls in progress. The control variable in the process is a simple stopping rule, which insures that the numbers being dialed will not, with some probability, result in more live contacts than there are interviewers available. For example, one might set this limit at .001 or .0001 (i.e., 1 in 1,000 or even 1 in 10,000 odds of making more live contacts than there are interviewers available).
The Predictive algorithm operates in real-time, taking into account the number of dialings in progress, the number of interviewers "waiting", and the probability of each sample telephone number resulting in a live contact. The last item is critical, and is based on the vast amount of information we have about each and every telephone number in the U.S. The system also takes into account the call history for each sample number (e.g., it previously resulted in a contact, or the previous five attempts all resulted in "no answers").
The other significant benefit PRO-T-S provides is the hierarchical nature of the automated dialing sequences. This is important to maximizing productivity, especially when operating in the researchPredictive mode. The system automatically operates at the highest level of dialing functionality consistent with the constraints imposed on the Predictive algorithm. In other words, the dialing mode will switch automatically between Pacing and researchPredictive depending upon the number of interviews "waiting" for a contact, the expected number of "live" contacts, etc. The system always provides maximum productivity consistent with abandonment rate limits, no matter how strict.