Sylar Cloud
A well-configured automatic dialer is what separates a team that spends the day typing numbers from one that spends the day talking to customers. But not all dialers work the same way, and choosing wrong can mean lost calls, annoyed customers or agents waiting.
In this guide we compare the three most common types, preview, progressive and predictive, and help you choose based on your operation.
Preview dialer: the agent decides when to call
The system shows the agent the customer record before dialing. The agent reviews the history, prepares the conversation and places the call.
- Advantages: better-prepared calls, ideal for complex conversations or high-value customers.
- Limitations: fewer calls per hour, because the agent spends time before each one.
- Ideal for: consultative sales, key accounts, late-stage collections or sensitive cases.
Progressive dialer: one call per free agent
When an agent finishes a call and becomes available, the system automatically dials the next number in the database. There is always an agent waiting for the outgoing call.
- Advantages: removes manual dialing and dead time between calls, with no risk of the customer answering and nobody being there.
- Limitations: the agent does wait while the phone rings and on unanswered attempts.
- Ideal for: small and mid-sized teams, sales follow-up and early-stage collections.
Predictive dialer: several lines, only the answered ones
The system dials several numbers at once and connects agents only with the calls answered by a person. It calculates how many calls to launch based on how many agents will be free.
- Advantages: the most talk time per agent; voicemails, busy signals and no-answers are filtered by the system.
- Limitations: if the system launches more calls than agents can handle, the customer answers and nobody is there (abandoned call). It needs a large database and enough connected agents.
- Ideal for: large databases, high-volume telemarketing and mass collections in the mid stage.
Quick comparison
| Preview | Progressive | Predictive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who starts the call | The agent | The system, one per free agent | The system, several per agent |
| Calls per hour | Low | Medium | High |
| Agent preparation | High | Medium | Low |
| Risk of abandoned call | None | None | Exists if configured aggressively |
| Recommended team size | Any | Any | Several connected agents |
| Database size | Small or high-value | Medium | Large |
Which one suits your operation?
Sales
If you sell a complex or high-value product, start with preview. If you work ad leads with a short script, the progressive gives you speed without losing calls. The predictive suits mass telemarketing with large databases.
Collections
Combine the three by delinquency stage: progressive in the early stage, predictive in the mid stage when the database is large, and preview in the late stage, where every conversation is a negotiation. Remember to configure schedules and holidays according to the Law 2300.
Service and surveys
To return calls or do post-sale follow-up, the progressive is usually enough. For mass notices without an agent, consider call blasting: a recorded voice message that reaches the entire database.
Best practices with any dialer
- Clean the database before loading it: duplicate, incomplete or unauthorized numbers lower the contact rate.
- Define attempts per record so you don't keep insisting on the same number indefinitely.
- Configure answering machine detection and decide whether to leave a message or retry.
- Tag every call so the next campaign works only the pending records.
- Measure contact rate and conversion, not just calls made.
Dialers in Sylar Cloud
In Sylar Cloud dialers go by plan: the Basic plan includes preview, Standard adds progressive and Pro includes predictive, progressive and preview, plus call blasting. All of them work on the CRM's campaigns, with schedules, attempts, answering machine detection and recording. See the pricing per agent.
Not sure which dialer you need? Book a demo and we'll go over it with your database and your team.