IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v29y1999i5p66-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Predictive Dialing for Outbound Telephone Call Centers

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas A. Samuelson

    (InfoLogix, Inc., 8711 Chippendale Court, Annandale, Virginia 22003)

Abstract

In the late 1980s, I used queuing and simulation to invent predictive dialing, a method to determine when computer-directed outbound telephone dialing systems should dial. I included a real-time estimation updating feature that was highly robust against sudden changes in the system's operating environment; thorough validation to ensure that the models tracked all important features of the real systems; and a modular software design that allowed “plug-in” replacement of the control software, eliminating debugging of field upgrades. The improved systems kept operators busier and drastically reduced the number of calls the systems abandoned because no operator was available to talk to the answering party. This invention was critical to the success, in the late 1980s, of International Telesystems Corporation (ITC), a small company founded in 1984, which a competitor, EIS International, bought in 1993 for approximately $12 million.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas A. Samuelson, 1999. "Predictive Dialing for Outbound Telephone Call Centers," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 66-81, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:29:y:1999:i:5:p:66-81
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.29.5.66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.29.5.66
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.29.5.66?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    2. Gardner, Everette Jr., 2006. "Exponential smoothing: The state of the art--Part II," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 637-666.
    3. Guodong Pang & Ohad Perry, 2015. "A Logarithmic Safety Staffing Rule for Contact Centers with Call Blending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 73-91, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:29:y:1999:i:5:p:66-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.