How is VICIDIAL predictive? Does it detect answering machines?
VICIDIAL is predictive in the sense that, if in auto-dial mode, it will call a number of leads per-agent-logged-in and only pass on the calls that were picked up on to an available agent. Because of the way Asterisk is built you do not need to build a mechanism to do Busy-detect, disconnect-detect or listen for a number of rings. This makes the transfer from picked-up customer to the agent very fast, and that was our most important goal. Adding Answering machine detection(AMD) slows down the time-to-agent of all calls, even non-answering-machine calls with a human on the line. This was unacceptable to us, but we added the ability to compile in AMD and use it in a VICIDIAL campaign anyway, read next paragraph for details. In our testing, VICIDIAL has proven equal-to if not better-than several commercial predictive dialing systems(Nothing REALLY expensive like Davox though) in features, ease of use and overall contact ratios. One way to help reduce the number of answering machines that y
