Predictive dialing
The dial method where VICIdial places more calls than it has free agents, betting that some will not connect.
Predictive dialing is the dial method where the system places more calls than it has free agents, on the expectation that most of them will not reach a live person. Done well, an agent finishes one call and the next connected human is already waiting.
How you turn it on
Set the campaign's Dial Method to RATIO and set Auto Dial Level above 1.0. Dial level is the multiplier: at 2.0, VICIdial aims to have two calls in flight for every available agent.
dial_method also offers an adaptive family - ADAPT_HARD_LIMIT, ADAPT_TAPERED, ADAPT_AVERAGE and ADAPT_PERCENTMAX - which are predictive methods that move the dial level for you in response to the measured drop rate, instead of holding the fixed ratio you set. Each has a SHARED_ counterpart for running one pacing decision across a cluster.
The arithmetic, and where it breaks
Ten agents at dial level 2.0 puts roughly twenty calls in flight. If your list connects at 50%, ten humans answer and every agent has a call. The problem is that connect rate is an average, not a guarantee. A run of good luck produces more answers than agents, and the surplus humans have nobody to talk to - those become drops, and drops are what the FCC's 3% abandonment cap counts.
This is why predictive pacing is fundamentally a bet on list stability. Lists whose connect rate swings hour to hour are the hardest to pace, because the dialer is always tuned for the last few minutes rather than the next few.
Tuning it in practice
Start at 1.0, which is effectively progressive dialing, and let a full hour run so the numbers mean something. Raise in steps of about 0.2. Watch two things: the drop rate, which should stay well clear of 3%, and how long agents sit waiting between calls. When drop rate starts climbing, you have found the ceiling for that list and that headcount - back off a step and stay there. Every change to list quality, calling hours or agent count moves that ceiling.
When to reach for something else
Small teams, high-value B2B, and any campaign where an abandoned call is more expensive than an idle agent are all better served by progressive or preview dialing. Predictive pays off at volume, on a list you understand.