LiveVox Data Reveals Dialer Line Starvation Reduces Collection Agent Talk Time up to 50%

San Francisco — LiveVox Inc., the leading provider of hosted-dialer solutions, today announced new analysis of credit and collections dialing campaigns that revealed collection agencies need calling capacity of more than seven lines per agent or will lose at least 30% of potential agent productivity.

LiveVox analyzed tens of millions of connected calls made by billing and collections clients and found that that 7.8 to 9 lines per agent (LPA) are needed to keep collectors talking to people as opposed to answering machines. Most premised-based dialing systems provision 3 lines per agent. LPA starvation has the ability to cut agent productivity by 30% to 50% and will only grow worse as consumers become more difficult to reach. 

KPIs to Maximize Dialer Efficiency

To maximize agent productivity, credit and collection organizations need ways to easily track the following:

• Minutes of each hour of a dialer campaign that agents actually speak to live people

• Time agents spend waiting between calls

• How often agents are forced to leave messages on answering machines

“Organizations sense their dialers are not giving them the lift they need. To throw more coal into the boilers, expensive agents are increasingly talking to machines and listening to SIT tones. This keeps agents busy but not productive,” said John McNamara, Chief Marketing Officer, LiveVox. “For too long, this industry has suffered due to constraints created by dialer complexity and limitations. When a constraint is chronic, it becomes the new norm. Premised dialers create so many constraints that agencies have forgotten the pain and learned to manage around an obstacle course. Knowing that LiveVox adds lines as needed for optimal live person talk time and abandons rates is hugely valuable. Rediscovering a life without constraints is priceless. This allows agencies to ask, ‘what if’ and not ‘may I?’”

The Opportunity Cost of “System Time”

Outdated capacity models fail to address the fact that consumers are harder to reach. They also fail to account for the system time required to make each call. LiveVox data was based on average call durations, transfer rates and ACD statistics such as talk time, wait time and wrap time.

Industry-wide, more LPA capacity is needed, because every call that results in a no answer, busy signal or tri-tone takes a line out of commission for almost one minute. This dramatically reduces the calls organizations can make in an hour if tethered to a fixed number of lines. Certain portfolios and times of the day require 10 to 20 LPA to keep agents talking with consumers.  Agencies can buy the highest capacity they will ever need and pay for it 24/7/365 or use LiveVox where LPA is dynamically matched with need.

Traditional 3-to1 LPA models also dramatically increase the amount of time agents spend speaking with answering machines, a large drain on operating costs and labor productivity. The average per-minute cost of an agent leaving an answering message is $0.25 to $0.30 — LiveVox does this for a fraction of this cost.

“LiveVox is more than a solutions provider. Our industry expertise allows us to review call data with our clients so we can offer suggestions to improve their operating performance,” said Louis Summe, Chief Executive Officer, LiveVox. “In a market this tough, collection organizations are thinking in terms of minutes, not days. They need quick access to data that helps them improve operations. Collection organizations need solutions such as LiveVox with transparent cost structures and definable ROI.”

About LiveVox
LiveVox is the first provider of hosted dialer solutions for the credit and collections industry. Breakthrough, patented technology and deep industry knowledge allow LiveVox to assist clients with optimizing their operations and collection strategies. Private, carrier-grade VoIP networks enable LiveVox to maximize the productivity of leading credit, collections, debt purchase and call center organizations at the lowest cost of ownership in the marketplace. LiveVox is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.livevox.com.

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