A predictive dialer campaign in ICTDialer can be up and running in 15 minutes. The setup is straightforward: import your contacts, configure your dial settings, assign agents, and launch. The part most teams get wrong is the dial ratio — this guide covers how to set it correctly so you’re not abandoning calls or overwhelming your agents on day one.
Prerequisites
- ICTDialer installed and accessible — self-hosted or your cloud instance
- A working SIP trunk with enough concurrent channel capacity for your expected call volume
- Admin access to create campaigns and manage agents
- At least two agents set up in ICTDialer and tested on their softphones (predictive dialing needs multiple agents to make statistical sense — running it with one agent defeats the purpose)
- Your contact list in CSV format with phone numbers formatted consistently (include country code, no special characters)
- An understanding of your local and national calling regulations — predictive dialers are subject to TCPA, FTC, and equivalent rules depending on your country. Know the rules before you dial.
Step 1: Import Your Contact List
Go to Contacts > Import in the ICTDialer dashboard. Upload your CSV file and map the columns on the import screen. At minimum, you need to map the phone number column. If your agents will see a contact screen during live calls, also map name, company, or any other fields relevant to your script.
Phone number formatting matters. ICTDialer expects E.164 format — the country code followed by the full number, no plus sign (e.g., 14085551234 for a US number). Formats like (408) 555-1234 or 408-555-1234 may import without errors but fail to dial correctly. Standardize your list before importing.
After the import completes, check the imported contact count against your CSV row count. Any discrepancy means some rows were skipped — ICTDialer will provide a downloadable error report. Fix duplicates, badly formatted numbers, or blank rows before proceeding.
Assign the imported contacts to a Contact List (sometimes called a campaign list or lead list). Name it to match the campaign — you’ll select it when building the campaign in Step 3.
Step 2: Create or Verify Agent Accounts and Queues
Go to Agents and confirm every agent who’ll work this campaign has an active account and a softphone configured. Each agent needs a SIP extension registered to the ICTDialer server. If an agent’s extension shows as unregistered, the dialer will place calls but have nowhere to connect answered calls — those will show as abandoned and count against your abandonment rate.
Create a Queue for this campaign if you don’t have one already. Go to Queues > Add Queue and add the relevant agents to it. The campaign will use this queue to route answered calls. Set the ring strategy — “Round Robin” distributes calls evenly, “Least Recent” sends each call to the agent who’s been waiting longest. For most predictive campaigns, Least Recent gives the most consistent agent experience.
Set a reasonable wrap-up time in the queue settings — this is how long agents have after a call ends before they’re available for the next one. 15-30 seconds is typical. Too short and agents don’t have time to take notes; too long and your effective dial rate drops unnecessarily.
Step 3: Create the Predictive Dialer Campaign
Go to Campaigns > Add Campaign. On the setup form:
- Campaign Name: Be specific. “Q2 Sales — US East” is more useful than “Campaign 4” when you’re looking at reports a month later.
- Campaign Type: Select Predictive. Don’t confuse this with Progressive (which dials one call per available agent) or Preview (which lets agents initiate each call manually). Predictive is the mode that dials ahead of agent availability.
- Contact List: Select the list you created in Step 1.
- Queue: Select the queue from Step 2.
- Caller ID: The number contacts will see. Must be registered with your SIP trunk provider.
- Script: If you have a call script loaded in ICTDialer, assign it here so agents see it on their screen when a call connects.
Save the campaign to unlock the advanced settings.
Step 4: Configure the Dial Ratio
This is the most important setting in a predictive campaign, and it’s the one most teams misconfigure. The dial ratio controls how many outbound calls the system places per available agent.
A ratio of 2.0 means the system dials two numbers for every available agent. A ratio of 3.0 means three. Higher ratios mean agents stay busier, but they also mean more calls get answered before an agent is free — those calls get abandoned, and abandoned calls above 3% (the FTC’s threshold in the US) put you in regulatory trouble.
Start at 1.5 for your first campaign. Watch the abandonment rate in the live dashboard for the first 30 minutes. If it’s well under 3% and agents are frequently idle between calls, nudge the ratio up to 1.8 or 2.0. If abandonment is already hitting 2-3%, bring the ratio down to 1.3. The system works best when you tune the ratio based on live data from your specific contact list’s answer rate.
Also set the Max Channels — the total concurrent calls allowed, regardless of ratio. This is your SIP trunk’s capacity ceiling. Set it 10-15% below your trunk’s hard limit so a surge in answered calls doesn’t knock out other running campaigns or inbound lines.
Step 5: Set Calling Hours and Retry Rules
Under the campaign’s scheduling settings, define allowed calling hours. For US campaigns, the safe range is 8 AM to 9 PM local time for the contact. ICTDialer can apply timezone detection per contact if your list includes timezone or zip code data. If not, set a conservative single-timezone window and only dial contacts whose area codes fall within the covered timezone.
Configure retry rules for contacts who didn’t answer:
- No Answer: Retry after 2-4 hours, maximum 3 attempts
- Busy: Retry after 30-60 minutes, maximum 2 attempts
- Failed (disconnected number): No retry — mark for removal from the list
- Answering Machine: Decide whether to leave a voicemail (configure the voicemail message separately) or retry at a different time
Setting sensible retry rules reduces the total call volume you need while improving your contact rate. Calling a busy number back in 5 minutes rarely works; calling back in 3 hours often does.
Step 6: Assign Agents and Brief Your Team
Confirm agents are assigned to the campaign queue. Log into the ICTDialer agent portal on one agent account and confirm the interface loads correctly and the SIP extension shows as registered. Have each agent do the same before the campaign starts — troubleshooting a SIP registration failure during an active campaign is not where you want to spend your time.
Brief your agents on the specific campaign: the product or service, the script, the objection handling approach, and how to handle DNC requests. When an answered call connects, agents have about one second before they need to speak — that first second matters. Agents who aren’t ready for the specific campaign fumble the opening.
Check ICTDialer’s full feature list if you want to configure call recording, live monitoring, or whisper coaching before launch — all of those settings are available at the campaign or queue level and are easier to configure before you start than mid-campaign.
Step 7: Launch, Monitor, and Adjust
With agents logged in and ready, go to Campaigns, select your campaign, and click Start. The campaign status moves to Running and the system begins dialing.
Open the Live Campaign Dashboard. Watch these numbers in real time:
- Abandonment Rate: Keep this under 3%. If it climbs above 2.5%, reduce the dial ratio immediately.
- Agent Idle Time: If agents are waiting more than 15-20 seconds between calls consistently, your dial ratio is too low — nudge it up.
- Failed Calls: A sudden spike here usually means a SIP trunk issue, not a list problem. Check the trunk status.
- Queue Wait Time: If answered calls are waiting more than 2-3 seconds for an agent, you’ve dialed too aggressively for your current agent headcount.
The goal is a dial ratio where agents are consistently busy but abandonment stays low. It takes a few adjustments in the first 30 minutes to find the right number for each campaign. After that, the system runs largely on its own.
See the auto dialer guide if you want to understand the differences between predictive, progressive, and preview modes and when each is the right choice for a specific campaign type.
Troubleshooting
Campaign is running but agents aren’t getting connected calls
First check that agents are logged into the agent portal and their SIP extensions are registered. An unregistered extension means the system has nowhere to send answered calls. Second, check the queue assignment — confirm the campaign is pointing to the correct queue and the agents are in that queue. Third, check SIP trunk status. If the trunk is unregistered or has no available channels, calls will fail silently rather than connecting to agents.
Abandonment rate is too high even at a low dial ratio
High abandonment at a low ratio usually means your contact list has a very high answer rate — more calls are being answered than your agents can handle. This happens with warm lead lists or callbacks. Drop your dial ratio to 1.1 or 1.0 (essentially one call per available agent, closer to progressive dialing) for that list type. Alternatively, increase agent headcount before using a predictive ratio above 1.5 on high-answer-rate lists.
Agents report hearing silence when a call connects
One-way audio between the dialer and agent is almost always a NAT or firewall issue. The agent’s softphone can receive the SIP signaling (so the call appears to connect) but the RTP audio stream is blocked. Check whether the agent is behind a NAT router without proper SIP ALG configuration or STUN settings. Also check that UDP ports for RTP (typically 10000-20000) are open on any firewall between the agent’s device and the ICTDialer server.
Campaign dials but answer rate is extremely low (under 5%)
First check your phone number list quality — high numbers of failed or disconnected calls indicate list hygiene issues. Run the list through a number validation service before retrying. Second, check caller ID reputation. If your caller ID has been flagged as spam by carrier analytics, recipients see “Spam Likely” and won’t answer. Rotate to a different caller ID number and check the reporting again. Third, check your dialing time window — if you’re calling outside business hours or at peak commute times, answer rates drop significantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many agents do I need for predictive dialing to make sense?
The minimum is typically 3-5 agents. Predictive dialing’s efficiency gain comes from statistical averaging — the algorithm assumes that not all contacts will answer simultaneously, so it dials ahead. With fewer than 3 agents, the margin for error is too small and abandonment rates become unpredictable. With 10 or more agents, predictive dialing delivers the most noticeable productivity gain.
What’s the difference between predictive and progressive dialing in ICTDialer?
Progressive dialing places exactly one call per available agent — no more. It’s slower than predictive but produces zero abandoned calls. Use progressive when your contact list is high-value and abandoning a call would be costly (e.g., warm inbound leads or appointment confirmations). Use predictive for high-volume outbound lists where contact rate and efficiency matter more than zero abandonment. ICTDialer supports both modes, and you can run them simultaneously on different campaigns.
Can I run multiple predictive campaigns simultaneously?
Yes, ICTDialer supports concurrent campaigns. Each campaign uses its own contact list, queue, and dial settings. Agents can be assigned to multiple queues, but be careful about overloading agents who are in several active campaigns — they’ll get calls from all of them. Assign agents to specific campaigns during specific time blocks rather than leaving them active across all campaigns simultaneously.
How does ICTDialer handle Do Not Call list compliance?
ICTDialer has a built-in DNC (Do Not Call) list. You can upload your suppression list before a campaign starts under Contacts > DNC. The system scrubs the campaign contact list against the DNC list before dialing. Contacts who request opt-out during a live call can also be added to the DNC list directly from the agent interface. Maintaining your own DNC list doesn’t replace the requirement to scrub against the national DNC registry — that’s your legal obligation, not the software’s.
Where can I see campaign results after it finishes?
Go to Reports > Campaign Reports and select your campaign. You’ll see a full breakdown by contact status: answered, no answer, busy, failed, DNC, transferred, and more. You can export this as CSV for further analysis. The agent-level breakdown shows call duration, disposition, and wrap-up time per agent — useful for performance reviews and identifying agents who may need additional coaching.
ICTDialer is open source auto dialer software built for predictive, progressive, and preview dialing without per-seat fees. Learn more about ICTDialer or get started with the community edition today.