what actually happens with a spam call and no one is in the other line, only a few clicks or beeps?
In: 5851
Call centres use automatic dialers. They are faster than people’s fingers. And, because many people are out, or using answering machines, the automatic dialer reaches many homes when there’s no person there. When that happens, the dialer is programmed to listen for a few seconds to see if someone is actually there.
To do this, the machine ‘listens’ for “spectral energy” on the line. A typical human would answer the phone with a brief “Hello” or “Hi”, and then listen for the caller. The automatic dialer sees this brief blip of energy, and says “A-ha! A live one!”, and immediately transfers the call to a waiting agent. If the machine doesn’t see any energy on the line, or sees a constant stream of energy (“Hi, it’s Frank, please leave a message…”) then the machine assumes there’s no real person there, and hangs up.
But sometimes, you answer the phone, and the machine tries to transfer the call to a waiting agent.. but all the agents are busy. That’s when you will hear the silence or clicks as the machine searches for the next available agent. When this happens at home, I apologize for answering the phone at such an inconvenient time, and hang up.
Typically, a dialer is set up with more outgoing telephone lines than it has agents available. The statistics show that 70% of the calls don’t reach the intended party of the first try, so most of the calls the dialer makes will be answered by machines or won’t be answered at all. To ensure the agents are kept reasonably busy, and not listening to hilarious answering machine messages, most call centres will have say 32 outgoing lines for 24 agents. The exact configuration would be based on statistics and traffic tables.
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