Answer Machine Detection

What is Answer Machine Detection? 

Answer Machine Detection, or AMD is a way to screen outgoing calls and determine whether the call is answered by a person or is sent to voicemail. 

If voicemail is detected, then the call is disconnected, and the dialer will move on to the next lead. The agent will not be connected to the call. 

If a person does answer the call, then they are connected to an available agent. 

How does it work? 

Once a call is connected, AMD will analyse the sound waves and within 3 seconds determine whether a human or a machine has answered. 

The determination is based on factors such as standard voicemail messages, pauses between words, speech patterns characteristic of a person answering the call (‘Hello you’re speaking to John’, for example), and background noise. 

What are the benefits of using Answer Machine Detection? 

The goal of using AMD is to optimise agent time and efficiency: by screening out unanswered calls, AMD allows agents to spend their time more productively, focussing on engaged leads and bypassing unanswered or forwarded calls.  

What are the drawbacks? 

AMD is not a foolproof technology, and there is always a risk of errors in detection.  

False positives, for example, happen when a person is wrongly determined to be a voicemail, and the call is cut off. This will of course create a bad impression for the lead, but is unavoidable when using AMD. 

There is also the possibility of a false negative, which happens when a voicemail is connected to an agent after being incorrectly identified as a person.   

Additionally, when a lead answers the call and is connected to the agent, there will always be a few second delay before they are connected. This means a few seconds of silence for the lead, but if the agent is focused and ready to go, they can hopefully mitigate any frustration the lead might feel.  

When to use Answer Machine Detection  

AMD is best suited in Campaigns using the Predictive Dialer, where large amounts of leads can be cycled through, and agents can efficiently spend their time speaking to leads rather than registering calls as going to voicemail.  

About Outbound by Enreach's Answer Machine Detection

AMD V0.1 is the first iteration, and for now has no 'front-end', or configurable settings for the user to work with. It has been tested and works as expected.

In future iterations we expect to see different settings that the user can work with, and statistics and reporting on calls made with AMD.