How to Stop Wasting VOIP Minutes: Cut Answering Machine Time by 40%
Stop Burning VOIP & Agent Time on Answering Machines
Free Quick Fix from Uplinx
The Problem
Most call centers waste 30–50% of dialer traffic on answering machines. Agents get stuck listening to beeps. Carriers flag numbers due to high "dead call" ratios. The result? Lower contact rates, wasted VOIP spend, and burned-out teams.
The Quick Fix
Use Smart AMD Filters + Agent Routing Rules to reduce answering-machine waste:
• Tighten AMD thresholds to drop obvious machines earlier (don't send them to agents).
• Tag risky numbers (frequent voicemail patterns) so they don't get retried endlessly.
• Route live pickups only to your agents → saves time and reduces burnout.
This isn't a rebuild—it's a 10-minute configuration tweak in most dialers that can cut answering-machine waste by up to 40%.
Be Careful When Recycling Lists (Dispositions Matter)
When you recycle lists, remove low-performing statuses/dispositions so you don't keep burning minutes on the same bad numbers. Examples to suppress:
- • A (or similar low-value status)
- • "Answering Machine – Selected by Agent" (often means AMD got fooled—agent thought it was a human, but it was a recorded voicemail)
Why this matters:
These dispositions confuse AMD. If agents mark a machine as a human (or vice versa), your dialer will prioritize and retry the wrong records.
Fix it by:
- • Excluding these dispositions from recycle rules.
- • Capping retries on numbers with repeated voicemail waveforms.
- • Feeding back verified machine detections to your AMD/QA lists.
At Uplinx, we specialize in dialer optimization and VOIP cost reduction.
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