Hit rate can be a significant factor in determining agent productivity, depending largely on the selected pacing algorithm and implementation details of the dialer.

Hit rate is the percentage of dial attempts which provide a live person.  Industry experience has shown that only 1 of every 3 dial attempts typically provides a live person, while the other attempts are unsuccessful with outcomes of busy, no answer, fax, unavailable number, etc.

Your exact hit rate will depend on your targeted audience and the quality of your call list.  If your targeted audience is double income couples, your campaign will likely have very low hit rates during business hours.  Likewise, if you target parents of infants and toddlers, you will likely have higher hit rates.  Another factor key factor is the quality of the call list.  An aging call list, for example, will have a significantly higher percentage of unavailable numbers than a freshly compiled call list.

Hit rate is very significant in determining agent productivity for pacing algorithms, such as preview dialing, where all dial attempts are monitored by an agent.  Every unsuccessful dial attempt takes an agent's time, without providing productive talk time.  There are technologies on the market engineered to track the behavior of your targeted audience, to identify the best times to actually reach them.  When considering such solutions, it's important to understand how they build and leverage a history of past behavior.  This will impact how and when they provide improvements in hit rates, and therefore increase agent talk time.

When planning a predictive dialing campaign, consider the ability of the dialer to adapt to the changes in hit rate. For example, hit rates often rise significantly at the end of the afternoon, as many people get home from work.  Dialers can be expected to perform better when they have mechanisms to adjust to changes in hit rate.