Benchmarks · read from dialer exports · Sep 2026
What cold-calling homeowners actually returns.
Three call centers sent us their dialer exports this summer. We joined every row back to the file we delivered and counted. Every number below carries its sample and its month, and none is rounded up.
Read this first
Four things “match” can mean. We report two of them.
- CoverageA phone number exists in the file. This is what most “95%+” claims measure.
- MatchThe number belongs to the named owner on title.
- ActiveThe number is a live mobile today, not a landline or a disconnected line.
- ConnectSomeone picked up. Only a dialer export can show this.
A Scout Data record is 2 and 3 together. The connect numbers below are 4, from the floors that measured them.
Bay Area solar call center
What the floor saw
| Measure | Value | Sample | Window | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wrong or dead numbers | 3.45% | 2,205 agent-tagged calls | Sep 1–2, 2026 | Share of calls an agent tagged wrong number or disconnected, on a 25,000-record no-solar file. |
| already had solar | 1.09% | 2,205 agent-tagged calls | Sep 1–2, 2026 | On a file built to exclude homes with panels — permits cross-checked against aerial imagery. |
| reached a renter | 1.68% | 2,205 agent-tagged calls | Sep 1–2, 2026 | Owner-occupied filter, checked against what the agent heard. |
| agent connect per dial, first pass | 5.02% | 24,879 first dials | Sep 1–2, 2026 | A predictive dialer with aggressive machine detection; the same file’s second and third passes connected at 3.55% and 3.45%. |
| appointments on dials 1, 2 and 3 | 5 · 3 · 6 | 24,879 · 23,644 · 15,789 dials | Sep 1–2, 2026 | Connect rate falls with each pass; appointments do not. A record is not spent after one dial. |
| more appointments per dial from active mobiles | 3.65× | two 25,000-record files, pooled | Aug 31 – Sep 10, 2026 | Records whose mobile showed carrier activity in 5 or more of the last 12 months, against the rest of the file (95% CI 1.98–6.74). We rank on it now. |
New Jersey solar call center
What the floor saw
| Measure | Value | Sample | Window | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| calls per live pickup | 4.58 | 107,574 calls | Aug 1–22, 2026 | Calls ÷ (connects + abandoned), the dialer’s own definition. Inside the floor’s “strong” band (under 7) on all 22 days. |
| answered, machines included | 80.0% | 107,574 calls | Aug 1–22, 2026 | Answered = calls − no answer. Voicemail counts as answered in this report, so read it with the machine rate. |
| of answered calls hit a machine | 72.7% | 107,574 calls | Aug 1–22, 2026 | Strong on 16 of 22 days by the floor’s own bands; the two weak days were low-volume weekends. |
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California solar floor
What the floor saw
| Measure | Value | Sample | Window | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wrong numbers, Massachusetts vs Pennsylvania | 3.7% · 9.2% | 13,038 rep-tagged calls | Jul 20 – Aug 19, 2026 | The honest version: it varies by market. Pennsylvania’s rate is ours to fix and is why we re-verify before a repeat order. |
| live human answer per dial | 4.45% | 2,224,746 dials | 60 days to Aug 25, 2026 | The floor number every call center already knows. 90.54% of dials went to machine detection; 3.70% reached an agent. |
across delivered files
How fast numbers go stale
| Measure | Value | Sample | Window | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| of records go dead within six weeks | 1.4% | re-enriched paid orders | Jul–Aug 2026 | Why a repeat order is re-verified instead of re-shipped. |
suburban Dallas–Fort Worth pool
How many homes yield a record
| Measure | Value | Sample | Window | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| of homes yield the owner on title | 79.7% | 18,309 single-family parcels, Texas | Aug 18, 2026 | A returned contact whose name matches the deed. |
| of homes yield the owner with a live mobile | 54.6% | 18,309 single-family parcels, Texas | Aug 18, 2026 | The deliverable number. About half of owner-occupied homes produce a record; the rest are dropped rather than filled with a relative or a landline. |
Method
How each number was counted.
- Dialer exports are joined to the delivered file on phone number, then on owner name, before any rate is computed. A batch that matches zero rows is a scoping question for the floor, not a finding.
- Attempts are stratified. A first dial and a third dial are not the same event; connect rate falls with each pass and appointments do not. Batches are only compared at the same attempt depth.
- Dialer reports use the dialer’s own definitions and say so. ReadyMode counts a voicemail as answered, so its answer rate is read next to its machine rate.
- Yields are stated with the denominator: an 18,309-parcel pool where 54.6% produced an owner with a live mobile means the other 45.4% were dropped, not filled.
- Nothing is rounded up, no floor is named without written approval, and nothing about a floor’s own dialer settings or deal terms is published.
Do the math on your own numbers: dials per appointment and cost per dialable contact.
Case studies
Floors that measured it. In their own dialer.
Reading a match rate
The questions a buyer should ask.
Answered the way we answer them on a call.
What can a vendor mean by a “95% match rate”?
One of four things. Coverage: a phone number exists in the file for 95% of addresses. Match: the number belongs to the named owner. Active: the number is a live mobile today. Connect: someone picked up. Most published match rates are the first. A call center needs the second and third, and only a dialer export can show the fourth.
Which of the four does Scout Data report?
Match and active together, as the definition of a record — one home, the owner on title, a live mobile — and connect from customers’ dialer exports. A coverage number is never presented as accuracy.
Why do the numbers vary by market?
Because phone data does. On one floor’s export, wrong numbers ran 3.7% in Massachusetts and 9.2% in Pennsylvania on the same month’s files. Publishing the spread is more useful than publishing the best market.
Are these numbers rounded?
No. 3.45% is 3.45%. Every figure carries the sample it was counted on and the month, and the derivation file is named in the page source.