Abstract: Customer service agents within a communications handling center, such as a contact center handling telephone calls, are assigned to queues. One or more calling agents are also given rights to initiate calls through a manual dialing interface. In certain embodiments, these calling agents dial a telephone number by clicking a mouse on a designated button on a computer display. When a call is placed, if a live party is detected, the call will be routed to the next available customer service agent in the queue. As calls are initiated, the calling agent will see the number of calls connected and routed to customer service agents increase, and can compare this number to the total number of customer service agents available. By manually clicking to dial, the calling agent can manually place calls at a pace that will keep customer service agent occupancy at a maximum, without overflowing the queue.