Smart Dialers

Erika CTM

May 27, 2022 15:43

Smart Dialers allow you to upload a set of phone numbers to call. The list will be dynamically populated based on form entries and triggers from call events. This can be accomplished using a voice menu or custom trigger. The rate of outbound dialing is based on the availability of agents in a call queue. An option is to adjust the frequently attempted dials until a given success criteria is met. For example, a call is transferred, or a conversation is started. The dialer will avoid dialing a contact if it detects that the contact has already been dialed manually when already added to the dialer list.

Note: It is best practice to stop the Dialer before making any changes. The dialer can become corrupted if edited while running.

Requirements

Agents must use the softphone to answer calls from a dialer (Softphone Agent). This is important when using the mode to dial the contact first. Mobile app users can not receive dialer calls.

Smart dialers are available to Agency Administrators and sub-account Administrators on the Sales Engage, Enterprise, and Connect plans.

Smart Dialer Modes

There are three primary smart dialer modes. Follow the guide below for the mode that you prefer to use.
- Dial agent first: dials the agents in your queue; when they answer, initiates an outbound dial to the contact.
- Dial contact first: dials the contact number; when they answer it will initiate a call to one or more agents in your queue.
  - Dial contact first also allows the use of broadcast mode, which will dial contacts from your dialer list even if no agents are currently available.
  - Dial contact first allows the use of answering machine detection, which detects if an answering machine picks up.
  - Dial contact first also allows the use of broadcast mode, which will dial contacts from your dialer list even if no agents are currently available
- Preview tasks :
  - initiate tasks for an agent to preview before completing an outbound dial to a contact.

If you want the dialer to run even when no agents are available, toggle on broadcast mode.
If you have enabled broadcast mode, select the dialer rate.
- Fast Dial distributes calls as quickly as possible.
- Evenly Distribute sends calls between the dates provided. A dial rate will be calculated based on the time between the end date and the start date.

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Creating a Dialer

The instructions below will now appear in a step-by-step guide (wizard). Within the wizard, you can freeze/unfreeze the top portion, which contains explanations of the current step below, by clicking the freeze panel icon in the upper right corner.

For our more experienced customers, we have added an Exit Wizard button that, when clicked, will end the wizard session and resume the setup in the long form setup.

We have also added an option to turn off the wizards on the Account Settings page under Behaviors if you wish to never use them.

This dialer will be created using the Wizard setup. At any point during setup, you can click Exit Wizard to continue on your own.

Navigate to Flows → Smart Dialers.
If there are no dialers in your account, you will be directed to a setup page. Otherwise, select → Add New Dialer in the upper right of the page.
Enter the name of the dialer.
Use the drop-down menu to select → Missed Call - Dial Agent First.
Select the Mode you wish to use. All dial modes depend on agents being available in your linked Queue unless broadcast mode is used when dialing the contact first.
Choose your Mode Options:
- First in First Out: the oldest contact in the dialer list will be called first.
- Last in First Out: the newest contact in the dialer list will be called first.
Routing:
- Choose Agent Selection:
  - Queue
  - Lambda
- Based on Agent Selection, choose your Queue or Lambda.
Choose the Outbound Caller ID:
- - Specific Number will always dial using the same tracking number. If no number is selected, the best match will be used.
  - Best Match will select the closest matching tracking number to the number being dialed (based on location).
  - Agent’s Number allows you to use the agent’s assigned tracking number. If no number is assigned to the agent, the best match will be used.
  - Last Number or Best Match will use the last number or best match for outbound calls.
  - Last Number or Specific Number will use either the last number or use the same tracking number.
  - There is an option to select a Best Match Team.
  - You can select a default Outbound Campaign using the drop-down menu.
  - Choose to enable Enhanced Caller ID by clicking the toggle button. Enhanced caller ID helps to determine if you are dialing a mobile number. It also can provide the address of the subscriber to the number, contact timezone, etc. Additional charges apply.
Time Controls:
- Toggle on Restrict Dialing outside the given times if you want to select an Allowed Dial Start Time and Allowed Dial End TIme.
  - Time Controls provides a way to determine the times of the day so it’s safe to dial your contact records. Dialing times are based on the contact's time zone. Advanced CallerID will use the local address information to determine the time zone. Otherwise, the Country Code, Area Code, and Prefix will determine the location.
    - The option to restrict dialing outside the given times is enabled by default. We recommend keeping this setting on.
    - Use the Allowed Dial Start Time and Allowed Dial End Time fields to adjust the dialer's running times. The dialing times will be based on the contact’s time zone.
Select a Schedule if you would like to Only dial during scheduled times.
Set the Frequency for each contact to perform the following ordered actions until success/not success or all actions have run.
- Determine when to dial/text each contact added to the dialer. If the callback is successful, no additional attempts will be made. However, if the callback fails, we will proceed with the next scheduled attempt. Each callback is run relative to the previous action. e.g. if you say text the contact in 1 minute and then call in 2 minutes. The call will happen 2 minutes after the text message.
  
  Note: To trigger an immediate dial to a contact, always add a 0-minute frequency.
Set the criteria for confirming whether a dialed number was reached and should not be dialed again.
Note: If not using any confirmation, we will assume when a call is connected, it can be safely removed from the list, e.g., success. This does not mean a real person was reached. At a minimum, we recommend that at least talk time confirmation criteria be used.

You can use multiple confirmation methods. Remember that manual agent confirmation must happen before we process automatic confirmation; otherwise, the agent confirmation will be ignored, so be sure to give your agents plenty of time to answer the confirmation prompt. Any of the following confirmation methods will mark the dialed party as successfully reached and not dial again.
- There are multiple confirmation methods. Manual confirmations will need to process the updates before we can process the automatic updates. Make sure to give the agents ample time to answer the confirmation prompt. The confirmation methods will mark the dialed party as successfully reached. This will make sure the dialed party is not called again.
  - Select → Dialer Criteria section. This allows you to customize how the dialer should determine whether a dialed number was reached and should not be dialed again.
  If you do not enable any confirmation, the default behavior will remove the contact from the dialer list when the call is connected. This does not necessarily mean a live person was reached. CTM recommends at least setting minimum talk time criteria.
  
  If you select multiple confirmation methods, any one of them will mark the dialed party as successful. This means the person who called will not be dialed again.
  
  The default for Confirmation Prompt is automatically selected to default but can be disabled. Agent Confirmation of Success or Failure to Connect requires the agent to click a softphone button to confirm the contact was reached.
  
  Enter a prompt and a label for the button. There is an option to set the wait time for the agent prompt before processing automatic confirmation. If the Agent Confirmation is disabled, select Automatic Confirmation of Success or Failure to Connect. These features provide:
  - Confirmation on Transfer: confirms a contact is reached and when a call is transferred.
  - Confirmation by talk time: confirms a contact is reached when a call has reached a minimum duration (talk time).
  - Confirmation by key press: requires an agent to make a keypress to confirm the contact was reached. Enter the required keypress.
  - Consider an inbound call after the dialed number is added as a success: This confirms a contact has been reached and allows the contact to make an inbound call before others remove them from the dialer.
  - Consider a manual outbound call after the dialed number is added as a success. Please be aware disabling this check can result in over-dialing. Note: success/failure triggers will not run when this condition is met.
  - Consider a chat after the dialed number is added as a success: Note success/failure triggers will not run when this condition is met.
Optionally, you can enable Triggers to execute after a successful or failed call to a dialer number.
Add a Contact List. You can either manually paste a list or upload a .csv file of which numbers to dial.
Click Save & Create to save your Dialer.

Tips:

If you select a call queue that dials more than one agent per inbound call using dial the agent first. CTM will dial multiple agents per contact. You likely do not want this, so set your call queue to Round Robin. Using this option will ensure we only dial one agent per contact.
When dialing the contact first, the queue will be used only to determine the availability of the agents if using an interactive voice menu (IVR).
There is also an option available to use in the Message to play to the agent before dialing out. This feature is customizable.
Min required agents – When dialing a contact or agent first, you must have at least three agents available per contact and agent dialed.
There’s also the option to select the drop-down list for Do Not Call (DNC) within the contact list.
Apply a tag to calls the dialer generates and enter them into the tag field.

________________________________________________________________________________________Answering Machine Detection (Additional charges apply)

The system allows enablement for answering machine detection. Answering machine detection supports calling to the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden. The AMD system has a 94% accuracy rate across large call samples. This is a set that is tuned with a bias toward recognizing humans. It is recommended to instruct agents answering calls to leave a voicemail. The system will automatically apply the following tags to each call based on the results of the classification:
- machine: tagged when we detected an answering machine.
- human: tagged when we detected a human.
- fax: tagged when we detected a fax machine.
- unknown: tagged when are not able to determine a result.