Dialing Methods

Manual Outbound is specifically designed to support a Software Support for Manual Dialing (SSMD) solution for US customers who must comply with federal regulations prohibiting automatic dialing in certain circumstances.

For details, see Manual Outbound (SSMD) Campaign.

Whether an inbound agent is allowed to be on-hook is a property of the campaign type. Agents logging in to an Inbound On-Hook campaign have the choice of being on-hook or off-hook as determined by the Nailed Up (NU) parameter on the Agent Login [AL] message.

The event and reporting model for an Inbound On-Hook campaign is identical to a regular inbound ACD campaign. Agents log in, go available, and are then presented with ACD calls. An on-hook agent is offered the call and the offer may fail. It is also possible and normal to have a mix of on-hook and off-hook agents on an Inbound On-Hook campaign. When blending to an Inbound On-Hook campaign, users should ensure that agents are coached to take all offered calls whenever possible.

From a campaign and data management perspective regular Inbound and Inbound On-Hook campaigns are identical. Support for Inbound On-Hook campaigns in Softdial Campaign Manager™ follows the same behaviour pattern as for regular Inbound.

Scripting for Inbound On-Hook campaigns is also identical to scripting for regular Inbound ACD campaigns.

The general model for the ACD means that agents transition from:

Waiting -> [Optionally Previewing ] -> [Optionally Talking ] -> Wrapping up -> Waiting

The majority of users working with Preview campaigns require the agent to be able to dispose the call even if the call fails to connect.

Once an agent is previewing, Softdial CallGem™ cycles through the a consistent set of agent states in order to provide a consistent interface to any 3rd party CRM application.

• An agent may dispose a call by specifying Don’t Dial and providing a disposition code.
• An agent may also specify Don’t Dial and set a parameter to put the agent into wrap, for the agent to later dispose the call with a Transaction Complete [TC] message
• A preview call may also fail to connect, and the agent may need to dispose the call because the agent was attached to the call audio and heard an intercept message, or needs to annotate the customer record at that time.

In order to reflect state to the client the CRM application needs to respond to 4 messages:

1. Agent Ready [AR] – this signals that the agent has moved into either
   • an ACD waiting state, or
   • a waiting state reserved for a specific call (Callback (CB) parameter)
2. Begin Preview [BP] – this signals to the agent that either
   • the agent is in a preview breather state (Preview Now (PN) parameter), or
   • the agent is previewing (Session Idenitifier (SI) with Begin Dial (BD)), or
   • the preview call has started dialing (Session Idenitifier (SI) without Begin Dial (BD))
3. Agent Connect [AC] – this signals that the agent is connected to a customer and provides line-of-business data
4. Call Ended [CE] – this signals that either
   • the agent has moved into wrap (without Inbound Offer (IO) parameter), or
   • an inbound offer has ended (with Inbound Offer (IO)).

These messages, and the parameters passed with each message, enable the client to be stateless.

When writing a CRM client these messages can and should be consumed and acted on without question. In this way, regardless of the type of ACD campaign, the CRM application will be able to handle the state changes for the ACD call cycle.

It should be noted that these messages may be delivered unsolicited, and there may be several in succession. For example, if an agent disposes a call with Don’t Dial and provides a disposition, the system will cycle through delivering Call Ended [CE] and Agent Ready [AR] events in succession. This ensures a consistent sequence of events regardless of the ACD campaign type.

If using Softdial Campaign Manager™, the type of campaign is selected in the General Settings tab of Softdial Campaign Manager™ Client.

Softdial CallGem™ is advised of the dialing method required for a campaign by the Dialing Method (DM) parameter of the Open Campaign [OC] message.

Campaign Type	DM Value	Description
Predictive	0	Any agent can take any call, and sophisticated simulation techniques are used to increase the dialing rate and reduce wait times between calls. Unlike Progressive dialing below, screen pops will not occur, until connects are made with a called party, since this is the point at which calls are allocated to particular agents by Softdial CallGem™.
Manual Outbound (no dialer)	2	(New from V10.6.345) This mode allows Softdial CallGem™ to be used in a totally manual mode i.e. no auto-dialing. It provides a means to do agent directed preview, yet still take advantage of the database management and scripting capabilities in Softdial Contact Center™. Typically the agent will enter (or select) a number to be dialed, a database lookup will be performed and a screen pop will present the agent with the account details (if available). The agent may then decide whether to dial the number or select another. For more details, see Manual Outbound (SSMD) Campaign.
Progressive	3	As soon as an agent has finished a call and wrapped up, another call will be dialed for him immediately. The screen details will be popped at the same time and the agent will be able to study them, whilst the call outcome is being decided. This is the normal state for dialing on Progressive campaigns, also occasionally referred to as Closed Preview because there is no option for the agent to spend discretionary time studying the called party's details before a number is dialed.
Preview and Preview On-Hook	4	The system selects an account to dial and presents it to the agent (system directed preview). The agent has control over whether or not to dial, and when. Breather and Preview timers can be configured to limit the time the agent is allowed to get ready for the next call, and how long they can spend previewing the account before the call is dialed. Preview agents can be on-hook or off-hook. In either case the agent will hear call progress by default. A Preview On-Hook campaign (new from V10.6.345) is defined in the Overdial Tuning [OT] message by the presence of the Preview On-Hook (P3) parameter. In a Preview On-Hook campaign the sequence of events is: The agent will get a screen pop with the opportunity to select or accept If accepted, the agents phone will ring When the agent picks up, the call to the contact will be launched The call session will then continue as for a normal (off-hook) Preview campaign
Inbound/ Inbound On-Hook	5/ 7	The ACD engine works with both on-hook and off-hook stations. The different inbound campaign types define default behaviour (whether the agent station is on-hook or off-hook). If an Inbound campaign is defined as off-hook then agent stations will be nailed up on logon regardless of agent station preferences. Inbound On-hook (new from V10.6.345) allows ACD behaviour (post call, agent in wrap) but for the agents to be on-hook and have incoming calls offered in a PBX manner. For more details, see Inbound On-Hook above. For more detailed description of Inbound campaigns and Inbound handling in Softdial Contact Center™ see the Inbound Overview page and associated links.
Agentless	6	The Agentless campaign is normally used for list-cleaning campaigns and time zone bounding. In Softdial Campaign Manager™, this campaign option is not enabled by default as this mode is prohibited in some territories. Details of how to enable the Agentless campaign option in Softdial Campaign Manager™ can be found in Telephony Settings.
System	101	The System campaign provides a means for regular phone system users to interact with Softdial CallGem™. In the same way as a call center agent logs on to a campaign via the Softdial CallGem™ interface, a phone system user logs on to the system campaign. This is achieved either through automatic configuration or via the Softdial Phone™ . Automatic configuration is used where the user has no need to use Softdial CallGem™ call control functions or is not using a PC.

For predictive dialing methods, Softdial CallGem™s dialing algorithm calculates how many numbers it needs and when it needs them. This information is sent to the campaign layer via the Call Request [CR] message. The campaign layer should then respond, as soon as possible, with one or more (depending upon the number in the request) Make Call [MC] messages. It is possible to send excess Make Call [MC] messages to Softdial CallGem™, without having received a Call Request [CR]

Note that a Make Call [MC] message is a request. The data sent with the Make Call [MC] message is stored in a queue in Softdial CallGem™. Therefore, the message does not guarantee that the call will be attempted instantaneously, and in fact the call may never be attempted if, for example, a request to stop the campaign is received whilst the number is still in Softdial CallGem™s queue. In normal continuous operation, a number will be tried within a few minutes of the Make Call [MC] message being received by Softdial CallGem™.