How to manage the Adaptive Predictive Dialler

Transcription

1 How to manage the Adaptive Predictive Dialler (v. 9-50) With Progressive Dialling, when a user participating in a campaign is free, that user s Adaptive Desktop makes a call from their telephone extension. With Predictive Dialling, when a user participating in a campaign is free, a program running on a dedicated PC uses its own dedicated telephone extensions to make several calls and when any one of the calls is answered, the call is immediately transferred to the user. It is best suited for business-to-consumer calls. From a user s perspective, there is very little difference between Progressive Dialling and Predictive Dialling. The most noticeable difference is when a Predictive Dialler call is presented to a user, the call is already connected, so the user starts talking to the customer straight away. In this document: 1) Why not just use a Progressive Dialler? ) Creating users ) Creating Teams ) Queues ) Creating queues ) Configure users to retrieve calls from a queue ) Campaigns ) Call Wrap-up and Retries ) Result Codes ) Screen- pops ) Creating campaign-specific screen-pops ) Selecting Queues to be used in campaigns ) Customer fields ) Campaign Data ) The Predictive Dialler tab ) The Adaptive Predictive Dialler module Configuring the Predictive Dialler using the Predictive Dialler module ) Setting preferences ) Start dialling...22

2 19) Pause/ stop dialling ) The Adaptive Desktop campaign call dialog ) Viewing campaign results: reports...23

3 1) Why not just use a Progressive Dialler? Suppose your campaign call database isn t very clean, or the list of customers you bought wasn t very good. If you use the Progressive Dialler, most of the calls your users make are going to be unanswered or unobtainable, or possibly engaged. Alternatively, suppose you want to run an outbound Dialling campaign during the summer holidays, when you have users available but when most customers will be out. Or perhaps you want to run a campaign at a time of day when users are available but customers are likely to be out. If you use the Progressive Dialler, your users are going to spend most of their time just sitting and watching calls ringing and being unanswered. A Predictive Dialler solves the problem by dialling several calls at once, for each free user. It can also predict when a user is about to become free and start dialling the calls early, so that by the time the user is free, there is a customer for the user to talk to. As a manager, you will probably find you need to do a number of things: create users and teams, create queues, configure screen-pops and create campaigns. This document is designed to give you a step-by-step guide of how to do this when using the Adaptive Predictive Dialler. We also offer online training that is more suitable for users. Just go to our website, and click on the Training tab. This will present you with all of the available training modules that are designed to teach you how to use the Adaptive products. 2) Creating users Each person who uses Adaptive software should have their own user for them to log in with. Users can also be associated with a team, which lets you group users together for common options. 1. To open the Adaptive Management Console: -Click on the Start menu - Go to All Programs - Click on the Adaptive folder -Double click on Adaptive Management Console 2. If you have not yet created your own username and password (which is recommended), use the default administrator as your username. No password is required.

4 3. If the Management Console is already open but nobody is logged in (somebody must have previously opened it and logged out), log in to the Adaptive Management Consoleby clicking this button 4. If another user is already logged in to the Adaptive Management Console, a warning may occur: another is using editor. Click Yes to continue. (This will not log the other user out; more than one user can be logged in at once and it should not cause any issues.) 5. Select the Config tab, then click on the Users and teams option in the drop-down menu. The Configuration Editor will then appear, as below: 6. The Users page shows a list of all configured users. Click the Add button to display the Add User dialog, which will then appear as below:

5 7. The Name and Password fields specify the details the user will use to log into the Adaptive Desktop. The Display name field specifies the name that will appear on that user s Adaptive Desktop display and on all users Busy Lamp Field display if they monitor this user. 8. You may assign a user to a team by selecting the team from the Team drop-down menu. If you have not yet created any teams, the list will be empty. Users do not have to belong to a team and you may leave the selected team set to <none> if you wish. (To create a team, see the next section.) 9. The user can be assigned a default extension from this page. Enter the extension number for the telephone the user is likely to be using in the Default telephone extension number text box. 10. The user can set the default language that they use for spell checking s and SMS messages. By default this is set to English (UK). To change this, tick the Default Language Selection box, then select which language you would like to use from the drop-down menu. 11. Click OK.

6 3) Creating Teams 1. Click on the Teams tab in the Configuration Editor. 2. Click the Add... button, which will then appear as below: 3. Type in a team name into the Name textbox. For example, Sales. 4. Click Apply then OK. 4) Queues You assign Progressive Dialler campaigns to queues so that users can make the campaign calls. You can use the Default queue if you wish: this queue is always available. If you only run one campaign at a time, or if all your users participate in every campaign, then you may not need to create any extra queues. If you run multiple campaigns and different users participate in different campaigns, then you may find it convenient to have different queues for your campaigns. Queues are used to store messages (such as call-backs) and dialler campaign calls. If your licence enables call-backs or dialler campaign calls, then the Configuration Editor will include a Queues tab. The Queues page shows a list of configured queues. NB: If you add or remove any queues, you will have to stop and restart the Adaptive Queues Server service on the server PC. You should only do this when all users have logged out of the Adaptive Desktop.

7 The Default queue All Adaptive installations have a standard queue called Default. You cannot delete or rename this queue. If your licence supports multiple queues, you can add as many extra queues as you like. The Undeliverable queue When the Adaptive Message Processor tries to send an outbound message (e.g. using SMTP to communicate with your outbound server), the message may not be sent successfully. The problem might be temporary, such as your server having lost its connection to the Internet. If the problem is temporary, the Message Processor will simply retain the message in its outbound queue and attempt to send it again in a few minutes. However, if the problem is clearly not temporary, such as the target address being invalid or unrecognised by the target s domain server, then the Message Processor will put the into the Undeliverable queue. The Message Processor does not know how to fix the problem , so a user must retrieve the message from the Undeliverable queue and take appropriate action. NB: You cannot delete or rename the Undeliverable queue.

8 5) Creating queues 1. Log out all users and stop the Adaptive Queues Server service. - Click Start then search services.msc and open the file. - In the Services dialog box, click on the Adaptive Queues Server. - In the Description dialog that is displayed to the left, click the Stop button. 2. On the Adaptive Management Console, click the Config tab. 3. On the drop-down menu, select System then click on Queues Server Service. 4. Click the Queues tab, which will then appear as below: 5. Click Add... then type in the name of the new queue. Note that queue names must be unique. 6. When you have finished adding queues, click Apply then OK. 7. Close the Configuration Editor. 8. You will then need to restart the Queues Server: - Click Start - Search services.msc and open the file. - In the services dialog box, click on Adaptive Queues Server - In the Description dialog that is displayed to the left, click the restart button

9 6) Configure users to retrieve calls from a queue If you create more queues for campaign calls, make sure that the users who will participate in campaigns can retrieve from those queues. To enable a user to retrieve campaign calls from a queue, go to the Configuration Editor (as directed above) and: 1. Go to the Users page (as directed above), select a user and click the Edit button. 2. Select the Queues tab. 3. Click the button above the Retrieval queues list to display the Select Retrieval or Forwarding Queues dialog, then highlight the new queue and click OK. 4. Click the OK button to save the changes and close the Edit User dialog. 7) Campaigns A campaign is essentially a list of calls to make. The Dialler will automatically transfer calls from a queue of data and assign it to the first free user.you can use the Adaptive Campaign Editor to create and assign Predictive Dialler campaigns in the same way that you would create and assign a Progressive Dialler campaign. The only difference is that for Predictive Dialler campaigns, there is an extra tab on the Campaign Settings dialog, called Predictive Dialler. Creating a Predictive Dialling campaign: 1. Open the Adaptive Management Console: -Click on the Start menu - Go to All Programs - Click on the Adaptive folder -Double click on Adaptive Management Console 2. If you have not yet created your own username/ password (which is recommended), use the default administrator as your username. No password is required. 3. If the Management Console is already open but nobody is logged in (somebody must have previously opened it and logged out), log in to the Adaptive Management Consoleby clicking this button 4. If another user is already logged in to the Adaptive Management Console, an error message may occur: another is using editor. Click Yes to continue. (This will not log the other user out; more than one user can be logged in at once and it should not cause any issues.)

10 5. Run the Campaign Editor by pressing this button on the Adaptive Management Console, which will then appear as below: 6. Enter the name you would like to call the campaign. This will be the display name that appears on reports. 7. Click on the Campaign tab, then click on Settings from the drop-down menu and a further page will appear where you can configure all of the options in the following sections. NB: You do not have to wait for one campaign to finish before you assign another. However, it is recommended that you assign different campaigns to different queues, rather than trying to merge all the calls into one queue. If you keep separate campaigns in separate queues, you will also have much more control over which users are making calls for each campaign.

11 8) Call Wrap-up and Retries 1. Select the Wrap-up and Retries tab, which will then appear as below: 2. Call preparation time : this is the delay time before the call starts actually dialling. Enter the number of seconds you would like this to last in the Call preparation time (seconds): text box. Alternatively, tick the unlimited box if you do not wish to set a specific amount of time (this would mean that the call would not start ringing until the user manually selects the dial now button.) 3. Post-call wrap-up time : this is the delay between the current call finishing and the next call starting to dial. Enter the number of seconds you would like the delay to be in the Postcall wrap-up time (seconds): text box 4. Engaged retry: the Engaged retry count is the number of times you would like to retry calling a number that is engaged. Delay between retry attempts (minutes) is how long between retries you would like there to be a delay for. Please enter the desired retry count and delay between retry attempts (minutes): for unanswered calls. (This is the same as the previous step, but for when callsare not answered rather than when calls get through to an engaged line.) 5. Click Apply then OK.

12 9) Result Codes This determines how a contact is dealt with after a call is made. When the call ends and the dialog closes, the user can then select a Result Code to log the outcome of the call. This will be used in any results report (see below sections on Reports for more info.) To configure these Result Codes, complete the following steps: 1. Select the Result Codes tab, which will then appear as below: 2. Click this button 3. Enter a name for your specified Result Code into the Meaning (text): text box. Again this will be used in any results report so that you can identify how the call was dealt with. 4. Select the action you wish to take once a call is completed from the three options in the drop-down menu: - Contact completed : this is the default action and completes the campaign call putting the user into wrap if required. - Dial the next number : this hangs up the current dialled call and tries to dial another number for the contact if one is specified - Dial the next number and never retry this number : this hangs up the current dialled call and tries to dial another number for the contact if one is specified. It also marks the current dialled number as unusable in the campaign so that it is not redialled again if this call is placed back into the queue. 5. Click Apply then OK.

13 10) Screen- pops A screen-pop is a window/ dialog box that automatically appears when a call is made, displaying information. Campaign-specific screen-pops are independent of any normal screen-pops configured for all outbound calls made by users in a team. This is useful if, for example, a user participates in outbound dialling campaigns but also makes non-campaign calls. In this case, if you were to assign a generic outbound telephone call screen-pop, then the screen-pop would be activated for every outbound call, not just for campaign calls. How to manage Adaptive Office Applications for more information on creating generic screen-pops 11) Creating campaign-specific screen-pops 1. Select the Screen-Pops tab, which will then appear as below: 2. To select the events whenyou want a screen-pop to occur, first click the button. 3. Then select one of the following events from the drop-down menu: - When the campaign call is presented to the user (i.e. when the Adaptive Desktop shows the campaign call dialog). - When the call starts ringing. - When the call is answered. - When wrap-up begins after the customer or the user hangs up. - When the call is rescheduled. - When the campaign call dialog closes. For Predictive Dialling, this is usually when the campaign call is answered.

14 4. Now click the button which is next to the run this macro text box and select the macro you would like to use. NB: A macro is a set of simple instructions that is usually assigned to a button on the Adaptive desktop. The name of the macro will be the button label that it has been assigned to. (This should have already been configured by a technician...) 5. Click Open then OK. 12) Selecting Queues to be used in campaigns A queue is essentially a list of contacts you want to ring when doing a campaign. (To create a queue, see previous section.) You can select which queue of contacts you want to use for each campaign. To do this: 1. Click on the Select Queue tab, which will appear as below: 2. Select the calls queue you would like to add to the campaign from the drop-down menu. NB: Selecting a queue here does not assign any calls to it. 3. Click Apply then OK NB:Any user can make calls from more than one campaign. If you follow the advice above and keep different campaigns in different queues, you can simply add extra queues to that user s list of retrieval queues. You can even reorder the list of retrieval queues for a user, to determine which queue (and hence which campaigns) gets priority in that user s work.

15 13) Customer fields When a call is presented for dialling, certain information will appear. For example, you may want to display the customer name, company he/she works for and the phone number of the person you are calling. To choose which information you would like to appear, you can create custom fields using the Campaign Editor. (Note that the first two fields, telephone number and contact name, are required and cannot be changed.) 1. Open the Campaign Editor (as directed above) and select the Fields tab, which will then appear as below: 2. Click the button to add in a customer field: you can add as many different fields as you like. 3. Select standard field to use fields such as name/address etc or telephone number to use phone numbers. NB: Any field with the type Telephone Number will be used by the Adaptive Desktop or Predictive dialler as a valid telephone number to dial. This allows campaign call records to contain multiple telephone numbers for a single contact. For example home, mobile and work numbers. When the campaign call is presented the Adaptive software will dial each number in turn (in the order they are found in the custom fields) until it gets a successful connection. Once a campaign call is Result coded then, depending on the Result code selected by the User, the next number may be dialled whilst keeping the same campaign call available on the Adaptive Desktop.

16 4. Click OK then close the Campaign Settings dialog box. 5. To add phone numbers, click this button, which is the import from file button, on the Adaptive Campaign Editor toolbar. 6. Select the file you would like to import phone numbers from then click Open. 14) Campaign Data How to connect to the SQL database to import data automatically using the Campaign Editor: 1. Click the Campaign tab, then click Settings. A dialog box will appear. Select the Campaign Data tab, which will appear as below: 2. Tick the Configure data controller box. 3. Under Database options, click the Connection settings... tab to select the database you wish to import data from. The Select Data Source dialog box will then appear. 4. Select the database you wish to import data from. Click OK.

17 5. You can then use the Wizard... button on the Campaign Data tab to match up fields or click Advanced... and type in your stored procedure into the SQL Statement textbox and click OK ; this will get the data for you. 6. Under Results options, select how you would like to store the results for this campaign: either in One file or One file per schedule. 7. Purge Options: here you can choose whether or not you remove calls from the queue/campaign. Select whether you would like to remove calls from the current campaign by selecting in this campaign or if you would like to remove calls from the queue you are using by selecting Calls in queue. 8. Select the type of calls you wish to be removed: Undialled, Engaged, Rescheduled or Unanswered calls. 9. Next select when you would like this process to take place. This can be once on a certain day at a certain time, or you can choose a time for a First run and a last run. 10. Alternatively, you can set it so that it occurs at intervals; select First run at then tick the Every box. Enter how often you would like it to take place in the Mins box. 11. You can also set it to when the number of calls left in the queue falls below a certain number: tick the If undialled campaign calls fall to box, and then enter the number in the queue in the text box. 12. Click Apply then OK. 13. If you are finished creating campaigns, click button on the Adaptive Management Console to logout.

18 15) The Predictive Dialler tab This section explains the extra steps that are needed when creating a Predictive rather than Progressive Dialler campaign. (All the previous steps are relevant for both Diallers.) 1. On the Campaign Editor, select the Predictive Dialler tab under Campaign Settings, which will then appear as below: 2. Tick the Make this a predictive dialler campaign box 3. The Calls per free user text box is the standard number of calls that will be assigned to a free user. Typically this is around 3 calls, but it can be as many as you want. Enter the number of calls you want to be assigned to each free user here. 4. Dialling mode selection: - The Overdial option is typically suited to a smaller number of users where there is likely to be varying talk-times. - The Predictive option is more suited to companies where a lot of calls are being made and calls usually last a similar length of time. Typically call centres would use this option. 5. If using the Predictive option, enter the number of seconds you predict a call will last. 6. Choose how rescheduled calls are made by selecting them to be made in a progressive or predictive way. Progressive- this would allow the user to reschedule the call for themselves only.

19 Predictive- this would call the contact at the allotted time. If the call is answered, it will be assigned to the next available user. 7. You should then enter the number of hours you would like until the call is allowed to be retried in the Retry answered abandoned calls after: text box. 8. Click Apply then OK. 16) The Adaptive Predictive Dialler module 1. On the PC that is hosting the Predictive Dialler, click Start then All Programs. 2. Double click to open the Adaptive folder. 3. Open Adaptive Predictive Dialler, which will then appear as below: The main display is split into four panes. The top left pane shows participating users and their status. The top right pane shows the dialler s dedicated extensions and their status. The bottom left pane shows the dialler s retrieval queues and how many campaign calls are in each queue. The bottom right pane shows real-time statistics for the dialler.

20 16.1 Configuring the Predictive Dialler using the Predictive Dialler module Assigning users to retrieval queues You must ensure that at least one participating user (and preferably all of them) can retrieve campaign calls from the same queues as the Dialler: i.e. you must include those queues in the user s configured retrieval queues. Although users do not dial Predictive Dialler campaign calls directly, they must be able to make abandoned calls that the dialler reschedules as Progressive. 1. Click the button to open the Assign Users dialog. 2. Highlight the users you would like the Dialler to transfer connected dialled calls to. 3. Click OK. Assigning extensions 1. Click the button to open the Assign Extensions dialog. 2. Click the button to open the Enter Extension Numbers dialog. 3. Type in the numbers of the extension that are dedicated to the use of the Dialler. 4. Once you have finished assigning extensions, click OK. To change the extensions assigned to the Dialler, use the delete, up and down buttons on your keyboard. Extensions higher up the list will be used first whenever the Dialler has to make new calls. NB: you must assign digital extensions to the Dialler. Analogue extensions cannot be taken off hook and put back on hook automatically, so they are not suitable for the dialler module. Assigning queues Click the Assign Queues toolbar button to open the Assign Queues dialog. 1. Click the button.

21 2. In the Select Retrieval Queues dialog box that appears, highlight the queues from which the dialler should retrieve Predictive campaign calls. To highlight more than one, hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard and click all of the queues that you wish to use. 3. Click OK. 4. Once you are done assigning queues, click OK to close the Assign Queues dialog box. NB: If you assign more than one queue to the Dialler, then the Dialler will retrieve calls from the queues in the order shown. You can use the up and down buttons on your keyboard to reorder the queues. 17) Setting preferences You can specify a number of preferences: how many calls the Predictive Dialler makes per user, the extension number it transfers abandoned answered calls to, as well as set up a Dialler name. 1. Click on the Settings tab on the Adaptive Predictive Dialler toolbar. 2. Click Preferences, which will then appear as below: 3. Answered Abandoned Threshold : the Predictive Dialler uses this percentage to control how many calls per user it makes. As the answer abandoned calls near the percentage, the Dialler reduces the number of calls made per user to reduce the possibility of answered abandoned calls. If the percentage of answered abandoned calls reaches or exceeds this limit then the dialler only makes 1 call per free user until the percentage drops below the threshold again.

22 Please enter the percentage threshold you would like to set in the Answered Abandoned Threshold textbox. 4. Extension to transfer to : This is generally an extension that has a recorded message for the called party. Please enter the extension number you would like to use in the Extension to transfer to textbox. NB: This field may be left blank if no such extension is available. 5. Dialler name : Each Predictive Dialler session you set up must have a name. This name is limited to seven (7) characters and cannot contain spaces. The Dialler name is used to identify your campaign when viewing the statistics in the Adaptive Management Console. Please enter a name for the Predictive Dialler session in the Dialler name textbox. 6. Select how many seconds between calls you would like there to be a delay for from the drop-down menu next to the Inter-dial delay option. 7. Click OK to close the text box. 18) Start dialling 1. Simply click the Start Dialling toolbar button or click File then Start Dialling from the drop-down menu. The top left pane will show the status of participating users in a similar way to the Adaptive Desktop Busy Lamp Field report view. The top right pane will show the status of the extensions assigned to the Dialler. The bottom left pane will show the number of Predictive and Progressive calls in each of the Dialler s retrieval queues. The bottom right pane will initially show zeros in all real-time statistics fields, since the dialler has only just started its current session. 2. The Dialler will start to dial calls when: - There are Predictive calls waiting in the Dialler s queues - The Dialler s extensions are available - At least one participating user is logged into the Adaptive Desktop and available The Dialler will use its extensions to dial calls for each free user. The number of calls it dials at once depends on the Campaign Settings (see above section) and the number of free users.

23 As soon as a customer answers a call, the Dialler will transfer the call using one-step transfer to the participating user who has been free for longest (a.k.a. longest idle algorithm). If there are any other free users, the Dialler will leave all its currently ringing calls ringing. When there are no free users, the Dialler will drop all ringing calls. These calls are unanswered abandoned. While the Dialler is dialling, it will accumulate real-time statistics. It displays these in the bottom right pane. Campaign call results depend on users and so are recorded and displayed in the same way as for Progressive Dialler campaigns. 19) Pause/ stop dialling 1. To finish or pause a dialling campaign, click the on the toolbar, or click the File tab, then Stop Dialling. 2. The Dialler will drop all calls at its extensions and will return to its idle state. 3. When all calls have been dropped, close the Adaptive Predictive Dialler application. 20) The Adaptive Desktop campaign call dialog When the Predictive Dialler transfers a call to a user, that user s Adaptive Desktop will display the same type of campaign call dialog as it does for a Progressive Dialler call. The obvious difference is that the call is already in a talking state when the campaign call dialog appears, so there is never any call preparation time and the Dial now button is always greyed out. Apart from that, the user can treat the call in exactly the same way as a Progressive campaign call. If the user uses the Reschedule button on the campaign call dialog, the call will be put back into the queue as either a Progressive or Predictive call depending on the campaign setting selected. (See Creating a campaign section above.) If calls are placed back in the queue as Progressive then it is recommended that a non-predictive user is assigned to that queue to handle these calls. 21) Viewing campaign results: reports You can retrieve a multitude of reports. Real-time reports include: users status reports, queues reports and server reports. You can also get Historical reports: multi-user summaries, single user summaries, single user detail, queues throughput and server reports. Getting reports on these is very simple to do using the Adaptive Management Console. The following is an example of how to obtain a Single Campaign Report:

24 1. Open the Adaptive Management Console(as above). 2. Click on the Historical tab, then select Campaigns from the drop-down menu. 3. Click the Single Campaign Report option, which will then appear as below: The list shows the display name of the campaign, the date when the campaign was assigned to a queue and the number of call results for that campaign. If the campaign is still active, i.e. there are still calls for that campaign currently in a queue, the number of results shown will be the number of calls that have been completed to date. The list of campaigns in the Select Campaign dialog is initially in date order, starting with the oldest (first assigned) campaign. You can reorder the list by clicking on the column headings. 4. Select the campaign you would like to view results of from the list,then click OK. The report of your selected campaign will then appear, formatted as below:

25 NB:Predictive Dialler campaigns are treated very much like Progressive campaigns and the same rules apply. Once you have assigned a campaign to a queue, you cannot change the settings for those calls. However, you can remove all remaining campaign calls from a queue by using the Purge feature in the Configuration Editor Queues page (see above section on Creating and Editingqueues.) To retrieve any of the aforementioned reports, just select the desired tab in the Adaptive Management Console (i.e. either historical or real-time ) then select from the drop-down menu the report you wish to obtain.