Engage Voice | Intro to outbound dialing
The Dialing section of the platform deals with any calls leaving the system, whether they’re dialed by an agent or a dialer — or triggered by an API call. Within the platform, agents have the availability to handle outbound calls alongside inbound calls and chats via the integrated agent interface.
Typically, outbound calls are accompanied by a script, which serves as a visual prompt for agents to use when interacting with leads and customers. While scripts can be prepared and assigned via the Script Designer section of the platform, scripts can also be assigned to campaigns via the Dialing configuration settings.
Outbound dialing settings can be found via the Dialing product menu option in the left-hand navigation bar. Here, you can configure and manage outbound campaigns, from choosing the appropriate dialer to selecting campaign start and end dates, to managing schedules, leads, compliance, and more.
Outbound dialing components
Let’s talk about how the outbound dialing system works and get some perspective on how the different parts fit together. One of the first things you’ll do when beginning to set up the system for outbound dialing is to create a dial group to house your campaigns.
Dial groups
Dial groups are configurable groups of (outbound) campaigns that can be differentiated by the type of dialer you are using. When you assign agents to one or more dial groups, those agents will have the ability to dial on all campaigns associated with those dial groups.
Once you’ve created a dial group, you can choose the appropriate dialer to apply to that group (Preview, Predictive, etc.) and configure a few settings that will apply to all the campaigns that get put into that dial group.
While you can create multiple dial groups — each of which can use a different dialer — please note that agents can only ever be actively logged into one dial group (and thus only using one outbound dialer) at a time.
You’ll notice that when you configure your agent login screens, you can give agents the option to make multiple concurrent choices from a list of inbound queues, but when it comes to outbound dialing, they will only be able to choose one dial group to dial on at any given time.
Campaigns
Next, let’s talk about campaigns. Campaigns are grouped within dial groups and can be used as a means of segmenting your outbound calls. You can configure campaigns however you like, and you can use them to make both international and domestic calls.
Use your campaign settings to create dialing schedules for each campaign, direct the system to record outgoing calls, set up dispositions to record call outcomes, decide on requeuing rules, and even choose area code-based Caller IDs.
Leads
Leads are typically classified as contacts who have expressed some kind of interest in your company. For our purposes, we refer to your outbound contacts — whether they’re ‘end-users’ or existing or prospective customers — as leads.
Leads represent the folks whose phone numbers you’ll want to aggregate and segment according to your own criteria into different campaigns. Once you put together a lead list, you can upload it into the system and assign it to a campaign, activate or disable it, and choose a level of dialing priority for it.
The system allows you to upload lead lists that contain additional data beyond the basic lead contact fields like lead first name, last name, address, etc. You can either use auxiliary fields to access the custom data, or you can set up custom lead data fields to load additional lead information into the system.
As you upload a new lead list, you’ll get the opportunity to map the columns of lead data so the system will know where to find your different lead data types.
Once you map a lead list, you can choose to create a mapping template based on the data connections you just made. That way, when you upload a new lead list with similarly structured data, you can save time by applying the mapping template to it so those connections are made automatically.
Dial modes
We currently offer multiple dialers, each designed to serve a specific function.
- Predictive: Automatically dials leads based on the settings set in any campaign that is part of a predictive dial group. The dialer routes calls to the appropriate available agent.
- Preview: Functions on a one-to-one basis, where one lead is connected to one agent. Agents can review lead info before clicking a button that initiates the system dialing the lead for them.
- Progressive: Functions similar to Preview, but instead of the agent pushing a button when they’re ready for the system to dial the next number, you can program the system to pause for a predetermined amount of time between calls and then automatically dial the next lead without any prompt or action from the agent.
- HCI dialing: A ‘clicker agent’ clicks a button to dial a phone number, at which point the system routes the call to another active agent. Human Call Initiator (HCI) dialing has two modes:
- HCI fetch: Clicker agents manually request leads.
- HCI paced: Sends leads to an agent based on abandon rate.
- Manual: Calls dialed via the dial pad in the agent interface. Agents can use the dial pad to make ad hoc calls, or calls not related to any outbound campaigns.
Read more about dial modes in Intro to dial modes.
Additional outbound dialing products
If an automatic dialing system is not appropriate for your needs and you require human intervention when making outbound calls, we offer another product to address those needs. For more information, please check out our Intro to ManualDial article.
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