Short video:
The Auto-Dialer feature is Exotel's equivalent of OBD or outbound dialer. Auto-Dialer is typically found in call-center & telemarketing software. As the name suggests, you can conduct an automated outbound call campaign, connecting a group of available agents to a list of customers, saving the agents from the hassle of dialing out numbers and managing the list at their end.
Placing manual outbound calls for a large number of customers is time-consuming. An automatic outbound dialer ensures a streamlined and scalable outbound calling process. When an agent in the group starts the campaign, the system will first call the agent, and then will start calling numbers from the list that haven't been called yet. Using Auto-Dialer, you can enhance the agent’s productivity and reduce the time taken to call a lot of numbers significantly.
Pre-Requisites
An active Exotel Account with Campaigns (Auto-Dialer) feature enabled
A valid Exophone
A list of customers/numbers created in NEW Campaigns ‘Address-book’ (Contacts & Lists section)
A group of agents created in ‘Co-workers (Agents) and Groups’
If prepaid account, enough credits to run the campaign
New Auto-Dialer Campaigns
Dialer Campaigns is added under the New Campaigns page. The idea is to have all the campaigns-related products such as Call Campaigns, Dialer Campaigns, and SMS campaigns under a common page. All these campaigns will use the same Campaigns Address-book (Lists and Contacts).
How to use New Auto-Dialer Campaigns
Click on the New Campaigns (Campaigns new) under the Tools menu on the left-hand panel of the dashboard (see the highlighted box in the image above)
Dialer Campaigns can be found under the Campaigns tab
Create Dialer Campaigns
In order to create a new dialer campaign, follow these steps:
Click on the Create Dialer Campaign button. It will open a pop-up where the user has to provide campaign details
Fill in the campaign details such as Campaign Name, Dial Numbers, Campaign Participants, Start Date and Time, End Date and Time, Caller ID, Number of Retries, Retry call with Status, Call type, etc.
All entries are mandatory. You will need to fill out:
Campaign Name - The name to identify the Auto-Dialer or OBD Campaign
Dial Numbers
List: Select a list of numbers (customers) to dial out in the campaign. You should have created the list before starting the campaign.
Dial whom URL: An URL that will return numbers to call (customer’s number). Refer to 'Working With Connect (Dial Whom)' for more details on the URL configuration.
Campaign Participants:
Group/Agents: Select an agent or a group of agents, who are going to talk to the numbers in the list. You should have created a group before creating the campaign.
Caller ID - Is the phone number using which the call needs to be placed to your customer.
Start date: The campaign will start from the date and time specified here. You can not select timeless than the current time. By default, the campaign will get triggered with a delay of a maximum of 2 minutes from the current time
End date: The campaign will end from the date and time specified here. By default, it is set to 30 days from the Start Date and Time. The minimum time allowed is 2 minutes more than the start time
Number of Retries: The number of times a call to a phone number should be attempted, in case of a previous unsuccessful attempt. Default is 0 and the maximum is 3.
Retry call with Status: Determines when the campaign should treat a call as an unsuccessful attempt. Could be "busy", "no-answer", "failed"
Call Type: By default, it will be Transactional for all the Dialer campaigns.
Show additional details
Popup URL (optional): Popup URL to show the live call details on Agent’s dashboard (CRM). Refer to this support article to know how to implement pop-ups in your CRM.
Call Completed Passthru URL (optional): Passthru URL where Exotel will send the call complete status after every call. Refer to 'Working With Passthru Applet' for more details on configuring this URL.
Call No Answer Passthru URL (optional): Passthru URL where Exotel will send the call details when we get Call No Answer. Refer to 'Working With Passthru Applet' for more details on configuring this URL.
Get Contacts URL (optional): URL to provide contact details (customer details such as name, address, order id, etc.)
Click the ‘Create Dialer Campaign’ button at the bottom of the pop-up screen
Dialer Campaign Users Persona
Dialer campaigns predominantly have two roles- Agents and Supervisors.
Supervisors are generally responsible for managing campaigns and assigning campaigns to their agents. A Supervisor can-
Create a Campaign
Assign agents to a Dialer campaign.
Also, work as an agent if they were added to a co-worker in the Group ( campaign participants). Supervisors can view all campaign Live Status, and call details.
Can Archive, Mark as a complete campaign, and Download reports
Agents are generally responsible for dialing out the campaigns (numbers) they were assigned. An agent can
Can NOT create a campaign and assign to agents
View and Start the campaigns they were assigned to.
Create a List and contacts
Can archive, Mark as a complete campaign, and Download reports
View Campaigns Summary
On the New Dialer Campaigns landing page, it shows the summary of all the Dialer campaigns. Whenever a new Dialer campaign is created, the campaign starts appearing in this list. You can also view those campaigns that are created through APIs as well.
The list contains the details of the campaign such as Campaign Name, Campaign Type, Date created, Schedule Time, Status and Performance, etc.
There is an action menu associated with each campaign. This action menu has options to Pause/Resume/Mark as Completed/Archive/Download a campaign, based upon the state of the campaign
Complete - Mark the entire campaign as Completed. The remaining numbers are marked as Failed_NoAttempt. You can mark only paused campaigns as completed
Archive - Mark a campaign as archived. Only completed and scheduled campaigns can be marked as archived
Download - Download completed campaign reports
Filter - The list of campaigns can be filtered based on the campaign status.
Search - The list of campaigns is searchable by Campaign Name (minimum of three characters to start the search)
Sort - The list of campaigns can be sorted by Campaign Name, Date created, and Status
Performance - Shows the performance of a campaign with three high-level statues - Completed, Failed & Scheduled. On hovering failed count, failed is further divided into subcategories - failed, failed DND, failed balance, and invalid. On hovering scheduled count, scheduled is further divided into scheduled, in-progress, retry & retrying.
Campaign Summary/Stats (Supervisor View)
Clicking on the Individual Campaign will take the Supervisors to the campaign summary/stats page. The actions can be changed from this page as well. The entire page is divided into two sections. On the top users can see the campaign details along with stats and at the bottom users can view the call details of that specific campaign.
Campaign Details - will show the details of the campaigns such as Campaign Name, Dial Numbers, Campaign Participants, Start Date and Time, End Date and Time, Caller ID, Number of Retries, Retry call with Status, Call type, and additional details, etc
Campaign Stats - This section shows the number level statistics of that campaign. There is a delay of a maximum of 5 minutes with respect to real-time data. You can click on the ‘refresh’ icon to get the latest data. A number can be in the following possible states in a campaign:
Scheduled - The numbers that are yet to be dialed out in the campaign
In progress - Numbers who are currently connected and or being dialed on the campaign
Retry - If in the first attempt, the caller did not pick up the call (or disconnected it), this number will be added to the "Retry" list. The number of retries, the interval of retry, and retries mechanisms will depend on the values specified during the campaign creation.
Retrying - It is equivalent to In progress while retrying the same number
Failed - Numbers that failed because the number is invalid, unreachable, etc.
Failed DND - Numbers that failed because the number was added to the NDNC registry.
Failed Balance - Numbers that were not dialed because of low balance in your Exotel account
Failed No-Attempt - Numbers that were not dialed because the campaign was marked as completed in between, or the end time reached before the list was exhausted, or the campaign has hit the maximum allowed duration of 30 days
Completed - Numbers that we have successfully connected
Invalid - Numbers in other unknown states
View Campaign Call Details ( Supervisor View)
This section shows the list of calls that are made as a part of the campaign. It captures call details such as the contact person’s number, name (if added in Contacts), call duration, date created, call status, and call recording. It also has an action menu that shows more details about the call such as call start time, call end time, call direction and call sid.
Search - the call detail list is searchable by a number
Filter - the call details can be filtered by call status
Sort - the call details can be sorted by Created date
Call Status - could be one of Completed, Failed, No answer, Busy.
Campaign Summary/Stats (Agents View)
Clicking on the Individual Campaign will take the Agents to the campaign summary/stats page. An agent can Start the campaign from here.
Start Campaign
The Start Campaign button will appear on the top right corner of the Campaign Summary page. Each agent can now go to their respective Auto-Dialer Campaign page under the Campaigns tab and start the campaign by clicking the “Start” button.
Initially, the Start button will be disabled till the start time expires. After the start time passes, the Start button will be enabled.
An agent can stop their respective campaigns by disconnecting the call, and resume by clicking on the “Start” button again. If any numbers are remaining in the list to be dialed out, the agent will get connected.
As soon as the Start button is clicked, the agent’s number will be dialed first and once the agent is connected to leg1, it starts dialing the contact from the list.
Once a customer disconnects the call, the next number from the list will be dialed.
The agent’s number is always nailed in at leg1 when subsequent calls are made.
Campaign Details - will show the details of the campaigns such as Campaign Name, status, Agent name, Assigned by (supervisor details), Caller ID, Start Date and Time, End Date and Time, Number of Retries, Retry call with Status, Call type.
Campaign Stats - This section shows the number level statistics of that campaign. There is a delay of a maximum of 5 minutes with respect to real-time data. You can click on the ‘refresh’ icon to get the latest data. A number can be in the following possible states in a campaign:
Scheduled - The numbers that are yet to be dialed out in the campaign
In progress - Numbers who are currently connected and or being dialed on the campaign call flow
Retry - If in the first attempt, the caller did not pick up the call (or disconnected it), this number will be added to the "Retry" list. The number of retries, the interval of retry, and retries mechanisms will depend on the values specified during the campaign creation.
Retrying - It is equivalent to In progress while retrying the same number
Failed - Numbers that failed because the number is invalid, unreachable, etc.
Failed DND - Numbers that failed because the number was added to the NDNC registry.
Failed Balance - Numbers that were not dialed because of low balance in your Exotel account
Failed No-Attempt - Numbers that were not dialed because the campaign was marked as completed in between, or the end time reached before the list was exhausted, or the campaign has hit the maximum allowed duration of 30 days
Completed - Numbers that we have successfully connected to a call flow
Invalid - Numbers in other unknown states
View Live Callee Details (Agent view)
An Agent can view the live callee details while dialing to a contact. The callee details will be populated as per the details saved in the Addressbook. Agents can click on the Refresh button to fetch the live callee details. Once a call ends, Agent has to click on the Refresh button to view the next callee details.
Supervisor- Agent Switch
If a Supervisor is also added as an agent to a campaign, he/she can view both Supervisor and Agent screen. On the top of the individual campaign screen, there will be a switch to change the view from Agent to Supervisor and vice versa. The supervisor can perform both of the roles by moving to the respective screen.
Ending the Auto-Dialer Campaign
Supervisor/Admin
An Admin can Mark as complete an ongoing campaign at any time from the Campaigns tab
If an admin marks an ongoing campaign as completed, any in-progress call for an agent will go uninterrupted. However, there will be no further call made and the agent’s call will get disconnected.
If there is no New or Retry numbers, then the campaign is deemed complete and hence, there is no action to be taken.
Agent
The agent can stop the campaign simply by hanging up the call on his phone.
He can click the "Start" button anytime and the campaign will start from the next available number in the list.
The start button will be disabled if there are no new or retry numbers.
Auto-Dialer Campaign Limitations
Allowed Time Frame: As per TRAI regulations in India, the campaign call is allowed only between 9 AM to 9 PM of the day.
Maximum Duration: An Auto-Dialer Campaign will run a maximum of 30 days. Post the maximum duration, the campaign will go in the ‘Completed’ state and the remaining numbers in the list will not be dialed out and marked as Failed_NoAttempt.
List Restriction: Once the Auto-Dialer Campaign has been started, any change in the list (changing, adding, or deleting numbers) will not be reflected in the ongoing campaign. A copy of your list is taken at the time of creating the campaign. Hence, any change in the list is not reflected in the ongoing campaign.
Group Flexibility: On the other hand, you can add or delete agents from the group which you have selected at the time of creating the campaign, even after the campaign has started.
Only 1 list can be used for creating campaigns. Hence, the maximum number of contacts that can run in one Dialer campaign is one lakh.
Deprecation Plan for Old Auto-Dialer Campaigns
The old Auto-Dialer Campaign will be deprecated in two phases. In the first phase, we will restrict the Create Dialer Campaign capability. In the second phase, we will deprecate the dialer campaign functionality completely from the Campaigns (old) section.
Phase-1 → Deprecating Create Dialer Campaign capability
Date of Impact: 1st Dec 2021
Users will not be able to create any campaign from the date of impact
Users will be able to view any previously created dialer campaigns
Phase-2 → Deprecating Dialer Campaign capability completely
Date of Impact: 1st Mar 2022
Users will not be able to even view the past dialer campaign, from the date of impact
Migration of data from old campaigns to new campaigns will not be possible
Looking out for answers to your queries?
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