The calling methods associated with a project determine how agents make outgoing calls. While there is some overlap, the options available depend on whether the project is an outbound call center campaign, or an inbound customer service project. This article describes both sets of options.
In you Admin account,
- Go to the Projects page.
- Go to the Project List subpage.
- To create a new project, click Create. You may be prompted to select which type of Project to create. If so, choose the appropriate option.
Alternatively, to edit an existing project, find it in the Project List and click its name. - Go to the Calling methods section.
Common options
There are, broadly, three common calling methods: Automatic, Manual and Contact list dial. The automatic dialing mode works through your contact list calling contacts and offering those calls to agents. It is further divided into Progressive and Preview.
- Progressive,. When an agent finishes a call, the next call will be offered to them immediately.
- Preview. When an agent finishes a call, the next contact will be offered to them, but the agent must click the call button to dial.
- Agent selection. The agent can choose to work with Progressive or Preview calling. Agents working with Omni make this choice when selecting the project they will be working on.
- Manual. Allows agents to place calls to any phone number, without it being on a contact list. If enabled, agents can type the number and place the call. Agents working in the Omni interface will also be able to manually send emails this way.
- Contact list dial. If this is enabled, the agent can select a contact from one of the contact lists associated with this project and click the call icon to place a call to that contact.
Other options in this section vary for different project types.
Outbound campaign
Additional options for outbound campaigns:
- Hide 'skip and remove' button. By default, when working in progressive dialer mode, agents may skip a contact offered to them, finalising with the Skip and remove button. This can be useful if contacts in the contact list might not have phone numbers. If you tick this option, agents will only be able to skip a contact with Next contact, they cannot also finalise it.
- Contact preview frame URL. If you put a web address into this field, that site will appear as a banner across the top of the contact preview in progressive dialer. You can pass information to this site using URL Variables. The height of this banner is determined by Frame height.
This example uses the LeadDesk main site:
- B2B call view. If your environment has B2B enabled, this option lets you add it to your agents' interface.
- External phone (simulated call). Allows agents to make simulated calls, to record time spent working on behalf of a contact, without actually calling them.
Inbound project
Additional option for inbound projects:
- Call blending. This option will check for inbound calls whenever the agent finishes one call. If a call is waiting, the agent will be offered that instead of an outbound call.
- If you use call blending you can set the Number of maximum consecutive inbound calls. This ensures that you make progress on outbound calling even if the inbound queue is busy. If this is set to zero, there is no limit, and agents will receive inbound calls until the queue is empty.