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Outbound - General

The table below describes the general campaign settings that you configure in the General section of the Services and Campaigns' Outbound tab.

General Settings
Type	Campaign type. In campaigns of Preview type, the calling records are submitted to the agents participating in the campaign. The agents review record information, dial destination numbers, and monitor call progress. In campaigns of Progressive type, the system automatically dials numbers from list records according to a fixed (pre-configured) dialing rate, monitors call progress, and connects successful (answered) call attempts to available agents. In campaigns of Predictive type, the system automatically dials numbers from list records according to currently optimal dialing rates, monitors call progress, and connects successful (answered) call attempts to available agents. The dialing rate is optimized to maintain the desired agent occupancy based on the statistical analysis of outcomes of most recent dialing attempts. In campaigns of Automatic (IVR) type, the system automatically dials numbers from list records, monitors call progress, and connects successful (answered) call attempts to a pre-recorded IVR message. Agents are not involved in campaigns of this type. Note that definition of some of the subsequent campaign properties will depend on the selected campaign type.
Enabled	Indicated the current state of the campaign. By default, the campaign is disabled and normally it should remain in this state until it is completely configured. Completeness of campaign configuration can be verified via the Diagnostics page. After the campaign has been completely configured, select this checkbox to indicate that it is ready to run. Campaigns can be disabled again when they are no longer active but have to remain in configuration to ensure availability of campaign results. Note that disabling of campaigns is always a manual operation. Note: For blended services, you should keep the outbound portion of a service enabled at all times - even during the periods without any outbound activity. If you disable the outbound portion, dispositions of the possible callbacks made to the campaign caller ID may not be processed correctly. This may result in repeated attempts to contact customers who are not supposed to be contacted again within the given campaign (e.g., accepted the campaign offer or requested not to be called again). If you need to prevent the outbound portion of a blended service from making calls, remove all of its calling hours.
Start / Stop	After the campaign has been enabled, it can be started and stopped manually at any time using these buttons. Note that a campaign can also be started and stopped manually form the Agent Desktop application by a user designated as an operator for this campaign. Note also that the campaign can be started and stopped automatically using the combination of the From/Until and using hours of operation settings as described below.
From	Indicates the moment from which this campaign can be started automatically based on the service hours of operation defined in the Properties tab. If specified, the campaign will start automatically at the specified time provided that this time is within the specified service hours of operation. If the specified time is outside of the service hours, the campaign will start automatically at the nearest service opening time following the specified campaign start time. Note that this parameter controls automatic campaign start only. Even if it is defined, the campaign can still be started earlier manually.
using hours of operation	By default the campaign will be run automatically according to the hours of operation specified in the Properties tab for the given outbound service. If you click this link, you will be taken to that tab where you can modify the service hours. Note that this schedule reflects the time when the agents of the associated teams will be expected to handle interactions of the given campaign. This schedule is normally defined for the time zone where your contact center is located. The actual calling schedules for various types of phones and other possible time-related calling restrictions are defined in the Calling Hours page relative to the time zone of destination phone numbers.
Until	Indicates the moment when this campaign will be terminated automatically even if processing of some of the calling records hasn’t been finished or attempted. This setting will not affect the campaign-related calls that may be in progress at the specified time. Note that this parameter controls automatic campaign termination only. Even if it is defined, the campaign can still be started or resumed manually later.
Campaign link group	Campaigns of the same type with the same hours of operation, and same assigned agent teams can be linked together so that, when processing of all records of one campaign is finished, the next campaign in the group will be started automatically. To associate this campaign with an existing group select the group from the list. If there are other campaigns associated with the selected list, the system will ask you to confirm that the type of this campaign, its hours of operation, assigned teams, and skills will be redefined to match the corresponding settings of campaigns already in the group. The service parameters whose settings are controlled by the link group membership will be highlighted with orange dots. To remove the campaign from a link group it was previously assigned to, select None from the drop-down menu.
Begin this campaign after	By default, the order in which campaigns in the link group will be activated is determined by the order those campaign were added to the group. You can redefine this order for the given campaign by selecting the preceding campaign from the drop-down menu. If the given campaign shall be processed first, select none (1st).
Preview options
Screenpop URL	URL of the web page that will be displayed by the Agent Desktop application when the agent receives a preview record. Normally this is a web page that might contain additional information about the calling record. A query string can be added to supply variables for the screenpop. See group of variables Outbound Target Work Item Parameters in the ServicePattern Scenario Builder Reference Guide. This parameter is optional. If it is not set, only the customer name and phone number to be dialed will be displayed in the contact panel of the Agent Desktop. Note that you can display information from calling records using Activity forms. Note also that the specified web page will be displayed in the Context Information Area of the Agent Desktop. This area is not shown when Agent Desktop is run minimized using the Pop-out function. Thus, when using URL screenpop, consider disabling agents' privilege Force pop-out phone window.
Start dialing first number automatically	By default, agents dial numbers from list records manually. Select this checkbox if the first number of the list record shall be dialed automatically after the amount of time allocated for record preview (see option Start dialing after below).
Start dialing after	The amount of time allocated for list record preview. This parameter is essential only if option Start dialing first number automatically is enabled.
Use specific agent assignments for records	Records of the calling lists associated with the given campaign may be assigned to specific agents. If you select this option, any such records will only be distributed to the agents assigned to handle them. For more information, see description of field type Agent Login ID in section Lists.
Predictive and progressive options
No Answer timeout	In case of receiving the ring back tone, specifies for how long the system shall wait for an answer before abandoning the call attempt with disposition No Answer.
Scenario to run when answered	Indicates which scenario should be run upon answer. The Default scenario will provide a simple connect to the longest available agent while the calls that are not connected to agents within the specified Unattended call timeout (see below) will be terminated. ServicePattern provides a scenario template called Predictive Telemarketing Campaign that serves as an example of how unattended calls can be treated in a compliant manner (according to the current FCC regulations).
Detect voice before connection	Indicates whether upon answer the system shall wait to detect voice before connecting this call to an agent. Deselect this checkbox if the calls should be connected to agents immediately upon answer.
Detect answering machine	Indicates whether upon voice detection the system shall try to distinguish live voice from an answering machine greeting or other pre-recorded announcement. Essential only if the Detect voice before connection setting is enabled (see above). Deselect this checkbox if the calls should be connected to agents immediately upon detection of a voice.
Wait for beep when detecting answering machine	Indicates whether the “announcement vs. answering machine” decision shall be based on detection of a beep sound after the speech segment. (If disabled, disposition Announcement will be used for all long speech messages.) Essential only if the Detect answering machine setting is enabled (see above).
Record CPA phase of call attempts	Indicates whether the Call Progress Analysis (CPA) phase of the campaign calls shall be recorded. Such recordings are stored in separate audio files and can be used to verify reaction of the system to various call attempt outcomes. CPA recordings can be checked using the Quality Management playback function and also exported for off-line analysis. This option is visible and available to you only if specifically activated for your contact center at the service provider level.
Unattended call timeout	Specifies for how long, from the moment a call answered by the called party, the Find Agent block of the applied scenario (see Scenario to run when answered above) will wait for an available agent before processing it in the manner defined by the conditional exit Time Out. Note that the Default scenario will terminate such calls. ServicePattern provides a scenario template called Predictive Telemarketing Campaign that serves as an example of how unattended calls can be treated in a compliant manner (according to the current FCC regulations).
Maximum dropped calls (reporting threshold), %	Reserved for future use.
Target occupancy	This setting is used in Predictive mode only. Specifies the target occupancy for the agents participating in this campaign that will be used by the predictive algorithm to calculate the dialing frequency. Occupancy is defined as the time spent handling calls relative to the time total working time, i.e., (Busy Time + ACW Time) / (Busy Time + ACW Time + Ready Time) * 100. Changes in the target occupancy of a running campaign will take effect immediately. Such changes may be necessary in order to observe compliance with the telemarketing law for maximum percentage of unattended calls (aka Abandonment Rate). Percentage of unattended calls can be monitored in real time (see ServicePattern Supervisor Guide, section General Campaign Metrics View) and/or historically (see ServicePattern Reporting Reference Guide, section Telemarketing Compliance Report.)
Initial Overdial Rate, %	This setting is used in Predictive mode only. Specifies the percent of call attempts that will be made for this campaign relative to call attempts that are expected to be answered. This configured value will determine dialing frequency at the start of this campaign. For example, if you expect only every second attempt to be successful, you can set the initial overdial rate to 200%, and the system will initially make twice as many call attempts as there are agents in the Ready state. Note that this setting is an inversion of the Estimated Success Rate (ESR), which was used in the product prior to version 3.10 for the same purpose. The ESR is defined as the expected percent of call attempts that will be answered relative to all call attempts that will be made for this campaign; thus if you upgrade from a previous version of ServicePattern, and had ESR for a particular campaign set to 50%, you will see the Initial Overdial Rate for this campaign set to 200%. (The ESR is displayed as a read-only value next to it.) Once the system has accumulated enough statistics for dial frequency prediction, the configured Initial Overdial Rate value will be replaced with the actual overdial rate calculated and constantly updated in real time. You can reset statistics used in calculation of the actual success rate and re-apply the configured Initial Overdial Rate value at any time during campaign operation by clicking the Reset statistics button.
Overdial Rate, %	This setting is used in Progressive mode only. Specifies the percent of call attempts that will be made for this campaign relative to call attempts that are expected to be answered. This configured value will determine dialing frequency for the duration of the campaign. For example, if you expect only every second attempt to be successful, you can set the initial overdial rate to 200%, and the system will make twice as many call attempts as there are agents in the Ready state. Setting the Overdial Rate to 100% (default) practically means that for any answered call there will be an agent available to pick it up.
Automatic (IVR) options
Max concurrent calls	Specifies how many calls can be in progress simultaneously.
No Answer timeout	In case of receiving the ring back tone, specifies for how long the system shall wait for an answer before abandoning the call attempt with disposition No Answer.
Scenario to run when answered	Indicates which scenario should be run upon answer. Note that for the Automatic (IVR) mode, the scenario containing a recorded IVR message should be explicitly defined.
Detect voice before connection	Indicates whether upon answer the system shall wait to detect a voice before connecting this call to an agent. Deselect this checkbox if the calls should be connected to agents immediately upon answer.
Detect answering machine	Indicates whether upon voice detection the system shall try to distinguish the voice from an answering machine greeting. Essential only if the Detect voice before connection setting is enabled (see above). Deselect this checkbox if the calls should be connected to agents immediately upon detection of a voice.
Wait for beep when detecting answering machine	Indicates whether the “announcement vs. answering machine” decision shall be based on detection of a beep sound after the speech segment. (If disabled, disposition Announcement will be used for all long speech messages.) Essential only if the Detect answering machine setting is enabled (see above).
Record CPA phase of call attempts	Indicates whether the Call Progress Analysis (CPA) phase of the campaign calls shall be recorded. Such recordings are stored in separate audio files and can be used to verify reaction of the system to various call attempt outcomes. CPA recordings can be checked using the Quality Management playback function and also exported for off-line analysis. This option is visible and available to you only if specifically activated for your contact center at the service provider level.

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