5.2.3 - Recycling Rules, Call Outcome and Alternative Dialing

Setting up the dialer with babelforce is not too complex, however, optimizing the setup is not as easy. We'll walk you through the details in this article.

First, we'll look into recycling rules and the call outcome functionality. At the end of the article, we will briefly introduce you to the alternative dialing feature.

Recycling Rules and Call Outcomes:

You already know how the dialer works,

• The automated dialer calls contact from the list you upload
• The connection to the agent is only established if the connection with the contact or lead was successful.

However, think about it. In many cases, the dialer does not reach the customer or sometimes it connects a call to an agent it shouldn't have. Here are all possible scenarios that could "go wrong": 

• agent got through to an answering machine
• dialer automatically detected answering machine
• dialer automatically detected that end-user was busy
• agent found that end-user was busy
• agent got through but call kept ringing
• dialer automatically detected that call kept ringing

As you can see, there are two types of cases: either the dialer recognizes that the contact cannot be reached or the agent finds himself connected to an answer machine or a busy sign. Who ever "decides" that there is no actual person at the other end of the line doesn't really matter. What's important, however, is what happens AFTER this decision was made and this is defined in the recycling rules.

So let's say the dialer hits an answer machine. The lead is updated with the reason "Answer Machine". What happens now? Maybe you want the dialer to call the customer again in three hours. So it does but what if the answer machine is taking the call again, how often should the dialer call the customer back? Maybe every 4 hours over two days within a defined time span? That's exactly what a recycling rule does: whenever a contact is not reached, depending on the reason, the contact will either be called again in x hours or days or will not be called again.

babelforce does not have any recycling rules activated by default. So if you want to set this up, please get in touch with success@babelforce.com. We are happy to assist you.

Before we move on to the alternative dialing, we want to ensure you know how agents select the Call Outcome. After every call, agents stay in Wrap-up time until they selected the outcome of the call from a drop-down list. That's how this list is presented: 

These are the available call outcome reasons: 

• No answer
• Disconnected number
• Busy
• Answering machine
• Call back
• Don't call again
• Not interested
• Sales

The reasons that can be applied for recycling rules are marked orange.

The blue reason, Call back, allows your agents to schedule a call at any given time in the near future.

The purple reasons indicate that the agents talked to a customer and there is no need for any future call.

Now let's look at Alternative Dialing:

Alternative Dialing is mostly used for customer retention or up-selling, not for automated callbacks. If you want to use alternative dialing you will have to provide an alternative number to call in case the main number of a former or potential customer is not reachable.

The following call outcome reasons can then be used as a trigger to call the alternative number:

B = agent finds the number to be busy
N = agent finds that there is no answer
NA = system automatically finds that there is no answer
DC = number no longer in service

To install this process, please get in touch with our success team.

Great, now that we covered recycling rules, call outcome and alternative dialing, let's move on to integrating your dialer campaign in your CRM.