Recycling rules and how outbound calls are processed

What does "recycling" or "processing" mean here?

A lead/contact entry on a list will always have some status, e.g. "new", or "busy" of last call attempts, etc. It will stay on the list until a process pops it into the active hopper (i.e. the next set of calls to be attempted). Such a process will use recycling rules. For example, if we attempt to reach John Rogers at 4479058787844 and his phone is busy, then this "lead" or "contact" entry will be marked as status "busy". So when should the system try to call him again? This is exactly what is specified in a recycling rule. We might say for status "busy", try every 30 minutes and try a maximum of 4 times. 

How do statuses change?

Each call attempt to reach a contact will update the status of the "lead" or "contact" entry. Also, each time an agent connects to a contact, the outcome code selected by the agent at the end of the call, will result in the status changing.

Below you find an illustration that visualizes both status change paths mentioned above: either each call attempt changes the status automatically depending on the call finish reason (upper path) or each outcome code entered by an agent changes the status (lower path):

The processing rules which include the "recycling" configurations will work with the dialer logic for your campaign to dynamically change the entries in the hopper. This is the basic principle behind the babelforce outbound call (and indeed contact or task) selection and presentation approach.

We attempt to enable almost any imaginable processing logic and automation. So, for automated outbound dialing and processing of scheduled calls or contact requests, the babelforce platform can be used to create a large variety of recycling rules. On top of that, items can be scheduled, e.g. "call-backs" or "call me at 4pm today". And there are a variety of ways to influence what order leads and contacts will be processed in.

You need to imagine all the status changes being acted on dynamically by the recycling rules to get an idea of how outbound campaigns work.

Check out some of the other articles on outbound setup and try some of the powerful automation capabilities yourself.

If you want to know which recycling rules we offer by default, feel free to read this article.