Arbitrary Dialout

Arbitrary Dialout

Arbitrary dialout enables you to place calls to any external telephone number from within Engage. The numbers that you dial do not need to be associated with an existing customer, with an existing number on your speed dial or transfer list, or part of a customer record.

You can use this feature when, for example, a customer calls in to request tickets for a concert. After getting the details from the customer, you can place outbound calls to one or more booking agencies. The outbound calls are associated with the original customer call but the number or numbers that you dial are not automatically saved in the customer record. You can, however if so desire, save that number in the customer record that is currently open in Engage. For more information, see Saving the Number.

• Before you can use this feature, an administrator must enable it in the Contact Center.

If the call ends abruptly — because of a busy signal, a wrong number, or if the person being called hangs up — then the details of the call are saved in the interaction history for the customer for whom the call is being made. The interaction history will include your agent ID, the time that the call was made, the number that was called, and the reason for the failure.

Making a Call

Making a call to an arbitrary number involves:

• Choosing a campaign.
• Dialing a number.
• Wrapping up the call (when wrap up is enabled).

Note: The call flow linked to the campaign must be enabled for arbitrary conferencing. Check for the value of "Arbitrary Number Transfer via Campaign" field in the On Call tab of the call flow that is being used. If this field is empty, any call using that campaign will not see the arbitrary number conference field. If this is empty, please select a valid campaign and check-in the call flow, and make sure the campaign is using the version you have checked in.

To start a call, open a customer record. Then, click the Phone icon in the customer panel. The following panel displays:

Figure 10-1: Arbitrary dialout panel

Choosing a Campaign

Before you can dial an arbitrary number, you must associate the call with a campaign. The call will be tracked against this campaign.

If the number has been dialed before, the campaign associated with the previous call is automatically selected. You can change the campaign that you want to associate with the call as described below.

You can associate the call with a campaign by either:

Clicking Select Campaign and clicking the name of a campaign in the list.

Figure 10-2: Campaign list

Typing the first few letters of the campaign's name — for example, Stone — in the search field to filter the list and find the appropriate campaign.

Figure 10-3: Filtering the Campaign list

Dialing a Number

After you have associated the call with a campaign, do one of the following:

• Enter the number to call on the dial pad.
• Click Recently Dialed and select a number from the list. The Recently Dialed list contains the last 10 numbers that you dialed. These numbers will appear for all customer records that you open.

Figure 10-4: Recently Dialed list

Then, click Call.

Conferencing and Transferring a Call

You can conference or transfer a call from the dialout panel in the same way in which you would from the phone panel.

The transfer function enables you to transfer calls within your call center using a list of speed dial numbers. The dial pad is not available when you try to transfer a call.

The conference function enables you to talk to another agent in your call center when person you are calling is on hold, or to hold a conversation with one or more external numbers. The call flow attached to the campaign must be enabled for arbitrary conferencing, see note above under "Making a Call."

Learn more about transferring a call.

Learn more about using the conference feature.

Saving the Number

Arbitrary numbers that you dial are not automatically saved to the customer record that is currently open. You can either manually save the number to the customer's record or create a new customer record using that number.

To save an arbitrary number, click the Add to Current Record icon in the Recently Dialed list.

Figure 10-5: Add a number to the current customer record

Then, click one of the following options:

• New Customer, to open an empty customer record form.
• This Customer, to add the number to the record for the customer for whom you are making the call. The number will be removed from the recently-dialed list.

In both cases, the number is added to the Business Number field of the customer record.

If you are using Engage with Salesforce.com and there is currently a number in the Business Numberfield, the number you are adding will not be visible in the field. This is due to a limitation in Salesforce.com.

Wrapping Up the Call

At the end of an arbitrary dialout you may be allowed extra time for record keeping or other post call tasks. This is calledWrap Up time. The process for wrapping up an arbitrary dialout is the same as the process for wrapping up any other call.

Learn more about wrapping up a call.

Pinning the Dial Out Panel

If you need to make calls to multiple arbitrary numbers, you can pin the dialout panel to the Engage window. When you finish a call, the dialout panel will automatically reopen instead of remaining closed.

To pin the dialout panel, click the pin icon (  ) in the top-right corner of the panel.