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9bx user guide

PBX & Call Center

Dialer campaigns

Call a list of customers automatically, with agents or with a recorded message, and keep every campaign compliant.

Contents

What it is for

Dialer campaigns replace manual dialling for outbound work such as payment reminders, surveys, renewals and notices. The dialer skips numbers on the do-not-call list, respects calling hours and stops itself when something goes wrong.

Who can use it

Access is split by task. Typical roles:

Task Permission
See campaigns View
Create and edit Manage
Approve or reject Approve
Start, pause, cancel Run
Work calls as an agent Use the agent dialer
Do not call list Manage the do-not-call list
Export results Export
Dialer settings Manage dialer settings

Marketing campaigns, and service campaigns if your organisation requires it, must be approved by a second person before they start. Dialing may also be switched off for the whole platform ("Dialing is switched off for the whole platform").

Where to find it

Phone → Dialer campaigns. Setup pages: Phone → Setup → Do not call, Call outcomes, Dialer settings.

Campaign types

Type How it works
Preview An agent sees the customer's details and clicks Call.
Power One call per free agent. An answered call always has an agent.
Predictive Dials ahead of the agents to keep them talking, held back by an abandon-rate limit. Needs at least 3 agents; with fewer it runs as power dialing.
Voice broadcast Plays a recording or a spoken message. No agents needed.
Press 1 Plays a message with keys: connect to an agent, opt out, confirm or cancel.

The campaign list

Tabs: All, Waiting for approval, Running, Drafts, Finished. Columns: Campaign, Type, Numbers, status and Needs you (an action is waiting for you). Statuses: Draft, Waiting for approval, Approved, Running, Paused, Completed, Cancelled, Rejected. New campaign starts the wizard.

The new campaign wizard

Six short steps. Nothing is dialled until it is approved.

Step What you set
Type Campaign name, What are the calls for? (Marketing, Transactional, Service), the call type, and Agents (queue): the queue whose agents take calls. Optionally limit to certain extensions.
Audience Who to call: A file of numbers (CSV with a header, choose the Phone column, Name column, Time zone column), Type or paste numbers (one per line, up to 5,000; a name may follow a number), Phone book groups, CRM clients (optionally by tags) or CRM leads (by stage). Press Build audience to see In the list, Can be called, On do-not-call, Invalid or unsayable and Duplicates.
Message and keys For broadcast and Press 1: A recording (from the audio library) or A written message (spoken) with a Voice and Language. Use {name} or a file column such as {order_ref} in the text. Optional Script for agents, Leave the message on answering machines (beta), Menu prompt, keys and what they do (Connect to an agent, Opt out (never call again), Confirm, Cancel, Hear it again, End the call), and a "Please hold" message for predictive campaigns.
Hours Calling hours (From, To, Days), Time zone, optional Start at and Stop at. Marketing calls also follow the country's quiet hours.
Dial settings Caller ID (the route's own, one number, or several in turn; only your official numbers), Trunk, Most calls at once, Seconds to ring, Retries for no answer, busy, failed and machine, Most dials per number, Abandon limit and Most lines per free agent for predictive, Detect answering machines (beta), Record the calls.
Review Check the numbers and the estimated cost, tick that the people on the list agreed to receive these calls, then Submit for approval (or Submit). Save draft keeps it for later.

The campaign screen

Live tiles show Dialed, Ringing, Answered, Connected, Machines, Abandoned, Talk time, agents (Free, Talking, Wrap-up), Dial ratio, Abandon rate against its limit, Answer rate and Trunk channels. "Held back by: ..." tells you what limits dialing right now.

Button What it does
Approve / Reject For approvers. Rejecting asks "Why are you rejecting it?".
Start, Pause, Resume Controls dialing.
Cancel campaign Calls in progress finish; nothing new is dialled.
Test call Calls one number you enter. You must confirm its owner agreed to receive the call.
Edit, Delete Drafts only for delete.
View numbers Per-number state: Waiting, Scheduled, Calling, Connected, Done, Do not call, Invalid, Outside hours, Gave up. Download CSV exports it.
Results Opens the results page.

A campaign pauses itself, with a reason, when the phone server cannot be reached three times, no outbound route works, very few calls are answered (the carrier may be blocking the caller ID), a spoken message cannot be made, or dialing is switched off.

The agent screen

Agents on preview, power or predictive campaigns use the Dialer screen: choose the Campaign, see Next number, press Call or Skip, read the Script, and afterwards choose How did it go? with a Note and Call back at. Open record opens the client. In power and predictive modes calls connect to your phone as people answer ("Waiting for the next call").

Results

Phone → Dialer campaigns → (campaign) → Results has two lists: Calls (When, Customer, Outcome, Key, Agent, Talk, Result) and Numbers (State, Dials, Next try). Filter by All outcomes and All states, search by name or number, and Export CSV. Outcomes include Answered, No answer, Busy, Failed, Answering machine, Abandoned, Connected, Message played and Pressed a key.

Setup pages for the dialer

Do not call

Phone setup → Do not call. Numbers your campaigns never dial. Add a number, Import a list (one number per line or the first CSV column), search by the end of a number. Each entry has a Reason (Customer request, Imported list, Pressed the opt-out key, Regulator, Complaint, Agent outcome), when it was Added and optional Expires. People who press the opt-out key are added automatically, and SMS opt-outs also block calls.

Call outcomes

Phone setup → Call outcomes. Sets of results that agents choose after a call. New set, then Add an outcome with a Code, Label and switches: Stops retries, Asks for a callback time, Puts the number on do-not-call, and the CRM Lead status it sets. One outcome can be the Default.

Dialer settings

Phone setup → Dialer settings. Rules for every campaign: Allow campaigns to dial (the kill switch: off stops every running campaign), Service campaigns need approval, Default calling hours, Quiet-hours country, Most dials per number per day, Highest predictive ratio.

Tasks

Run a power dialer campaign

  1. Open Phone → Dialer campaigns and press New campaign.
  2. Type: name it "Renewal reminders", purpose Service, call type Power, pick the queue "Collections".
  3. Audience: Type or paste numbers, paste your list, press Build audience and check Can be called.
  4. Message and keys: add a script for agents, for example "Hello {name}, this is Padma Net about your renewal."
  5. Hours: 10:00 to 18:00, Sunday to Thursday, time zone Asia/Dhaka.
  6. Dial settings: choose your caller ID, 2 retries for no answer.
  7. Review: tick the consent statement and press Submit for approval.
  8. An approver opens the campaign and presses Approve; then press Start.
  9. Agents open the Dialer screen, pick the campaign and wait for calls.

Run a Press 1 notice

  1. New campaign, call type Press 1.
  2. Choose A written message (spoken): "Dear {name}, planned maintenance tonight 1am to 3am. Press 1 to speak to us, press 2 to stop these messages."
  3. Set key 1 to Connect to an agent and key 2 to Opt out (never call again).
  4. Submit, approve, start. People who press 2 are added to Do not call.

Example scenario

Padma Net Support sends a Press 1 maintenance notice to 1,200 subscribers. 40 press 1 and reach an agent, 11 press 2 and join the do-not-call list. The next campaign skips those 11 automatically ("On do-not-call" in the audience count).

Tips

  • Always build the audience and read On do-not-call and Invalid before submitting.
  • Start predictive campaigns with a low Abandon limit.
  • Use Test call on your own phone first.
  • A spoken message is spoken once per distinct text, so many customers with the same text cost one voice render.

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Campaign paused: "Very few calls are being answered" The carrier may be blocking the caller ID. Change the caller ID or contact your provider.
Paused: "No outbound route can place these calls." Add or enable an outbound route.
Nobody gets calls The campaign needs agents logged in to the queue; check Queues.
Cannot start It may be waiting for approval, or dialing is off in Dialer settings.
Spoken messages unavailable Not in your plan, or no voice is set up. Use a recording.
Calls skipped as "Outside hours" They resume inside calling hours.