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How to manage the Adaptive Progressive Dialler
(v. 9-50)
The Progressive style of dialling is most suitable for general business -to-business calls, where there
is a high likelihood that the person being called will answer the phone. The software presents a
call to the user and it is then dialled automatically. In most cases, an automatic period of
preparation time is allowed before the call is made. With Progressive Dialling, the call is made
using the phone on the user’s desk and the user is ready to talk to the called party as soon as they
answer. This means that every call is fully attended by the user and there is zero chance of a
“silent” call.
As a manager, you will probably find you need to do a number of things: create users and teams,
create queues, configure screen-pops and create campaigns. This document is designed to give you a
step-by-step guide of how to do this when using the Adaptive Progressive Dialler.
We also offer online training that is more suitable for users. Just go to our website, www.nmsadaptive.com, and click on the “Training” tab. This will present you with all of the available training
modules that are designed to teach you how to use the Adaptive products.
In this document:
1)
Creating users ............................................................................................................... 2
2)
Creating Teams ............................................................................................................. 4
3)
Queues ........................................................................................................................ 4
4)
Creating queues ............................................................................................................ 6
5)
Configure users to retrieve calls from a queue ................................................................... 7
6)
Campaigns .................................................................................................................... 7
7)
Call Wrap-up and Retries ................................................................................................ 8
8)
Result Codes ................................................................................................................. 9
9)
Screen- pops ................................................................................................................10
10)
Creating campaign-specific screen-pops........................................................................10
11)
Selecting queues to be used in campaigns .....................................................................11
12)
Customer fields .........................................................................................................11
13)
Campaign Data..........................................................................................................13
14)
Viewing campaign results: reports ...............................................................................14
1) Creating users
Each person who uses the Adaptive software should have their own user for them to log in with.
Users can also be associated with a team, which lets you group users together for common options.
1. To open the Adaptive Management Console:
-Click on the “Start” menu
- Go to “All Programs”
- Click on the “Adaptive” folder
-Double click on “Adaptive Management Console”
2. If you have not yet created your own username/password (which is recommended), use the
default “administrator” as your username. No password is required.
3. If the Management Console is already open but nobody is logged in (somebody must have
previously opened it and logged out), log in to the Adaptive Management Console by
clicking this button
4. If another user is already logged in to the Adaptive Management Console, a warning may
occur: “another is using editor”. Click “Yes” to continue. (This will not log the other user out;
more than one user can be logged in at once and it should not cause any issues.)
5. Select the “Config” tab, then click on the “Users and teams” option in the drop-down menu.
The Configuration Editor will then appear, as below:
6. The “Users” page shows a list of all configured users. Click the “Add…” button to display the
“Add User” dialog, which will then appear as below:
7. The “Name” and “Password” fields specify the details the user will use to log into the
Adaptive Desktop.
The “Display name” field specifies the name that will appear on that user’s Adaptive
Desktop display and on all users’ Busy Lamp Field display if they monitor this user.
8. You may assign a user to a team by selecting the team from the “Team” drop-down menu.
If you have not yet created any teams, the list will be empty. Users do not have to belong to
a team and you may leave the selected team set to “<none>” if you wish. To create a team,
see the next section.
9. The user can be assigned a default extension from this page. Enter the extension number for
the telephone the user is likely to be using in the “Default telephone extension number”
text box.
10. The user can set the default language that they use for spell checking emails and SMS
messages. By default this is set to English (UK). To change this, tick the “Default Language
Selection” box, then select which language you would like to use from the drop-down menu.
11. Click “OK”.
2) Creating Teams
1. Click on the “Teams” tab in the Configuration Editor.
2. Click the “Add...” button, which will then appear as below:
3. Type in a team name into the “Name” textbox. For example, “Sales”.
4. Click “Apply” then “OK”.
3) Queues
You assign Progressive Dialler campaigns to queues so that users can make the campaign calls. You
can use the “Default” queue if you wish: this queue is always available. If you only run one campaign
at a time, or if all your users participate in every campaign, then you may not need to create any
extra queues. If you run multiple campaigns and different users participate in different campaigns,
then you may find it convenient to have different queues for your campaigns.
Queues are used to store messages (such as call-backs) and dialler campaign calls. If your licence
enables call-backs or dialler campaign calls, then the Configuration Editor will include a “Queues”
tab. The “Queues” page shows a list of configured queues.
N.B. If you add or remove any queues, you will have to stop and restart the Adaptive Queues Server
service on the server PC. You should only do this when all users have logged out of the Adaptive
Desktop. See below for details.
The “Default” queue
All Adaptive installations have a standard queue called “Default”. You cannot delete or rename this
queue. If your licence supports multiple queues, you can add as many extra queues as you like.
The “Undeliverable” queue
When the Adaptive Message Processor tries to send an outbound message (e.g. using SMTP to
communicate with your outbound email server), the message may not be sent successfully. The
problem might be temporary, such as your email server having lost its connection to the Internet. If
the problem is temporary, the Message Processor will simply retain the message in its outbound
queue and attempt to send it again in a few minutes.
However, if the problem is clearly not temporary, such as the target email address being invalid or
unrecognised by the target’s domain email server, then the Message Processor will put the email
into the “Undeliverable” queue. The Message Processor does not “know how to fix” the problem
email, so a user must retrieve the message from the “Undeliverable” queue and take appropriate
action.
NB: You cannot delete or rename the “Undeliverable” queue.
4) Creating queues
1. Log out all users and stop the Adaptive Queues Server service.
- Click “Start” then search “services.msc” and open the file.
- In the “Services” dialog box, click on the “Adaptive Queues Server”.
- In the “Description” dialog that is displayed to the left, click the “Stop” button.
2. On the Adaptive Management Console, click the “Config” tab
3. On the drop-down menu, select “System” then click on “Queues Server Service”
4. Click the “Queues ” tab, which will then appear as below:
5. Click “Add...”then type in the name of the new queue. Note that queue names must be
unique.
6. When you have finished adding queues, click “Apply” then “OK”.
7. Close the Configuration Editor
8. You will then need to restart the Queues Server:
Click “Start”
- Search “services.msc” and open the file.
- In the services dialog box, click on “Adaptive Queues Server”
- In the “Description” dialog that is displayed to the left, click the “restart” button
5) Configure users to retrieve calls from a queue
If you create more queues for campaign calls, make sure that the users who will participate in
campaigns can retrieve from those queues. To enable a user to retrieve campaign calls from a
queue, go to the Configuration Editor (as directed above) and:
1. Go to the “Users” page (as directed above), select a user and click the “Edit…” button.
2. Select the “Queues” tab.
3. Click the “…” button above the “Retrieval queues” list to display the “Select Retrieval or
Forwarding Queues” dialog, then highlight the new queue and click “OK”.
4. Click the “OK” button to save the changes and close the “Edit User” dialog.
6) Campaigns
A campaign is essentially a list of calls to make. The Dialler will automatically transfer calls from a
“queue” of data and assign it to the first free user. You can use the Adaptive Campaign Editor to
create and assign Progressive Dialler campaigns.
1. Run the Campaign Editor by pressing this button
Console, which will then appear as below:
on the Adaptive Management
2. Enter the name you would like to call the campaign. This will be the display name that
appears on reports.
3. Click on the “Campaign” tab, then click on “Settings” from the drop-down menu and a
further page will appear where you can configure all of the options in the following sections.
NB: You do not have to wait for one campaign to finish before you assign another. However, it is
recommended that you assign different campaigns to different queues, rather than trying to merge
all the calls into one queue. If you keep separate campaigns in separate queues, you will also have
much more control over which users are making calls for each campaign.
7) Call Wrap-up and Retries
1. Select the “Wrap-up and Retries” tab, which will then appear as below:
4. “Call preparation time”: this is the delay time before the call starts actually dialling. Enter
the number of seconds you would like this to last in the “Call preparation time (seconds):”
text box. Alternatively, tick the “unlimited” box if you do not wish to set a specific amount of
time (this would mean that the call would not start ringing until the user manually selects
the “dial now” button.)
5. “Post-call wrap-up time”: this is the delay between the current call finishing and the next
call starting to dial. Enter the number of seconds you would like the delay to be in the “Postcall wrap-up time (seconds):” text box.
6. “Engaged retry”: the “retry count” is the number of times you would like to retry calling a
number that is engaged. “Delay between retry attempts (minutes)” is how long between
retries you would like there to be a delay for.
Please enter the desired “retry count” and “delay between retry attempts (minutes):” for
unanswered calls. (This is the same as the previous step, but for when calls are not answered
rather than when calls get through to an engaged line.)
7. Click “Apply” then “OK”.
8) Result Codes
This determines how a contact is dealt with after a call is made. When the call ends and the dialog
closes, the user can then select a Result Code to log the outcome of the call. This will be used in any
results report. To configure these Result Codes, complete the following steps:
1. Select the “Result Codes” tab, which will then appear as below:
2. Click the “New Result Code” button
3. Enter a name for your specified Result Code into the “Meaning (text):” text box. Again this
will be used in any results report so that you can identify how the call was dealt with.
4. Select the action you wish to take once a call is completed from the three options in the
drop-down menu:
-
“Contact completed”: this is the default action and completes the campaign call putting the
user into wrap if required.
“Dial the next number”: this hangs up the current dialled call and tries to dial another
number for the contact if one is specified
“Dial the next number and never retry this number”: this hangs up the current dialled call
and tries to dial another number for the contact if one is specified. It also “marks” the
current dialled number as “unusable” in the campaign so that it is not redialled again if this
call is placed back into the queue.
5. Click “Apply” then “OK”.
9) Screen- pops
A screen-pop is a window/ dialog box that automatically appears when a call is made, displaying
information. Campaign-specific screen-pops are independent of any normal screen-pops configured
for all outbound calls made by users in a team. This is useful if, for example, a user participates in
outbound dialling campaigns but also makes non-campaign calls. In this case, if you were to assign a
generic outbound telephone call screen-pop, then the screen-pop would be activated for every
outbound call, not just for campaign calls. Please see documentation on “How to manage Adaptive
Office Applications” for more information on creating generic screen-pops.
10)
Creating campaign-specific screen-pops
1. Select the “Screen-Pops” tab, which will then appear as below:
2. To select the events when you want a screen-pop to occur, first click the “New ScreenPop” button.
3. Then select one of the following events from the drop-down menu:
- When the campaign call is presented to the user (i.e. when the Adaptive Desktop shows
the campaign call dialog).
- When the call starts ringing.
- When the call is answered.
- When wrap-up begins after the customer or the user hangs up.
- When the call is rescheduled.
- When the campaign call dialog closes.
4. Now click the
button which is next to the “run this macro” text box and select the macro
you would like to use.
NB: A macro is a set of simple instructions that is usually assigned to a button on the
Adaptive desktop. The name of the macro will be the button label that it has been
assigned to. (This should have already been configured by a technician...)
5. Click “Open” then “OK”.
11)
Selecting queues to be used in campaigns
A “queue” is essentially a list of contacts you want to ring when doing a campaign. (To create a
queue, see previous section.) You can select which queue of contacts you want to use for each
campaign. To do this:
1. Click on the “Select Queue” tab, which will appear as below:
2. Select the calls queue you would like to add to the campaign from the drop-down menu. NB:
Selecting a queue here does not assign any calls to it.
3. Click “Apply” then “OK”
NB: You do not have to wait for one campaign to finish before you assign another. However, it is
recommended that you assign different campaigns to different queues, rather than trying to merge
all the calls into one queue. If you keep separate campaigns in separate queues, you will also have
much more control over which users are making calls for each campaign.
12)
Customer fields
When a call is presented for dialling, certain information will appear. For example, you may want to
display the customer name, company he/she works for and the phone number of the person you are
calling. To choose whichinformation you would like to appear, you can create custom “fields” using
the Campaign Editor. Noted that the first two fields, telephone number and contact name, are
required and cannot be changed.
1. Open the Campaign Editor (as directed above) and select the “Fields” tab, which will then
appear as below:
2. Click the
like.
button to add in a customer field: you can add as many different fields as you
3. Select “standard field” to use fields such as name/address etc or “telephone number” to
use phone numbers.
NB: Any field with the type “Telephone Number” will be used by the Adaptive Desktop or
Predictive dialler as a valid telephone number to dial. This allows campaign call records to
contain multiple telephone numbers for a single contact. For example home, mobile and
work numbers. When the campaign call is presented the Adaptive software will dial each
number in turn (in the order they are found in the custom fields) until it gets a successful
connection. Once a campaign call is Result coded then, depending on the Result code
selected by the User, the next number may be dialled whilst keeping the same campaign call
available on the Adaptive Desktop.
4. Click “OK” then close the “Campaign Settings” dialog box.
5. To add phone numbers, click this button
Adaptive Campaign Editor toolbar.
, which is the “import from file” button, on the
6. Select the file you would like to import phone numbers from then click “Open”.
13)
Campaign Data
How to connect to the SQL database to import data automatically using the Campaign Editor:
1. Select the “Campaign Data” tab, then click “Settings.” A dialog box will appear. Select the
“Campaign Data” tab, which will appear as below:
2. Tick the “Configure data controller” box.
3. First you will need to setup a connection to your database. To do this, under “Database
options”, click the “Connection settings...” tab to select the database you wish to import
data from. The “Select Data Source” dialog box will then appear.
4. Select the database you wish to import data from, then click “OK”.
5. You can then use the database connection to specify how to retrieve your data from the
database. To do this, use the “Wizard...” button on the Campaign Data tab to match up
fields, or click “Advanced...” and type in your stored procedure into the “SQL Statement”
textbox and click “OK”; this will get the data for you.
NB: All data fields that are matched with custom fields must be returned from the database
as text fields only. Data Controller does not support the conversion of other field types.
6. Under “Results options”, select how you would like to store the results for this campaign:
either in “One file” or “One file per schedule”.
7. “Purge Options”: here you can choose whether or not you remove calls from the
queue/campaign. Select whether you would like to remove calls from the current campaign
by selecting “in this campaign” or if you would like to remove calls from the queue you are
using by selecting “Calls in queue”.
8. Select the type of calls you wish to be removed: “Undialled”, “Engaged”, “Rescheduled” or
“Unanswered” calls.
9. Next select when you would like this process to take place. This can be once on a certain day
at a certain time, or you can choose a time for a “First run” and a “Last run”.
10. Alternatively, you can set it so that it occurs at intervals; select “First run at” then tick the
“Every” box. Enter how often you would like it to take place in the “Mins” box.
11. You can also set it to when the number of calls left in the queue falls below a certain
number: tick the “If undialled campaign calls fall to” box, and then enter the number in the
queue in the text box.
12. Click “Apply” then “OK”.
13. If you are finished creating campaigns, click the
button on the Adaptive Management
Console to logout.
14)
Viewing campaign results: reports
You can retrieve a multitude of reports. “Real-time” reports include: users status reports, queues
reports and server reports. You can also get “Historical” reports: multi-user summaries, single user
summaries, single user detail, queues throughput and server reports. Getting reports on these is
very simple to do using the Adaptive Management Console. The following is an example of how to
obtain a Single Campaign Report:
1. Open the Adaptive Management Console (as above).
2. Click on the “Historical” tab, then select “Campaigns” from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the “Single Campaign Report” option, which will then appear as below:
The list shows the display name of the campaign, the date when the campaign was assigned to a
queue and the number of call results for that campaign. If the campaign is still active, i.e. there are
still calls for that campaign currently in a queue, the number of results shown will be the number of
calls that have been completed to date.
The list of campaigns in the “Select Campaign” dialog is initially in date order, starting with the
oldest (first assigned) campaign. You can reorder the list by clicking on the column headings.
4. Select the campaign you would like to view results of from the list, then click “OK”. The
report of your selected campaign will then appear, formatted as below:
NB: Once you have assigned a campaign to a queue, you cannot change the settings for those calls.
However, you can remove all remaining campaign calls from a queue by using the “Purge” feature in
the Configuration Editor “Queues” page (see above section on “Adding Queues and editing Queues
settings”.)
To retrieve any of the aforementioned reports, just select the desired tab in the Adaptive
Management Console (i.e. either “historical” or “real-time”) then select from the drop-down menu
the report you wish to obtain.