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Blended Inbound/Outbound with Automatic Respondent Identification
In a blended Inbound/Outbound scenario interviewers are kept busy working on outbound calls but will be fed inbound calls when they are available. Inbound callers are automatically played a message and then queued until the dialer is able to allocate them to an available interviewerInterviewers become available at the end of each call attempt before the next call is connected.. Whenever an inbound call is delivered to the interviewer the header and footer of the application will turn green to highlight that the current call is an inbound call.
DDI Number Association
A DDI number is associated with the survey so that the system can automatically route the inbound caller to the applicable survey. DDI number associations are set up in the Supervisor UI (refer to the Supervisor documentation for more information).
Note: A DDI number can only be directly associated with one survey at a time, but it is possible to associate multiple DDI numbers to the same survey (see Language Preference). It is possible to associate one DDI number with multiple surveys, however this must be managed indirectly using a master/linked survey set up (see Blended Inbound/Outbound with manual respondent identification).
CLI Number Matching
The default behavior of the system is to look at the CLI number of the inbound caller and then attempt to match it to an identical number in the pre-loaded sample contact list of the survey (comparing the CLI number with numbers pre-loaded into the systems TelephoneNumber field). If a match is found then the inbound call will be served up directly to the first available agent (with both the survey and survey record having been automatically identified by the combination of the DDI and CLI numbers).
If no match can be found, for example because the respondent uses an unknown or withheld number to call in with or because the survey has no pre-loaded sample, then the system can dynamically create a new interview record.
Note: It is recommended to log this caller's ID to the freshly created record so that they will automatically be returned to the same record in future call attempts. This can be achieved using a Custom Script function in the Inbound Call rule of the survey schedule.
The CLI matching behavior can be adjusted on a survey basis via the ‘Inbound Caller ID Matching’ setting on the survey general tab. This setting has the following additional options…
Match CLI without creating a record.
The system will attempt to match the CLI with existing sample records but if no match is found it will not create new records.
Do not match CLI.
The system will always create a new record for an inbound call.
Having created a new record there are two possible ways to proceed:
The interview continues in the freshly created record, but there can be no link back to existing sample data.
Some questions are asked of the respondent to establish their identity, then a search is performed against the sample contacts. The interviewer can select the appropriate interview record and begin the linked interview (go to Identifying and Linking to Surveys and Interviews for more information).
Interviewer Assignment
For an inbound call to be delivered to an interviewer, they must have a valid assignment to the record (either a survey level assignment or an explicit record level assignment). It is possible for inbound calls to be delivered for a survey which the interviewer is not currently making outbound calls on. This is achieved by assigning interviewers via groups which have the property ‘allow inbound calls from other surveys’ enabled.
Language preference
It is possible to assign more than one DDI number to the same survey. This can be useful when there’s a requirement to serve interviews up to inbound callers based on some key information in the sample data. A prime example of this is whereby the language preference of the caller is known in advance and so can be pre-loaded in the sample data. A DDI number can then be used for each language so that the inbound calls are automatically served up to the applicable language based interviewer groups. For more information on how to set this up, refer to the separate CATI Supervisor documentation: ‘Routing inbound calls through the use of a scheduling script’.
Another option is to use the Internal Call Transfer functionality to re-assign the inbound call to an appropriate language speaking group.
Blended Inbound/Outbound Calls with One DDI to Multiple Surveys
Although only one survey can directly be associated to a DDI it is possible to associate multiple surveys to a single DDI through the use of linked surveys. The basic concept here is that all inbound calls are initially delivered into a master survey and from there the interviewer is able to ask some questions of the respondent and then perform a search which will return a matching list of surveys and interview records. Selecting a survey/record will pass the interviewer directly into the appropriate linked survey and interview record. The link can either be made to another record in the same survey or to another record in a separate survey.
Inbound IVR with Transfer to Live Interviewers
On supported systemsA supporting system is one which has an integrated dialer that provides IVR capability. Usage of IVR is also dependent upon having license for enough concurrent virtual IVR agents to support the expected volume of inbound calls during peak times. it is possible to have inbound calls serviced by IVR. This could be a complete interview experience using IVR to present questions and capture responses, or IVR could be used to automate screening or routing of inbound calls to suitable surveys, interview records or interviewer groups.
Inbound Only with Automatic Call Routing
The system tries to work in outbound mode by default, so this means that as soon as an interviewer is logged in and they have valid calls assigned to them the system will begin to place outbound calls to the available sample contacts. If you do not want the interviewer to be working on outbound calls (that is you want them to be fully reserved and waiting for inbound calls) then it is necessary to assign the time to call property for the assigned calls to have a date/time in the future. When the interviewer logs into the system they will then just see a spinning icon until an inbound call is received.
Inbound Only with Manual Survey and Record Searching
In this scenario, inbound calls are routed to the interviewers without going through the CATI system or dialer. So for example calls are answered using regular desk phones and transferred using the functionality of the phone system. The interviewers will be working with the manual ‘Task Choice’ property which means they will be presented with a selection of all the open surveys and interview records for which they have an assignment upon logging in. To locate a contact for which sample has been pre-loaded, the interviewer can select a survey and then use the column heading filters to find the caller.
Note that it is possible to add additional search columns based on survey specific variables (refer to the separate CATI Supervisor documentation for details).
It might also be desirable to allow new interview records to be created on the fly, for example when no pre-loaded sample contacts are used or if the interviewer is unable to locate the caller using the search options but there is still a wish to conduct an interview. To support this the CATI survey setting ‘Allow dynamic creation of new respondent records’ must be enabled, which in turn will enable the Create New Interview button on the interviewer's manual selection screen.
Constraints of this method
- As the inbound calls are not routed through the dialer, dialer-based features will not be available, for example call monitoring, recording or transfers.
- Search filtering in the interviewer's manual selection screen only supports the application of filters within a given survey; it is not possible to search across all or multiple surveys in a single search operation.