On-hold Messages

When a respondent attempts to call an interviewer, in most cases the calling respondent is not guaranteed immediate contact with the interviewer and a situation can arise when no-one is available to answer the cal. The CATI system therefore provides a set of "On-hold" messages to inform the respondent roughly how long they must wait for an answer, or whether they should call again later.

This is a company-wide setting. The CATI Supervisor supports playing back audio files in MP3 format. All messages (audio files) are played a specified number of times, and if a field in the setup page is left blank then no message will be played.

If necessary the supervisor can add and configure a set of on-hold messages that will replace the default messages for a selected DDI number.

Configuring the Default On-hold Messages

1. Go to the Resources tab and choose Inbound Settings.
2. Select the DDI number you want to configure and click the Manage Recorded Messages button on the toolbar in the right frame.

The Default On-hold Messages list opens.



Figure 1 - The Default On-hold Messages list

The following messages can be set up to play on reception of an inbound call:

• Compulsory message - A message which (if defined) will be played to the respondent as soon as the inbound call is connected. This message (if supplied and set to play) is always played once and in full to the respondent immediately the dialer accepts the incoming call. The respondent has no way to interrupt or skip the message. After the message has finished playing, the system will start to play the 'Waiting audio' (see below). For example: "Note that the interview may be recorded for our quality control process".
• Waiting audio - A message or music that will be played to the respondent while they are waiting to be connected to an available interviewer. This message will continue to play while there are no agents available to pick up the call, and it stops playing as soon as the system connects an agent to the call. If a compulsory message is defined then the waiting audio will only start after this message has been played. If no compulsory message is defined, the 'waiting audio' may be played first.
• Message to play to the respondent if the system needs to drop the call due to an unexpected error.
• Message to play if the survey is not available due to:
• The survey is closed. Note that repetitive playback of a recorded message is only possible if the dialing system supports it.
• The survey was deleted.
• Message to play if the interview cannot be found. This message is played when the inbound caller has an unknown or unspecified caller ID and a new interview must be started due to the situation. It is assumed that after the message is played an available agent can be connected who will then ask some questions to locate the appropriate survey and record. If this functionality is not enabled the system will play this message for any case where the caller ID cannot be found and matched to the applicable survey and interview record (this includes the case where the caller ID is withheld/empty).
• Message to play when a call is received outside of call center operating hours - this message is played if a caller ID is recognized but the call cannot be answered because the call center is closed at the time of the call. The availability status for the call center is based upon the permitted shift times (as defined in the schedule/shifts tab for the applicable survey schedule) and the current time for the call center is based on the default time zone setting (as specified under Resources/Active Timezone list).
3. All fields in the "Default On-hold Messages" form accept URLs pointing to a particular Audio file.
4. By default all messages are played once. If the dialing system supports multiple repetition of audio file playback, the Supervisor can configure each message to be played a desired number of times sequentially (to ensure the caller clearly understands the message). To that end the supervisor should choose a value from a corresponding Repeat Count drop-down list. This setting affects only the selected message.
5. Click the Save button on the bottom right frame toolbar to save the On-Hold Messages settings after all changes have been made.
6. Parameters of each configured default On-Hold Message can be edited later. To edit parameters select a message in the list and click the Edit DDI Number button on the toolbar. This will display the parameters in the bottom frame. Follow the instructions described in the steps

Configuring the Overriding On-hold Messages

When required, the supervisor can replace existing on-hold messages with messages of his own choice. This can be done separately for each DDI number from the list displayed in the top right frame.

1. Right-click the desired DDI number in the list in the top right frame and choose Manage DDI specific recorded messages from the context menu.

An extended On-Hold Messages dialog opens. The frame's title bar indicates that this dialog is specific for the selected DDI number only. In addition to a set of regular parameters it contains a set of similar parameters which can be set up independently of the default ones.



Figure 2 - Configuring a DDI-specific set of On-Hold Messages

2. The grayed-out messages on the right side of the frame are the default set; edit the set on the left.
3. When choosing the number of repeats from the Repeat Count drop-down list you can select the "Default" value. This means that an overriding message will be played back the number of times specified for the default message. Repetitive playback of a recorded message is only possible if the dialing system supports it.

If a file name for an overriding on-hold message is left empty, the default message will be played.

4. On completion click the Save button on the frame toolbar.