Context
The marketing department within Nixxis is organising a webinar to introduce the new features of Nixxis Contact Suite (NCS). As part of this effort, they will establish an outbound calling activity to contact their clients and partners, inviting them to participate in the webinar.
Customers will be called by a dedicated team, Nixxis Marketing, from Monday to Friday, between 9 AM and 12PM, and from 2 PM to 6 PM.
This procedure explains how to configure NCS to manage this new outbound campaign.
Creating the Campaign (Advanced mode) : Nixxis Marketing
Campaigns are the central part of the Nixxis Contact Suite software, where all different parts come together. In the Nixxis Contact Suite a campaign can contain both Outbound and/or Inbound activities.
For simplicity in implementation of this use case, this Marketing campaign will utilise only a single activity for outbound calling.
- In the NCS administrator module, select "Campaign"
- Click on the "Add" button
- A pop-up will appear offering two choices: advanced or simple. Choose "Advanced" for more options, as the advanced module offers more possibilities
- Set the campaign name to: "Nixxis Marketing"
Creating the Outbound Activity: Webinar
Select the "Nixxis Marketing" campaign, press the "Add" button, and choose "Add a new activity as a child of Nixxis Marketing".
This is a voice activity, select the "SIP plugin".
Name your activity: “Webinar”
Choose the activity type: “Outbound”
- Enter the originator number (this number will be presented to the callee) for exemple : "0123456789" (Please note that this phone number must be authorised by your telephone operator)
- Select the dialing mode to be used (this setting can be altered at any time during the activity's lifespan). In this case, choose : "Progressive"
- Decide whether you want to use a screen script for this activity. In this case, select "eScript”
- Decide if you want the conversations to be recorded for this activity
- Tick the box to activate recording
Creating Queue
To optimise the distribution of answered calls to agents, the dialer assigns them to a queue which will itself be attached to the “Webinar” activity
- In the NCS administrator's queue menu, click on the “Add” button
- Enter the name of the queue: “Webinar Queue”
The following pop-up allows you to assign an existing team to this queue.
At this moment, a dedicated team has not yet been created will be assigned later.
Assign the Webinar queue to the Webinar activity
In NCS administrator campaign Menu
- Select "Webinar" activity
- In queue menu select "Webinar Queue"
- Save
Dispositions/Qualifications
Call end qualifications will provide an effective statistical overview of call handling within an activity and will enable the definition of various strategies for managing a contact across multiple other activities.
Three possible qualifications exist:
- positive
- negative
- neutral
Negative and neutral qualifications can be defined as argued or non-argued qualifications. Positive qualifications are by default considered to be argued.
Create a new disposition Set for Nixxis Marketing campaign
In NCS administrator in the campaign menu:
- Select your "Nixxis Marketing" campaign
- Select “disposition” tab
- Press the “Add” button
- Select “Add a new disposition in the context of Nixxis Marketing”
Create a positive qualification :
- In the pop-up, enter the qualification name: “Enrolled”
- Select the "Positive" value, and the value of the "Argued" field will be automatically checked as "Argued"
Create a Negative qualification :
- In the pop-up, enter the qualification name: “Refusal”
- Select "Negative" value. It may be possible to choose whether this qualification will be considered as "argued" or not
- For each qualification, it is possible to choose an action. In this case choose: 'Do not retry' (the contact will not be called anymore)
Create a Neutral qualification :
- In the pop-up, enter the qualification name: “Targeted CallBack”
- Select "Neutral" value. It may be possible to choose whether this qualification will be considered as "argued" or not . Select “Argued”
- Action: “Targeted Callback” (This contact will be called back by the agent at the agreed time)
Activity Disposition Options
In NCS admnistrator campaign Menu:
- Select "Nixxis Marketing" campaign
- Select "Webinar" activity
- Select "Disposition" tab
In this tab several option are available:
- Dispositions are mandatory on this activity: An agent will not be able to close their record after a call without selecting a disposition
- Check this box
- Manual Dispositions are disabled: Agent qualifications will be disabled for this activity
- Uncheck this box
All the qualifications created for this campaign will appear; select those that will be explicitly used in this activity:
- Check "Enrolled", "Refusal" and "Targeted Callback"
Database Management: Design and Implementation
The goal here is to define the structure of the database connected to this campaign and integrate a list of contacts to call.
For this example, the file to be integrated is attached to this documentation
- Create an Excel file containing all the fields that you will need (result of the import- and result database)
- Do not use blanks and special characters (like accents) when defining the names
- Use an underscore instead
- Add some extra fields that can be used if after starting the campaign you discover that you forgot some fields. This will ensure the same file can be used every time you require a new field
Note : extra fields can be added to the database when needed but it will make it easier if you have foreseen some extra fields in a proactive way.
Implement the Data File to an outbound campaign
In NCS administrator campaign Menu:
- Select "Nixxis Marketing" campaign
- Click on the "Data" button to open the Data management window
- Select "add data"
Note: Files can be either csv, txt, xls
Also ensure that you are using the correct encoding, it can be either "encoding utf-8 or ansi"
To know which encoding is set for your instance contact: support@nixxis.com
- Select the path of the excel file you want to import. (file attached to this documentation)
- Select the decimal symbol: “Dot”
- Select the sheet1 of the excel containing the contact list you want to import are stored
- Select the option “First line contains fields names”
After clicking the ‘Next’ button, a popup will appear with the filtered records to be imported, it will give you the top 50 records in preview.
The scroll bar at the bottom allows you to view the data fields of the records.
A click on the ‘Next’ button brings you to a screen to associate the fields from the imported file to the fields in database.
- Define the fields that have a special meaning for the Nixxis Contact Suite
Ensure that the field containing (telephone) the phone number to be called has a “phone number meaning" (business phone number, business mobile number, home phone number or private mobile number).
In this case, for the "telephone" field containing information about the phone number to contact, select the meaning "Business phone number".
A click on the ‘Next’ button brings you to the wizard to specify record affectations:
- Added records will be affect to the following activity: allows to specify the affection of the added recorded to a specific activity
- Specify preferred agent : 'Allows you to select a preferred agent for added recordings
- Mark added records with tag : Allows you to add a specific tag to the recordings added, making it easier to identify them in the database
In this use case, there is no need for it.
A click on the ‘Next’ button brings you to the wizard to adjust phone numbers:
The following fields are check boxes that be activated or deactivated by a click:
- Remove non-numeric characters
- Remove prefix
- Add a prefix
In this use case, there is no need for it.
After a click on the ‘Next’ button, the summary popup appears:
Click on the finish button and you will get the following screen indicating that the database has been created successfully and the contact list has been sucessfully imported.
Creating a team
- Access the administration panel “Teams”
- Click on the “Add” button
- Specify the name of the team : “Nixxis Marketing Team”
On a click of the “Next“ button, a pop up window allows to select existing agents to assign to the team.
Dedicated agents have not yet been created; they will be assigned later
On a click of the “Next “button a pop-up window allows to select existing queue to assign to the team.
Select : Webinar Queue
Creating a user
- Access the administration panel “Users”
- Click on the “Add” button
- Choose : “Create one user” (It is also possible to create a range of agents)
Account : Enter a short code. This is the code to use to connect to the Nixxis software : Bbanner
First name : Agent First Name : Bruce
Last name : Agent Name : Banner
Description : Appropriate agent description : B Banner Marketing
Create associated integrated softphone : Checking this box will automatically create a phone extension assigned to this agent : Checked
On a click on the “Next” button a window offers to assign the agent to one or more teams.
- Select “Nixxis Marketing Team"
Creating a planning
The creation of a schedule assigned to an activity allows for controlling the periods when contacts will be called by the dialer.
- In the NCS administrator module, select the "Operational settings" menu
- Select “Planning”
- Click on “Add” button
- Specify the name of the planning: “Webinar Planning”
In the “Week Days schedule” tab, Select the time slot of the opening hours of the schedule by using a click and drag method.
- Select opening hours : Monday to Friday 9h-12h 14h-18h
Affect Webinar planning to Webinar activity:
- In NCS administrator in Campaign menu
- Select Nixxis Marketing campaign
- Select Webinar Activity
- Check Use planning option
- Choose Webinar Planning
- Choose Action when the planning indicated hours : Pause activity option (This will ensure that no calls will be made for this activity outside the specified hours, even if an agent logs into this activity)
Choosing the Script
The screen script will enable the agent to view information about the contacted client.
In NCS administrator in Campaign menu
- Select "Nixxis Marketing" campaign
- Select your "Webinar Activity"
- In Script Menu select "eScript-X"
By clicking on the right arrow window allows to select the script created for this activity :
- Select the last version of the script
Final checks before launching the activity
All the essential elements for launching the outbound 'Webinar' activity have been created.
The activity configuration screen allows for a quick and easy verification to ensure that they have all been properly assigned.
In NCS admnistrator campaign Menu:
- Select "Nixxis Marketing" campaign
- Select "Webinar" activity
- An appropriate number presented to the caller
- An appropriate dialing mode
- A queue for distributing answered calls to agents
- A screen script for the agent
- A schedule controlling call hours
Make sure that the agents that will work on a particular activity are member on the team that is linked to the queue that the activity is using. This is done like explained previously.
Unpause the activity: until now the activity is paused. After launching it, the dialer will start dialing as soon as agents belonging to the linked teams are logged in.
- Click on the button "Click to unpause Outbound" to unpause the activity