Auto-Dialer Addon

Description

Auto-Dialer addon lets you call an array of numbers automatically. When call is answered, receiver hears the audio message or he is in standby mode, it depends on what is set in Auto Dialer actions (PLAY / IVR / WAIT). This functionality can be used in telemarketing.

Usage

When Auto-Dialer (AD) is installed, every user can use it.

From User

The user can find the AD menu under PERSONAL MENU -> Various -> Auto Dialer.

The main window shows the user's campaigns:



The user can Activate or Stop the Campaign by clicking the or button near the Campaign's status.

A Campaign can only be Activated if it has free (not-called) numbers AND some Actions.

So please, before activating a Campaign, import some Numbers and create Actions.

NOTE: Auto Dialer starts in 5 minutes, so when you are starting this add-on, you need to wait 5 minutes before it starts.

Campaigns

Auto-Dialer can be found under PERSONAL MENU -> Various -> Auto Dialer.

Add new campaign allows you to add a new campaign:



The important fields here are:

• Start/Stop Times – when calls will be made.
• Max Retries – how many times to retry an unsuccessful call.
• Retry Time – how many seconds the system should wait to retry the call.
• Wait Time – how long to wait till the call is answered. This field by default is 10 and cannot be made less. This is done in order to

prevent annoying multiple calls from Auto Dialer to the end user if for example "Wait Time" is configured as 5 seconds.

• Device – each Campaign should be assigned to a Device in order for MOR to bill the call.
• CallerID - what CallerID to put on calls.

Numbers

Click on in the Numbers column to check numbers which will be dialed on campaign:



The user can import phone numbers from a TXT file. Numbers should be in correct dialing format and not duplicated.

Example of numbers file:

442012345678
442087654321
442054987123

In a new Campaign there are no numbers, so click on Import numbers from file and select the file to upload:



After uploading the file, you will see status of imported numbers:



You can delete all numbers by clicking Delete all numbers. Also you can export details by clicking Export IVR/poll results to CSV

If a number is Completed, it is possible to reactivate it (tell the system to call it again) by clicking the icon near the number.

Actions

Click in the Actions column to access the Campaign's actions:



In this window, the user programs the Actions for the Campaign:

Types of Actions:

• WAIT – how many seconds to wait.
• PLAY – play a file.
• IVR - send call to IVR. It can be used to connect to a real person and give the callee a greater choice. For example, it is possible to play an advertisement and tell the user to press '1' to talk with a real person about this advertisement or similar.
  • NOTE: admin or Reseller PRO must check option "All users can use it" on IVR to allow users to set that IVR on AD campaign.

Redial all failed Calls

You can redial all failed calls:

From Admin

When Auto-Dialer (AD) is installed, Admin can find it under the ADDONS –> Auto Dialer menu. Here he can get a view of all users' campaigns:



The important information for each Campaign is:

• Status – is the Campaign Active or Stopped?
• Run time – tells when calls will be made.

All other fields are self-explanatory.

It is possible for admin to see the Actions for users' Campaigns. Just click on the Actions button. However he cannot make any changes to the user's campaign.

Workflow

Each 5 minutes, "cron job" is activated to check whether any campaigns are activated.

If there are some active campaigns, the script creates call files for the future.

It puts calls in Time Period in equal time periods, to balance the workload for Asterisk.

For example, if you have 10 calls to make, the script will execute them in 6s intervals to start all calls in 1 min time.

Variables in /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/mor.conf:

calls_one_time - how many calls to distribute per one minute. (PLEASE NOTE, this value is not for simultaneous calls! It has a very different meaning, which is explained below).

cron_interval - the interval of time (in minutes) in which we should 'put' calls. Do not set value higher than "4" as it would cause overlapping of Autodialer sessions.

Example #1:

calls_one_time = 10.
cron_interval = 1.

That means that in 1 minute the script will put 10 calls. So each call will be executed at a 6s interval:

1st call: 0s
2nd call: 6s
3rd call: 12s
....
9th call: 54s
10th call: 60s

Example #2:

calls_one_time = 5.
cron_interval = 2.

That means that in 1 minute the script will put 5 calls and it will do so for 2 minutes. So each call will be executed at a 12s interval:

1st call: 0s
2nd call: 12s
3rd call: 24s
4rd call: 36s
5th call: 48s
6th call: 60s
7th call: 72s
8th call: 84s
9th call: 96s
10th call: 108s

Limitations

Currently MOR does not support such functionality as to issue the Auto Dialer campaign only in that Asterisk

server to which the device belongs (if you have multiple Asterisk servers). Now MOR just issues the campaign on both servers, if you want it to

run only on one server you need to just disable the cron job on one of the servers. Cron can be found in

/etc/cron.d/mor_ad

Logs

Autodialer log can be found here:

/var/log/mor/mor_ad_cron.log

Problems

• MOR Server Speedup (to get more calls by AD)
• I have a problem with Auto Dialer

See also

• Autodialer poll example
• Convert WAV file to Asterisk playable format
  
• Sound files