auto-dial campaign to dial without any live agents

[learjg]

vicibox 3.0.6 /vicidial 2.4-284 /asterisk 1.4.27.1

Purchased and have read the Managers Manual several times and I'm having trouble figuring a few things out. I'm trying to setup an auto-dial campaign to play recorded message and hang up (for a political campaign). The manual seems to have contradictory information on how to do so or I'm not reading it correctly.
From Managers Manual 2.21 2010-5-10 version:

pg. 28
Full Answering Machine Detection -
This method is able to be set up using only the Admin web interface, no manual dialplan editing necessary.
pg. 31
Full Answering Machine Detection -
Use the easy-prompt process to record your new prompt.(Follow the same procedure as the
above step for this only you don't need to delay the beginning by 2-3 seconds) Take your prompt
number and put it into the "Playback" line as shown in the dialplan(extensions.conf) entries below:

Do I need to edit the dailplan or not??

Also, on pg. 32:
3. To set the Remote Agent up and start dialing first go to the Remote Agent Modification screen. If you are using Full Answering Machine Detection you will need to set the "External Extension" field to 8321

But exten => 8321 is not in the default dialplan.

Can someone please tell me what I'm missing?

[mflorell]

Keep in mind that the Answering Machine Detection(AMD) built in is only 70% accurate at best, and it adds delay of the call being sent to an agent or being played.

As for just playing a message and hanging up, it might be easiest to use the SURVEY option and selecting the audio file you want to play and defining the Survey method as HANGUP.

[learjg]

I'll do whatever is easiest but I haven't found a lot of documentation on that method. Let's try this:
On Campaign Survey page
Survey First Audio File = my recording
Survey Method = Hangup
Survey No-Response Action = Optin

On Campaign Survey page
Dial Method = Ratio
Auto Dial Level = 1
Campaign VDAD exten = 8366

if I follow the flow correctly.
When an agent logs in to the campaign a lead is auto-dialed.
'my recording' is played.
After No-Response timeout the call is Optin.
Optin = Hang up.

Am I missing anything - way off - almost there???

[mflorell]

That should work as you described it

You could also use Remote Agents and just put 8300 as the dialplan number so you don't have to have a real agent login to trigger dialing.

[learjg]

Do you mean 8300 as the External Extension for the remote agent?

Also, if I set the Local Call Time to 5pm-9pm and make the remote agent active at 3pm on day 1, will the auto-dialing begin at 5pm - stop at 9pm on day1 and resume auto dialing at 5pm on day 2?

[williamconley]

local call time is for the time of the PROSPECT not the agent. so it will dial numbers where the local time is between those hours. (ie: 3PM-5PM Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific if in the USA ... it will roll across the country dialing areas where it is presently 3-5pm)

If it has leads, it will dial, when it runs out, it will stop until leads become available within the local time again (by adding new leads or by time passing and the existing leads having that local time).

[mflorell]

yes, 8300 for the external extension

[bghayad]

There is not any other method to let the campaign start dialing out the numbers without having agent other than assigning remote agent?

Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

for the campaign to dial ... it must believe there are agents in need of prospects. the real time screen tells the story. when the real time shows READY agents, vicidial will attempt to get a call for those agents.

in no case is it really that there is "no agent". remote or logged in, an agent is required to initiate this process. The call routing can be set up to avoid any calls actually getting to one of those agents, but make no mistake: there must be an agent to initiate a call for an auto-dial campaign. since the call may never arrive at the agent's phone or screen, it's up to you whether to have a "human" at that station. Remote agents are very easy to "activate/deactive" without a human present at the number for that remote agent from a managerial standpoint, but one way or another you need an agent (even if only a fake one) to initiate calling.

[omarrodriguezt]

Thank you @william
So, even now 2 years after you wrote this, we need a real agent logged in in the dialer. We can not have a remote agent only campaign working?

[williamconley]

as i said two years ago, that has always been possible. there doesn't actually need to be a human on the remote agent, but there does need to be an agent (remote or regular) logged in to the campaign. the fact that there is no human attached to the remote agent does not matter when the campaign's survey settings are configured to NOT pass the call to an agent.

so it works fine with remote agent and survey configured to pass the call to a call menu or just hang up after delivering the message. even possible to send the call to voicemail if that's your choice.

[omarrodriguezt]

Thank you!