Set up and test an outbound campaign

When this is done, the system works through a list of customers for you. Depending on the campaign type, agents preview each customer and call them, the system dials ahead and passes answered calls to agents, or a workflow handles the call. Supervisors follow every record's status in the portal.

Administrator uploads a list of customers (CSV) and starts the campaign
  → each record becomes a campaign task in the campaign's queue
  → Preview: an agent previews the customer and starts the call
    Predictive: the system dials, and connects answered calls to agents
    Workflow: the system dials, and runs a workflow when the customer answers
  → the agent completes or reschedules the record
  → the record's status shows the result

It takes about 30 minutes. Roles involved: Administrator (Part 1), Agent (Part 2), Supervisor (Part 3).

Pick your campaign type in the tabs below – the other tabs on the page follow.

Preview

Preview – agents see the customer and their history first, then decide to call. Good for sales and follow-up calls where agents need to prepare.

Predictive

Predictive – the system dials ahead, based on how fast agents finish, and connects answered calls to free agents. Agents only get live calls. It's only efficient with more than 15 agents on the campaign.

Workflow

Workflow – the system dials and runs a voice workflow when the customer answers, for example an announcement or a conversational bot, with a queue to reach an agent if needed. Up to 100 parallel calls per campaign, and 400 per tenant.

Before you start

What	Who	Where
Access to the Voice section of the portal	Administrator	Roles
A voice channel to dial out from, in the campaign's business unit. Only its phone number is used.	Administrator	Voice channels
A business unit and an attribute that the campaign's agents have	Administrator	Business units, Attributes
A team with those agents and their supervisor	Administrator or supervisor	Teams
The list of customers to call, with their phone numbers	Whoever owns the list	–
Workflow campaigns: a voice workflow to run when the customer answers	Administrator	Voice workflows
A phone to receive the test call, and an agent who can log in	Tester	–

Calling customers is regulated in most countries. Check the rules for your market – for example calling hours and opt-outs – before you start a campaign on real customers.

Part 1 – Set it up (Administrator)

1. Check the restricted numbers

Numbers on the restricted list are never called – not by agents, and not by any campaign type. Use it for customers who asked not to be called.

1. Go to Voice › Restricted numbers.
2. Check the Tenant list, and the Business UnitsBusiness Unit – A label assigned to channels, agents, customers and agent workspaces to split one tenant into separate groups. list for the campaign's business unit.
3. To add numbers, click Export numbers first, add your numbers to the exported file, and import the whole file with Import numbers.

Expected result: the list holds every number that must not be called.

warning

Import numbers replaces the whole list. Always start from an export, or numbers that were on the list before can be called again.

See Restricted numbers.

2. Create the campaign

1. Go to Voice › Campaigns and click Create.
2. On Details: enter a Name, choose the Campaign type and a Business unit. The campaign's queue gets the same name, so pick one that reads well in reports. Only agents in this business unit get the campaign's tasks. For a workflow campaignWorkflow Campaign – A Campaign orchestrated through a Workflow that automates the execution of outbound contact attempts., also choose the Workflow that runs when the customer answers.
3. On Configuration: choose the Channel for outbound calls. Optionally limit Limit campaign recordCampaign Record – An entry in a Campaign, designating a single Customer. Campaign records can have Campaign Custom Data fields that are presented to the Agent, but are not necessarily part of Customer Custom Data fields. reschedules and set the Postpone duration (1 to 72 hours).

Preview

4. On Preview Settings: leave the defaults for a first test. Later you can auto-accept or auto-close tasks after a number of seconds, limit dial attempts, and let agents cancel records, reschedule them to colleagues or edit phone numbers.
5. On Queue Properties: choose a Routing mode and add at least one Attribute requirement – you can't continue without one. Optionally choose an Agent workspace for scripts and completion codes.

Predictive

4. On Preview Settings: leave the defaults. They apply to records that fall back to preview, for example rescheduled ones.
5. On Predictive Settings: leave the defaults for a first test. Set the Allowed nuisance percentage (connected calls that found no free agent), Target agent busy percentage and Anticipated task handling time once you know your numbers.
6. On Queue Properties: the routing mode is fixed to Automatic. Add an Attribute requirement – you can't continue without one – and consider a Queue timeout so answered customers don't wait long for an agent.

Workflow

4. On Configuration, also set Max number of parallel calls. Start low, especially with a bot in the workflow, so you can follow the first calls.
5. Workflow campaigns have no queue of their own, so there are no Queue Properties or Completion Codes steps. To reach agents, add a Queue node to the workflow, with its own attribute requirement and agent workspace.

6. On Business HoursBusiness Hours – A channel's time zone, opening hours, holidays and exceptions, set on the channel's Business hours tab.: set the timezone and the hours the campaign may call.
7. On Completion CodesCompletion Codes – Short labels an Agent picks when closing a Work Item to record the outcome of the Conversation, used in Reporting. They are set per Channel, and an Agent Workspace can replace them with its own codes and sub-codes. (preview and predictive): add codes, unless the agent workspaceAgent Workspace – Agent Workspaces control the Script that gets executed for the agents during conversations. It also designates additional properties, like Hold music, Completion Codes, Wrap-up timers, etc. already has them.
8. Click Create.

Expected result: the campaign is listed with its type and the status Stopped.

See Creating a campaign and Workflow campaigns.

3. Add the campaign's queue to the team

Preview and predictive campaigns create a queue with the campaign's name (workflow campaigns use the queues in their workflow). A supervisor only sees it in the reports if it's in one of their teams, and agents can only pick its tasks manually if it's in one of theirs.

1. Go to Agents › Teams and open the team of the campaign's agents and supervisor.
2. In Performance Dashboard Queues, add the queue with your campaign's name, and click Save.
3. Ask the agents and the supervisor to log out and back in.

Expected result: the campaign's queue is listed on the team. See Teams.

4. Upload the customer records

1. Open the campaign and click Upload.
2. Click Download CSV template. The file is named after the campaign.
3. Fill one row per customer. Only PhoneNumber is required – use the international format with + and the country code; FirstName, LastName, PhoneTag and up to three additional numbers with tags are optional. Save the file as UTF-8 – some spreadsheet programs use another encoding, which breaks accented letters.
4. Back in the upload dialog, click Select file to import and choose the file. The dialog says how many records it loaded.
5. Click Upload & Add.

Expected result: Records successfully uploaded! Each record is listed with the status Newly added and your name under Created By.

To replace the list later, tick Clear all previously imported records before you upload – records that are already being processed stay. See Upload records.

For the first test, upload a single record with your own test phone number.

5. Start the campaign

1. In the campaign, click Start.

Expected result: the campaign's status is Running, and the first records change to Processing. Preview and predictive campaigns stop by themselves after 7 days without activity. To change the campaign's settings, stop it first. See Edit or delete an existing campaign.

Part 2 – Take the calls (Agent)

6. Handle a campaign task

1. Log in to the Agent applicationAgent Application – The Agent facing website of Graia providing the UI elements to consume its feature set. as an agent with the campaign's attribute and business unit, and set your state to Available.

Preview

2. The task opens a Campaign section in the work area, next to the customer's details and task history. With manual or hybrid routing, you can also pick it from the Waiting Tasks tab.
3. Select the phone number to call and click Accept & Call. The system calls you first – answer, and the customer's phone rings.
4. Talk to the customer. When the call ends, click Mark as Complete and wrap up.

Expected result: your test phone rings, and the task closes after wrap-up. Instead of calling, you can also Reject the task (you go to RONA break), Postpone it, or reschedule it with the Reschedule toggle.

Predictive

2. Wait for a call. The task arrives with the customer already connected, and is accepted for you.
3. Talk to the customer. If they want a call later, turn on Reschedule in the Campaign section and choose a time.
4. When the call ends, complete the task and wrap up.

Expected result: the call arrives connected, with the customer's details in the work area. Rescheduled records come back later as preview tasks.

Workflow

2. Answer your test phone when the campaign calls it. The workflow runs.
3. If the workflow sends the call to a queue, the agent receives it like an inbound call.

Expected result: you hear the workflow's announcements or bot. If nobody answers, the record is postponed and dialed again later, up to the reschedule limit.

See Working with campaigns.

Part 3 – Follow the results (Supervisor)

7. Check the campaign's records

1. In the portal, go to Voice › Campaigns and open the campaign.
2. Filter the records by Status or by when they were created.
3. Look at the Status, Last Handling Agent and Preferred Agent of your test record.

Expected result: the test record is Completed after the agent completed it, or Rescheduled / Postponed if they deferred it. From a record's actions you can Edit (reschedule it, or assign it to an agent), Suspend or Cancel it; Selection mode does the same for many records.

See Campaign contact records and Status definitions.

Check that it works

#	Do this	You should see
1	Upload a CSV with one test record	Records successfully uploaded!; the record is Newly added
2	Start the campaign	Status Running; the record changes to Processing
3	Make an agent with the attribute and business unit available	Preview: a campaign task. Predictive: a connected call. Workflow: your test phone rings first
4	Complete the task	The record is Completed
5	Upload a record with a number from the restricted list	It isn't called
6	Stop the campaign	No new tasks; records already processing finish

If it doesn't work

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The channel isn't in Channel for outbound calls	The channel is in another business unit	Step 2 – pick the right business unit, or move the channel
Next is disabled on Queue Properties	No attribute requirement	Step 2
Records stay Newly added	The campaign isn't running, or no available agent has the attribute and business unit	Steps 2 and 5
Agents can't pick tasks manually	The campaign's queue isn't in their team, or they haven't logged in again	Step 3
Names have broken characters	The CSV isn't UTF-8	Step 4 – save as UTF-8 and upload again
A record is Failed	It has no dialable number	Fix the number and upload it again
Many Postponed records in a predictive campaign	Customers answered when no agent was free (nuisance calls)	Lower the Allowed nuisance percentage, add agents, or set a Queue timeout
The campaign stopped by itself	No records were activated for 7 days	Upload records and start it again
You can't change the campaign's settings	The campaign is running	Stop it first

Related

• Campaigns
• Restricted numbers
• Teams
• Working with campaigns (Agent)
• Set up and test callbacks from the queue – the callback campaign type