Run an outbound campaign

A campaign tells the dialer who to call, which agents take the calls, and how and when to dial. You build it in the admin portal, attach a lead list and start it when your team is ready.

This feature needs the Contact Center Pro plan. See plans and pricing

Outbound calling is regulated, and the rules depend on where your business and your leads are. Before you start a campaign, have your own compliance review cover who you'll call, when you'll call, which dialing mode you'll use and what caller ID leads will see. This guide explains what the dialer does. It isn't legal advice.

Some labels in your portal or apps may look slightly different from this guide.

Before you start

• Set up your agents first. Agent groups add a whole team at once.
• Have a lead list ready as a CSV file. See upload leads and manage Do Not Call lists.
• Know which number leads should see as caller ID. CallSprout support approves the numbers a campaign can show, so ask support to approve yours before you set it.

Create the campaign

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Add a campaign

   In the admin portal, go to Dialer and then Campaigns, and select Add Campaign.
2. 2
   Step 2:

   Name it

   Enter an ID Number and a Name. Leave the campaign inactive for now.
3. 3
   Step 3:

   Pick a dialing mode

   Choose one of the modes below.
4. 4
   Step 4:

   Add agents

   Select Agents, pick agents or agent groups, and set a Wrap-up Time for a short break between calls.
5. 5
   Step 5:

   Set retries

   For each outcome (no answer, busy, abandoned), enter how many minutes to wait before that lead is dialed again.
6. 6
   Step 6:

   Set the caller ID and hours

   Under the outgoing options, enter the Caller ID leads will see. Use a number CallSprout support has approved for campaigns. Under Operation Times, choose the days and the hours the campaign may dial.
7. 7
   Step 7:

   Save

   Select Save, then add and activate a lead list.

Leave the trunk, codec, dial prefix and dial options fields as they are. Contact support if one needs to change.

Choose a dialing mode

Preview and progressive modes are ready to use. CallSprout support turns on power and voice messaging modes after reviewing the campaign. For most teams, we recommend preview or progressive. Use power only if your own compliance review approves it.

• Preview. The agent pulls up the next lead, reads its details and starts the call when ready.
• Progressive. Like preview, but the dialer places the call itself if the agent hasn't dialed within the preview timeout you set.
• Power. For each free agent, the dialer calls several leads at once (the Power number). The first lead who answers goes to the agent. The dialer drops any other leads who answer. Talk to your compliance reviewer before you use this mode.
• Voice messaging. The dialer plays a recorded message to each lead and saves any keys the lead presses. Sound files for this mode usually need names that start with dialer-vm-ivr, and you can choose how many times the message repeats. Talk to your compliance reviewer before you use this mode.

Optional settings

• Answering machine detection. Turn on Machine Detection so agents aren't connected to voicemail, and set when to try those leads again. Ask CallSprout support before you change the timing values.
• Recording. Choose whether this campaign records calls and whether leads hear a recording tone. This applies only to modes that connect leads to agents. Recording and monitoring laws vary by state, and your company is responsible for any notice and consent they require.
• Feedback forms. Set Send Feedback Form to Yes to show agents a form during each call. See call scripts and feedback forms.
• Dispositions. Each campaign has its own list of outcomes agents pick when a call ends. See upload leads and manage Do Not Call lists.

Start and stop

On the campaign list, select the start and stop icon beside a campaign to switch it between Active and Not Active. Stop Campaigns stops them all at once.

Watch progress

The campaign list opens three views:

• Monitor Campaign shows one campaign live: today's dialed, connected, abandoned and unanswered calls, and each lead and agent.
• Monitor Campaign Lists counts leads across the active lists. Fresh leads haven't been dialed. Burnt leads used up their retries and won't be dialed again.
• Monitor Campaigns compares every campaign's calls, agents and contact rate.

What agents see

Agents work campaign calls in the agent panel, which for now is in the older Communicator desktop app. There they preview leads, fill in feedback forms, pick dispositions and schedule callbacks. See handle queue calls and dispositions.