Case Study: CallFire Helps Tuff Shed Exceed Sales Expectations by $1M
We recently published a case study for Tuff Shed, who used CallFire to reach its highest one-day retail sales day in 30 years.
Download the CallFire Case Study.

We recently published a case study for Tuff Shed, who used CallFire to reach its highest one-day retail sales day in 30 years.
Download the CallFire Case Study.

by Kimberly Kohatsu
Last year, according to WorldatWork, about 26.2 million people, or nearly 20% of the adult working population, worked from home or from a remote location at least once a month. These “remote locations” included satellite centers, hotels, and while on vacation. But if you’re like me, tethered to your smartphone and laptop at almost all times, that number actually seems pretty low.
Regardless, teleworking and flexible work schedules are becoming mainstream benefits. The ability to perform work remotely is an effective tool “in attracting younger employees who appreciate greater flexibility and to recruite remote workers from a wider talent pool,” Susan Bergman of The Society for Human Resource Management recently told Mashable. And it’s not just the Gen Y’s and millenials who are looking for work flexibility. “It’s attractive to busy parents, workers nearing retirement and workers in metro areas where commuting is very time consuming,” Bergman said.
CallFire, being headquartered in Los Angeles, certainly fits that last category. Last month, the US Census reported that LA commuters on average spend 28.1 minutes getting to work (another number that may seem surprisingly low). But if my fuzzy math is correct, that still means that each year, we spend more time commuting than we do on vacation. Talk about lost productivity. Which brings me to my next point: teleworking is not just attractive to employees, but employers as well.
Employees who telework are generally more productive and report greater job satisfaction, due in large part to advances in technology which give them the same access to information as office-based workers. Intranet sites and shared servers mean employees can focus on work without the distractions of meetings, casual conversations, office politics, and other interruptions which, over time, can prove stressful and infringe upon their work-life balance.
CallFire’s Cloud Call Center is, for many sales teams, another tool in the arsenal that allows employees to work remotely. All a sales agent needs is an internet connection and a telephone. The customer’s data and call outcomes are stored securely on the cloud. CallFire also provides the tools to monitor the employee’s phone activities while on the job.
Last February, I wrote about how Citibank was able to retain 700 of its workers despite closing its physical call center in Albuquerque, by leveraging the power of telework. A month later, Allstate Insurance also closed its Albuquerque claims call center. But because of advanced technology, the adjusters can be supervised out of Phoenix.
More and more, teleworking is being driven by necessity. Angela Baron, an advisor to the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said “whilst technology has enabled remote working, it is more the demands of business that is driving it.” This means that not only do work-at-home employees need the ability to work independently and to self-motivate, but that managers need to develop the ability to manage remotely. Crucial to the task, says Baron, are the “communication skills to keep remote workers connected to the team and ensure adequate knowledge exchange and alignment to team and organizational aims and objectives.”
That’s a fancy way of saying managers must facilitate an environment where, even if you’re working from home, you still feel like you’re part of a company. You’re by yourself, but you’re not alone.
Dr. Billy Williams mentors clients, especially insurance agents, across the country. He has been a fierce advocate of using CallFire’s Voice Broadcast, Cloud Call Center, and Hosted IVR campaigns for lead prospecting and customer outreach and retention. The following post is a guest blog with some of the tips he has shared with business professionals.
Why Automated Dialing Should be a Marketing Tool All Businesses Use
By Billy R. Williams, Ph.D., President – Inspire a Nation Business MentoringEffective marketing is pretty simple:
- Put your message in front of as many people as possible
- Build lists of prospects that are interested in you, your product, and/or your expertise
- Reach out to the lists regularly with timely, effective, problem-solving information
- Reach out to as many people as possible on days that are important to them
- Use affordable automation to help you stay consistent with your keep-in-touch campaigns
My partner agencies and the majority of our member agents use a company called CallFire for automated marketing, so I will use their functionality to explain how to target each of the 5 marketing areas I mentioned above.
1. Put your message in front of as many people as possible
- We use the Cloud Call Center to prospect DNC-scrubbed lists of prospects. You can have 1 or 100’s of telemarketers ready to speak live with a prospect.
- We use voice broadcasting to communicate important, non-solicitation, focused messages and announcements to current customers and opt-in prospects
- We also use “Press-1” campaigns to help us accomplish number two on our marketing list:
2. Build lists of prospects that are interested in you, your product, and/or your expertise
- Direct a press-1 campaign to a live person or to a CallFire IVR (message tree, automated survey, or hotline) that can be used to gather or give important information
- Every time someone responds positively to your telemarketer, or presses 1 on your voice broadcast campaign, that is one more person that you just added to your opt-in lists of potential customers
3. Reach out to the lists regularly with timely, effective, problem-solving information
- CallFire gives you the ability to easily schedule follow-up campaigns from calls that were not answered, requested a callback, needed bi-lingual help, etc.
4. Reach out to as many people as possible on days that are important to them
- We create weekly phonebooks in CallFire (Yes, 52 phone books) and each week we run a birthday audit from our database and add the phone numbers into the correct phone book. Then we quickly send out a Voice Broadcast birthday message. We do the same thing for recurring events like upcoming policy reviews, graduations, wedding anniversaries, etc.
5. Use affordable automation to help you stay consistent with your keep-in-touch campaigns
- The more a person hears your consistent message, the more credible you become. By using a low-cost solution like an automated dialer program, you are able to keep a consistent keep-in-touch program operating. You will not benefit long-term from a flash-in-the-pan marketing campaign. Here are my two rules of thumb when it comes to keep-in-touch programs:
- Don’t send out information that has no real value to the prospect
- The first time they hear you or your message is an introduction; the second time they can say they know of you; the third time they start to become familiar with you, but it takes four or more times for the prospect to feel like they are developing a relationship with you.
Follow the tips that I have just provided to you when setting up your automated dialer campaigns and you will see an awesome ROI.
Billy Williams, Ph.D., is president of Inspire a Nation Business Mentoring and Williams Family Agency Inc. The group currently has 23 member agencies and produces $360 Million in production annually. He is an expert at helping insurance agents and agencies double or triple their current production using no-cost conversations and processes, low-cost, efficient, marketing and advertising platforms, and technology.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, CallFire holds webinars to introduce new customers to our products, and to familiarize them with their accounts. It’s a live demonstration with audio and video, that allows participants to ask questions and to see the CallFire interface in action.
But now, if those dates and times don’t work for you, you can view an archived webinar at any time. Many thanks to Ryan Koven and Bill Hughes who continually lend their expertise to educate our clients.
Watch now:
(regularly Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11AM PST)
(regularly Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon PST)
(regularly Wednesdays at 11AM PST)
First, there’s the Mayans. Then, there’s the billboards. And if none of that bothers you, there’s climate change. Whatever is going on, there seems to be a lot of talk about the end of the world in 2012. So, *just in case*, here’s a couple ways CallFire can help you maximize the (limited?) days you have left.
You know a lot of people, but you don’t have a lot of time. At least not enough to call them each individually. So get on the phone and record a message just once, and send it out to your whole contact list. This video will show you how. Don’t worry, it’s only 5 minutes. We realize time is ticking.
When you record your voice broadcast, feel free to use this script, or alter it as necessary.
Hello. This is [ your name ].
As a precaution to the world’s end [ on Saturday / in December / when the zombies attack ],
I just wanted to let you know that… [ I love you / I hate you / I'm sorry for... / I haven't forgotten that one time when you... ].
As this may be the last time you hear from me, I hope the one thing you’ll remember is that [ I loved you in this world, and I'll love you in the next / I hope we're not going to the same place / I told you so / I've sent the pictures to everyone ].
I’ll always think of you as [ my one true love / my friend / my partner / my mortal enemy ] even though [ you don't feel the same way / your family would never approve / I've only ever talked to you in internet forums ]
With this message, I bid you a final [ adieu / fond farewell / extended middle finger / goodbye ]
Your message will be sent at a rate of 50 calls per minute, which should be fast enough to reach everyone you know in time.
Aha! CallFire has a solution for that too. Because with only a few days left, do you really want to spend them dialing numbers, and trying to remember what you need to say? Of course not. This is a serious matter.
For this, CallFire has an end-of-the-world remedy: the Cloud Call Center. But in case there’s any confusion, we’re not talking about *those* clouds—this isn’t a direct line to the heavens. It’s calling through the clouds, and dialing auto-magically. Watch here:
Now, let’s think about this script a little more carefully. The beauty of the Cloud Call Center is you can customize your scripts with multiple-choice questions and open-answer text fields. So perhaps you’ll want to set something up like this:

Now as you make your calls, you’ll have a guide. And you can take notes should you need to take any follow-up actions, such as offline retribution, or sending a nice bouquet.
Wouldn’t you know, CallFire has a solution for that as well. It’s called an SMS Broadcast, or the “Oops, my bad” text message. Watch how:
Best of all, you can pre-schedule your text, so if you’re locked in a bunker and can’t get to your CallFire account, everything is all set to go… just in case.

* This blog post is meant to be satirical. If you intend to use CallFire, you may only message opt-in clients. Please consult an attorney to familiarize yourself with local, state and federal telecommunications guidelines. More information on Telecom Compliance can be found on our website. Please dial responsibly. Thank you. *
Sometimes we at CallFire speak our own language. Hopefully this article acts as a Rosetta stone for all your calling needs.
Admin/Admin Login – An admin (administrator) is the CallFire account holder. The admin login is where you create and manage all your campaigns, whether they be Voice Broadcast, Cloud Call Center, IVR, buying phone numbers, or SMS.
Agent/Agent Login – An agent is solely for Cloud Call Center campaigns. An agent is a person actively making the outbound calls. You’ll use the agent login to begin dialing on a campaign that was already created by the admin user.
Agent Barge – Agent barge is a quality control measure that allows an admin to barge, or listen in on, calls as they’re being made by the agents.
Agent ID – The agent ID is a number assigned by CallFire each time an agent begins dialing through the Cloud Call Center. Once the agent inputs the correct agent ID, the agent pop-up window with the campaign script will appear, and the system will begin dialing.
Analytics Tag – This advanced IVR function sends a page-view that will be factored in to Google Analytics.
Answering Machine Detection (AMD) – The AMD capability will determine whether the call has been answered by a live person, or by a machine. When AMD is enabled, you can program your campaign to treat live answers and answering machines differently, such as hanging up and moving on the next call or leaving a message.
API – Application Programming Interface. This is coder speak for our software code that allows a developer to integrate other software into CallFire, or to build custom software.
API Key – This is a code that grants a developer access to the CallFire API. You can find your unique API key in your account settings.
Autodialer – The autodialer is what makes the Cloud Call Center so powerful. It does the dialing for you, so there’s no dialing by hand.
Autoresponder/Auto-reply – An autoresponder is a text message that is sent automatically in response to an incoming text.
Call Ratio – This is the ratio of numbers dialed at a time to a single agent. For instance, a 1:1 ratio means that each agent’s autodialer is only dialing one number at a time. A 2:1 ratio means that the autodialer is dialing two numbers at a time, and will connect the agent to the first live answer. A higher calling ratio helps get through a list more efficiently; it decreases time between calls and ups the possibility of connecting to live leads.
Call Transfer – A call transfer is the ability for an agent to forward a call to a supervisor or other party. All he/she has to do is input the 10-digit phone number into the agent interface and the call will be routed accordingly.
CPM – Calls per Minute. This is the rate at which Voice Broadcast calls go out. By default, broadcasts are processed at 50 calls per minute, but this can be adjusted in your campaign dashboard.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management. You can integrate your CallFire campaigns with certain CRM providers, such as SalesForce, using our API.
DID Number – Direct Inward Dial Number. DID Number is basically an industry term for a phone number.
DNC - Do Not Call. There are two different DNC lists: the Federal Do Not Call List, against which you should scrub your list prior to uploading your contacts. Then you also have an internal CallFire DNC list, which allows people you call to unsubscribe from future calls.
DTMF – Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency, also known as touch-tone. DTMF assigns a different touchtone to each key on the telephone keypad, so it can distinguish one keypad input from another.
Get Tag – This IVR command calls any URL or http request from your IVR.
Google Talk Tag - This IVR command will automatically initiate an instant message to your Google account.
Goto Tag – This tells your IVR to go to a certain part of your phone tree. For instance, you might have a sound file that reads, “Press 4 to repeat the options.” Upon pressing 4, the Goto tag would repeat the part of your IVR that you had already programmed.
Goto XML Tag – This advanced IVR command calls the specified URL and executes the returned CallFire XML.
Hangup Tag – The hangup tag tells your IVR to hang up and end the call.
Hosted IVR – A hosted IVR is a phone menu that does not require any hardware or special equipment, such as an on-premises PBX (private branch exchange). It’s hosted because it’s housed in the cloud.
If Tag – This advanced IVR command evaluates a javascript expression and reacts accordingly whether the expression is true or false.
Inbound – A call initiated from someone else, coming in to your line.
IVR - Interactive Voice Response. An IVR is essentially a phone menu, or a phone tree. It’s programmed to react to keypad inputs.
Keyword – For an SMS campaign, a keyword is the word that is texted. For instance, when the Red Cross says, “Text JAPAN to 50555,” JAPAN is the keyword, and 50555 is the short code. Keywords will be available on CallFire SMS campaigns beginning summer 2011.
Key Press – This command tells your IVR what to do once a digit on the telephone keypad is pressed.
Live Answer – A person who answers the phone, as opposed to an answering machine.
Long Code – A 10-digit phone number that can send and receive texts.
MachineSkip - This feature detects answering machines, and filters them out of your Cloud Call Center campaigns. When it detects an answering machine, it will automatically leave a pre-recorded message, so your agent doesn’t have to do a thing. The MachineSkip feature is available on the Standard- and Pro-level campaigns.
Max Transfer Rate – The maximum number of transfers your Voice Broadcast campaign will allow at any given time; when the maximum is reached, the broadcasts will pause until your campaign returns below the maximum.
Outbound – A call initiated by you to one of your contacts.
Passcode – The campaign passcode is the password that the admin assigns to access a Cloud Call Center campaign.
Phonebook – A phonebook is a contact phone list maintained in your CallFire account. Watch this video to learn more about working with phonebooks.
Play Tag – This IVR command plays an assigned sound file or performs text-to-speech.
Press-1 Transfer – During a Voice Broadcast, if a press-1 transfer is enabled, the called person can press 1 and be connected to your business. You can also assign a different keypress to transfer your calls, but the capability is generally referred to as “press-1″ anyway.
Press Menu – This IVR command prompts the caller with several options, for instance, “Press 1 for our address, Press 2 to speak to someone in Sales.” You’ll need at least one “Play” menu to present these options.
Power Dialer – The Power Dialer is what makes CallFire’s Voice Broadcasting capability so powerful. It has the ability to dial thousands of numbers, all at once.
Record Tag – This IVR command records the remainder of the call, or will begin recording with a beep and stop by pressing pound (#). When you record a message using CallFire’s Voice Recording Utility, our IVR is using the Record Tag, in conjunction with the advanced Stash and Get tags. You can see a video demonstration of the Record Tag here.
SAN Number - Subscription Account Number. Telemarketers may need to obtain a SAN from the Federal Trade Commission in order to call consumers legally. Click here to find out how to get a SAN.
SetVar Tag – (Set Variable) This advanced IVR command creates a variable which can be used later.
Short Code – A 5- or 6-digit number that can send and receive texts.
SmartDrop – During a Cloud Call Center campaign, the agent can press the SmartDrop button on the interface, and it will leave a pre-recorded message for the answering machine. The agent does not have to wait for the beep or speak into the voicemail; this allows the agent to move on to the next call.
SMS - Short Message Service. An SMS is a text message.
Stash Tag – This advanced IVR tag stores the varname (variable name) and value in the call details report in your CallFire account. See a video demonstration of the Stash tag here and here.
Subset Campaign - A subset campaign duplicates all the settings of an original campaign, but applies it to just part of a phonebook. For instance, you might want to run a subset campaign to call back the portion of your contact list who did not receive your original message. This video will show you how to set up a subset campaign.
Tag - A tag can refer to an IVR command, such as a play tag or a record tag, but when used by itself, it generally means what’s found on the “My Numbers” page. Tags can be useful to help you keep your phone numbers straight. For instance, if you put one phone number on a magazine ad, and a different phone number on your website, you may want to tag each respective number “magazine” and “website.”
Text-to-Speech (TTS) - The text-to-speech engine allows you to program voice prompts on the fly. For instance, if you wanted your IVR to read an individual’s account number, you would use CallFire’s text-to-speech capability.
Transfer Tag – This IVR command connects the active call to a specified phone number. For instance, a political campaign might use a transfer tag to connect the call to a voter’s congressional office.
Voice Broadcast- Voice Broadcast is a type of CallFire campaign that allows you to send a pre-recorded phone message to your contacts. Learn more about Voice Broadcast here.
VoIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol. VoIP is a kind of technology that allows calls to be connected over the internet. However, CallFire VoIP should not be confused with residential VoIP such as Skype or Vonage; we offer an enterprise-level, redundant, fiber-based platform for better reliability and call quality.
Whisper – A whisper is a short message that will be played before an incoming call is connected. This can help you better serve your incoming calls. For instance, if you have one phone number assigned for real estate properties for sale, and one phone number assigned for people who want to sell their real estate, you can set a whisper that will tell you “This call is regarding properties for sale,” before you greet the caller. You can enable the Whisper feature on your “My Numbers” page in your CallFire account.
White Label Program – CallFire’s White Label Program allows approved vendors to re-sell CallFire products using their own branding. An improved version of the White Label Program will be unveiled in late 2011.
There’s a number of ways to learn about CallFire’s Cloud Call Center, such as joining our twice-weekly webinars or downloading this useful PDF, but if you want a demonstration on-demand, follow these simple steps:
1. Visit CallFire.com, and in the upper right-hand corner, click on “Agents Login.”
2. In the Campaign Name or ID field, type “CallFire demo” and scroll down to the demo most applicable to your business.
3. In the “Your Phone Number” field, type the 10-digit phone number you’d like to use for the demonstration. You can use any phone, like your cell phone or landline.
4. For the Campaign Passcode, type “demo” – all lowercase.
5. Enter your email address.
6. Select the kind of music you’d like to listen to in between calls, or choose “Silence” if you don’t want any.
7. Subscribe to our newsletter if you want more great tips on using CallFire.
8. Click “Next” in the lower right-hand corner. Your phone will ring with a pre-recorded message from CallFire, and once you press #, this message will give you your Agent ID number. Enter that number into the box.
9. The demo will walk you through the rest. You’ll see how each CallFire feature works, including call transfer, SmartDrop, and how to disposition each person’s answers.
by Jeff Spisak
Have you noticed that the phone number of the contact you are calling is missing from the agent popup window? Why is that? Well, basically it’s by design. Some users do not want their agents to see the number being dialed, so CallFire hides this number. We do this by not displaying the Excel column of numbers you click when you are adding numbers to your campaign. So if you do want to show the phone number in your popup, you simply have to include the list of numbers in a second column. Look at the following example:

You see we’ve just copied the phone numbers into column B. So now when we upload numbers into our campaign, and choose column A for the numbers, the system will hide column A, as designed. But since column B is a carbon copy, these numbers will display in the agent popup, along with the contact’s name, company, and title. And that’s all there is to know.
by Natalia Klishina
Call centers have increasingly transitioned to hiring at-home agents lately, with roughly 30% of U.S. centers utilizing remote agents already. Some predict this number will grow to 80% by 2013, which may be a bit steep, but the trend is clearly in that direction. Currently, there are 45 million Americans who telecommute to their jobs. Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, an American Psychologial Association (APA) analysis of 46 studies on telecommuting involving 12,833 employees comes out strongly in favor of the practice, calling it a “win-win” for both employees and employers. The employees are happy to not have to commute and the employers are happy to be getting better results and encountering lower costs.
We know that many of you still remain skeptical, but this is why you shouldn’t be.
Yep, you read that right. Just because you cannot walk the floor and physically watch your agents doesn’t mean that you will lose any control. In fact, with CallFire’s monitoring capabilities and comprehensive reports, it’s even easier to keep track of your agents online than in person. You can see which agents are currently on the phone, how many calls each agent placed and their duration, and all the notes that they have input for each customer. Still feeling paranoid? You can listen in (or even barge in) on ongoing phone calls, or listen to call recordings at any time (included in the cost). Big Brother at his best.
All your information is stored on our secure CallFire database, and you — the administrator — are the only one who has access to it. Your agents don’t have any of this information on their own computers, so you can sleep soundly.
We’ve long since entered the Internet age, so there’s nothing you can’t do online. eLearning has become quite prevalent, and it provides a flexible schedule not just for your trainees, but also for you. You can sit down and create training materials and videos whenever it’s convenient for you. As for testing their effectiveness, with all the analytics and recordings right at your fingertips on your CallFire dashboard, seeing results and compiling evaluations is quick and simple. Then just jump on a conference line or a Skype call if you want to have a conversation with your agents.
If you’re still wondering why you should switch, here’s just a few reasons.
You don’t have to rent out real estate to house a call center, or buy all the equipment that’s necessary for it. Most at-home agents have the Internet and phone access required for the job. You’re also probably hiring most of these agents part time, not full time.
For one, absenteesism and attrition rates decrease: A TelCoa study showed a decrease from 18% absenteesim for in-house agents to 7% for at-home agents; and employee attrition went from 53% to 39%.
On top of that, productivity has been shown to go up by anywhere near 15%. There are a myriad factors contributing to this: employees no longer have to spend time commuting or getting dressed for the office, weather and traffic aren’t issues, costs of fuel and vehicle maintenance are cut, and employees are generally more willing to work longer hours when at home.
At-home agents are of higher caliber: A Frost & Sullivan study found that the average at-home worker is over the age of 35 (vs. 23 for in-house). Also, 80% of at-home workers have some college experience (vs. 30% for in-house), 40% have management experience, and 30% are bilingual. A believer in equal-opportunity? Well, at-home workers are usually 50% male and 50% female.
The same TelCoa study mentioned above also found that customers who spoke to at-home agents vs in-house agents were 12% more satisfied with the service. If your customers are happy, they’ll spend more, talk about you more, and generally make your life better.
By now, you should be convinced. The question then becomes not whether this is a good idea, but how to implement it. Here’s some quick advice.

A common question we get at CallFire is how to add numbers to a campaign that’s already running. If the campaign has finished, you’ll want to create a subset campaign, and you can learn how to do that in this nifty video featuring our solutions guru Ryan.
If your campaign is still active, you can use the “Copy Campaign” functionality, which will save you a lot of time. All your settings, inputs, and sound files will be preserved so that you don’t have to recreate them.
The first step is to log into your Admin account and select the campaign that you’d like to duplicate. Put a check in the checkbox all the way over to the left.

Next, look up top at the Campaign Control drop-down menu. Choose the “Copy Campaign” selection and hit “go.”

Input a new campaign name in the New Campaign Name field.

Next you’ll be asked to add more numbers to your copied campaign. You can either choose a PhoneBook that’s maintained in your CallFire account, or you can upload a new list of numbers (.csv, .xls, or .xlsx formats). Renew your agreement to the legal terms, and hit “submit.”

Your copied campaign has saved all your original campaign settings, and is now ready to run.

Have questions? Email support@CallFire.com, or attend a weekly webinar.
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