CallFire

Lately we’ve been churning out features so fast that we’ve not gotten enough time to write about them. However, this one feature is too hard not to sing praises for: Removing duplicates. Now, every time you add numbers to a new or existing campaign, you’ll have the option to remove duplicates from that list. To do so, just choose yes to the question below and you’re done!

If there are any duplicates in your list, they will be marked as such and not dialed. You can still see them by clicking on the campaign details page.

For voice broadcast campaigns, campaign thresholds determine how fast or slow your campaigns run. Each campaign starts with a default threshold of 50 CPM (Calls Per Minute). This is the default account threshold as well. This means that the system will dial fifty numbers every minute that the campaign is running. However, if you have multiple campaigns running, only one will run at 50 CPM, and all other campaigns will run at 1 CPM. If the 50 CPM campaign finishes before the others, the system will intelligently redistribute the threshold, but not until the 50 CPM campaign is over. So, if you need to have all campaigns running in parallel, then you’re better off distributing the threshold manually over your running campaigns. For example, you could have them run in a 10-10-30 or similar combination. The beauty of the CallFire system is that it gives you full control over your campaigns, so you can update the threshold while the campaign is running, and it takes effect immediately!

Note, for those with higher account thresholds, the same logic applies to your account limit. For those who would like a higher threshold, please do drop us a line.

Many of our customers are aware of our Phonebook feature. This feature allows you to have one list of phone numbers that can then be reused for future campaigns. There is a default phonebook created for you that houses your DNC numbers, i.e., numbers that should not be called again. As stated earlier, this list is live. In other words, for any of your voice broadcast campaigns if a user presses the DNC option, or for your Call Center Connect (Virtual Call Center) campaigns you create a ‘DNC’ (case sensitive) disposition, and if your agents choose that option, that number gets added to your DNC phonebook. Now the question arises:

When and how does DNC scrubbing occur?

The answer is only by request. As pointed out by our help page, every time you create a campaign or add numbers to a campaign, you will be given the option to scrub against the the DNC phonebook. Keep in mind that the DNC is a phonebook is a snapshot at any given time. This means a scrub against the DNC at 9:00 AM will not yield the same results as a scrub at 12:00 PM the same day. This may lead you to another question:

I am running multiple campaigns, how can I keep my DNC scrubbing up-to-date?

The answer is again: only by request. Simply select the campaign you want to scrub as shown below:

From the drop down menu on top select “Scrub Campaign” and click go:

The campaign will be scrubbed against all the numbers dialed up until that point.

As the message suggests, please verify the phone numbers before proceeding. One way to do this is to go your call details for that campaign and check for any with the status ’scrubbed’.

I must hasten to point out that this list is your own and in no way or form cross referenced with the Federal DNC. Our clients are responsible for their conformance with federal and local dialing laws. You can read more about dialing laws here.

CNN has this article about companies that hire home-based workers. With quality of life becoming an increasingly paramount factor in people’s lives more companies more companies allowing for employees to work from home. The story states that:

CallFire’s Virtual Call Center allows organizations provide a better quality of life and increase productivity of their members. Think about it, your support, sales, or volunteer staff only need to have access to the Internet and a phone, and you can have all the features and controls that a brick-and-mortar call center would have. Here’s the kicker, it costs you no more than $2.10 per hour per agent. That’s it! No up front fees, no monthly minimums. I’ve had customers who’ve told me that makes a great case for keeping their support desks on US shores.

Try it out!

Quote of the day:

Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you.

                                                   — Alexander Graham Bell

My colleague Adrian and I were lamenting about how the startup life can impede one’s workout schedule. Unlike me, he’s a workout fanatic. Working out in the morning would be a good way to ‘get it done and get it out of your way’. One challenge is consistently getting up in the morning, and that’s when Adrian came up with an idea: Why not use CallFire as a wake-up service?

Think about it, if you scheduled a campaign to give you a call every day of the month at 4:00 AM, it would cost you $1.05. That’s one dollar for the entire month! It’s way cheaper than the $4.99/per month or 7cents/min that dedicated wake-up services charge you. You could even schedule three additional snooze style wake-up calls and still not break the $5 mark!

CallFire: the personal productivity tool. Whowudathunkit!

Quote of the Day:

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing.

                                                                                                          -Marsha Doble

CallFire affords developers a powerful Voice Messaging API that enables businesses to intertwine voice messaging into your web presence, proprietary software, CRM, or internal software!

Analogous terms for Voice Messaging, include: Voice Broadcast, Voicemail Broadcast, Voice Blast, and so on. The bottom line: CallFire provides Voice Messaging with Voice 2.0 interoperability. Learn more by checking out CallFire’s various APIs here: http://www.callfire.com/dialer/cm/info/voice_broadcast_api.html

Cheers, DR

We just released the hosted call center api! For everyone who wants to use the call center connect with agent popup with your own backend, we provide everything you need to integrate straight into Callpeer platform.

You can login your agents and the system will start dialing and connecting calls to the agent. Every time a connection occurs, you get information about it and you can display a popup and peripheral information from your own backend. Collect the data and just let the Callpeer platform know that the agent is ready for the next call and we will handle the rest!

Features

• Run multiple campaigns simultaneously
• Add hundreds of agents per campaign - enormous scalability (Already tested with over 400 agents per campaign)
• Full connection details - so you can display popups and collect information on your own system
• Easy call center api and full documentation.
• Full campaign and agent statistics

CallFire now supports internal list management. You can create and maintain a list of phone numbers easily within your dashboard. This feature also provides an internal do-not-call list support for your campaigns.To use the feature, click on the phonebook link.

Create a new list and start adding numbers to it. The internal do-not-call list will be created automatically for you when you make your first campaign. You can add and remove numbers from all of your lists.

The MasterDNC list can be scrubbed against when you create a new campaign. Once the campaign is created, the system will dial all the numbers that were not scrubbed. Updates to your Master DNC list do not update old campaigns.

Our many users have since gotten used to the famed ‘My Campaigns’ page. The page was designed with simplicity in mind. For example, in theory there could be infinite campaigns and a finite number of actions for each, it was deemed best to have all campaigns listed and then to have all the actions for the campaign as part of a single drop down menu.

In effect, for every action, you would first have to select the campaign, and then go up to the drop down menu, and select the action. Well, it turns out some times simplicity creates complexity. We found that 80% of our customers were 20% of the functionality 80% of the time. So we figured, why not make those tasks easily accessible.

Ladies & Gentlemen! We Present the new ‘My Campaigns’ Page!

Alongside each campaign, you’ll see easy access buttons to start, stop, schedule, and delete a campaign. Sure, it will add more clutter–I mean color–to the page, but hey it’s convenient, and hence simple! We expect that this small enhancement will go a long way towards the usability of the site. As for those who just love our drop-down menu, rest assured, you can still do things the old way.

Quote of the Day:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.–Leonardo Da Vinci

We just released the Click To Call functionality on CallFire.com. After scouring through the web looking at the many implementations, we decided to build it ourselves.

Our beta release is currently active. And its the cheapest available on the web. Try it out:

Features released in this version =

1. No Monthly Fees. No Startup Costs
2. Just get charged per connection ( 7cents / minute when its connected to your offices )
3. Schedule your click to call during your hours of operation
4. Manual override for starting and stopping
5. Full Call Detail records and data for each call made
6. Graphical view of all your calls on Google maps
7. Simple integration using Just HTML
8. Advanced integration using the Click To Call REST and SOAP API

I’ll post more details soon. But you can start using it right away - just click new campaign and select "Click to Call"