CallFire

by Jeff Spisak

So you’ve run a campaign and everything went swimmingly. Now you are ready to extract your data and review your findings. There’s just one problem: Excel pulls all your particular data and lumps it all in the same column. Isn’t there a way to make it more readable?

Take heart! The solution is simple and painless. First, let’s take a look at your spreadsheet. Your exported data will show up in a column titled “Extra Data,” where each piece of data that was formerly in its own column now occupies the same column, separated by commas. “Null” indicates the end of the list.

So let’s get this cleared up, and fast! First click the letter of the column containing the extra data (“P” in our example), and then choose the Text to Columns option in the Data menu. Depending on your version of Excel, this option will either be in a drop-down menu when you click Data, or else it will appear horizontally under the Data tab (as it does in this example).

Now when we click the Text to Column button, it opens up the Conversion Wizard. Most of the default options are the ones we want anyway, so just click Next for Step 1.

Now we get to Step 2, and we need to make one important change. Make sure that you change the Delimiter option. The default choice is “Tab,” but we want “Comma,” so that Excel will make a new column each time it sees a comma (see, the engineers didn’t put the commas in there by accident). So check Comma and click Next.

Step 3 looks intimidating! So we ignore it and click Finish.

Um, not sure why we see this. Just click OK.

And bingo! Everywhere we saw a comma, we now see a new column! Of course, you’ll probably have to rename “Extra Data” to something like “First Name,” then rename all the other columns so it makes sense, but that’s that!

And that’s all there is to it!

by Jeff Spisak

So you’re all ready to import your numbers into CallFire when you notice, to your horror, that the area codes and the phone numbers are in different columns! Do you have to copy and paste the entire list by hand? Isn’t there another way? Take heart: there is indeed! Just grab your Excel workbook and follow along with us.

Now, if there isn’t a column of empty cells just to the right of your numbers, you will need to add one. Click the column header letter and choose “Insert.”

OK, so now we have a blank column.  We’re ready to merge our cells.

This is the tricky part. Well, not really tricky, but it is important to do it correctly. Click the cell to the right of the first set of numbers you want to merge. In our example below, it is cell C2. Now, click in the formula box in Excel, and enter this formula: =A2&B2. You will have to change A and B to match the columns where your area codes and numbers are. Basically, you are telling Excel to put into cell C2 the contents of cells A2 and B2; in other words, put the area code and the number together in a new cell.  Enter the formula and hit Enter.

Hooray!  We have done it.

Now for the “slick” part. Click again on the cell where you’ve merged the numbers (C2 in our example). Hover your mouse in the lower right of the cell. The pointer will change into different shapes.  It is really important to get it into the correct form.

You don’t want these:

You want this one, the one that looks like a plain black cross with no fancy stuff on it. When you see that, click and hold your mouse button, and drag it down the entire length of the column. When you get to the last row, release the button.

Yay! Done!

Do you use a hosted-CRM utility?  Do you use CallFire’s Virtual Call Center?  If your answer is ‘Yes’ to both of these questions, your VCC agents might benefit from a link to your CRM platform, directly within the CallFire Agent Popup screen.

When a call is connected, your agent sees the SugarCRM contact instantly.  Here is an example:

How it works
If you embed this code in your Excel list, for each phone number, it will place a clickable link in the Agent pop-up window.   The link will open your browser based CRM.

Example code
2132212200<name of person>,<iframe src=”<<<<<  embed html link here >>>>>>>>>>>” width=”100%” height=”500″><p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>/

<a href=”<<<insert crm link here>>>”><img src=”<<<insert image location here>>>” alt=”Call Me Now!” /></a>

Don’t want to use Javascript? Try:
<a href=”<<<put link here>>>” target=”callfireCrm”>Open CRM</a>

Want even more control? You can take your integration a step further with CallFire Voice APIs.   Developers can easily use SOAP web services calls to inject data directly to your Agent’s CRM interface, in real time!   Visit the CallFire Developer Wiki or call 877.897.3473. 

Will, one of CallFire’s seasoned support reps, ran into a situation where he needed to scan for dupes real quick in an exported CSV.

He found, If you combine these two steps you can do a sort and find it right away:
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/dealing_with_duplicate_records_in_microsoft_excel.htm
http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/26.html

Thanks Will!

Customers often call our support line asking:  “How do I prepare an Excel spreadsheet to be uploaded to CallFire?”.    Here’s an easy receipe to get rid of bad records that could cause upload problems:

1. Copy your phone numbers into Column-A, using Excel.   Example
2. Sort your list in Excel, by Column-A.   Example
3. Visually scan Column-A for bad numbers that have less than 10 digits, more than 10 digits, odd characters & so forth.  Delete the row entirely by right-clicking on the row number, and selecting ‘delete.’   (Many records with bad numbers are at the very top and bottom of the sorted list.  Ex: “1111111111″ or “9999999999″.)
4. Lastly, go to FILE > SAVE AS and Save a copy in *.CSV format.   Always rename your final CSV file to prevent mixups!

Good luck!  ~DR