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Stages are defined by Stage Sets

A stage is a discrete activity within a phone call, such as pitching a product or service, or collecting order information. Since a call has multiple stages, a collection of stage entries is called a Stage Set. This section explains why it is advantageous to use Stage Sets.

Stage Sets enhance the efficiency of predictive dialing by defining each segment of a call that statistics can be collected upon. Each stage categorizes a general task that agents perform while talking to a contact. Stages can be thought of as completing actions performed by agents to process a call. Stages usually correspond with pages of a campaign script.

The stages of a campaign call are defined using the Stage Sets view. Stage names and other attributes are saved in groups (called Stage Sets) that can be assigned by name to one or more campaigns. A Stage Set is nothing more than a set of stages that have been given a name. Each campaign can have its own Stage Set. However, a Stage Set can be assigned to more than one campaign. Stage Sets are optional, but in practice they are often used.

The Stage Sets view in Dialer Manager.

The basic attributes of a stage

Stage name: This user-defined label categorizes one or more tasks that agents perform in the course of a campaign call. This name can contain spaces, numbers and special characters.
Stage number: When an agent transitions to a different stage, the campaign script sends the stage number (an integer value) to the Outbound Dialer server, to tell it that the agent has entered a new stage. Stage numbers are used in campaign scripts to transition an agent from one stage to another.

When creating stages of a Stage Set, you must coordinate stage names (and numbers) with the person who is creating custom campaign scripts for campaign(s) to which this Stage Set will be assigned. The script developer uses stage numbers in scripts that transition agents to different stages when new HTML pages are opened in the Interaction Scripter Client.

The Outbound Dialer Server doesn't use stage names internally. Instead, it uses the Stage number to keep track of stages. When an agent transitions to a new stage, the campaign script sends the stage id (an integer value) to the server, to tell it that the agent has entered a new stage.

Predictive attribute: Every stage has a predictive attribute that indicates whether or not the Outbound Dialer server should collect statistics while agents are in that stage. All terminating stages should be marked as predictive. The predictive attribute should be set for stages that lead to a disposition of the call record (terminal stages).

The Outbound Dialer server tracks the amount of time that each agent spends in predictive stages. While a campaign is active, the Outbound Dialer server monitors agent performance at each predictive stage and maintains statistics that allow it to predict the probability that the call will complete in the current stage. The server estimates how long each agent will take to complete that stage of the call.

The Outbound Dialer server does not monitor or factor in time that each agent spends in non-predictive stages. Non-predictive stages are ignored by the predictive dialer, but are useful for reporting purposes.

A predictive stage describes an activity that Interaction Dialer's patented staging algorithm measures as part of its predictive algorithm.

The predictive algorithm is a calculation that determines if a call should be made. The calculation is based on a number of factors, including agent status, stage completion measurements and ContactList quality.

Stage Sets are dynamically referenced by Campaigns

A Stage Set has no effect until it is assigned to a predictive campaign. Afterward, Dialer's pacing algorithm analyzes stage statistics to make better predictions regarding when and how many calls to place. Stages help Dialer's pacing algorithm to predict when agents will become available.

As each agent progresses through scripts or other applications, stage transitions are communicated to Interaction Dialer. Each agent's average time in each stage is tracked and presented on real-time tracking interfaces. These average stage times are also used by the pacing algorithm to estimate the likelihood of an agent ending a call at any given time, thus optimizing the likelihood of an accurate prediction.