Set Up Multi-Number Phone Contacts

You can assign up to 6 phone numbers to a Personal Connection (PC) dialing record. For example, you could have PC attempt to call the home number of each record three times before attempting to call the cell number. After two attempts on the cell phone, you could have PC send a Proactive SMS message to the cell phone and then try the home number a few more times before finally attempting the work number.

You can set up different allowable calling times for each individual phone number in the record, and you can have a default allowable calling time for each type of number in the calling list. It applies to all records that don't contain an individually specified allowable time range.

Do each task in the given order to set up PC dialing and SMS messaging for multiple phone numbers per record.

Create Custom Fields for Each Phone Type

Required permissions: Calling List Create

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to ListsCustom Data Definitions.

  3. If you want to have associated caller ID, compliance, attempts, description, start time, or end time fields for your custom phone field, create those fields first. To do so: 

    1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

    2. Go to ListsCustom Data Definitions.

    3. Click Create New.

    4. Enter a Field Name. Don't give a custom field the same name as a system field. If you plan to make the field visible to agents, make the name readable by adding spaces. If you're using this field as a script variable, you cannot use spaces. If you want the field to be both a script variable and visible to agents, you can use underscores to improve readability or create two mappings to the same field.

    5. Select a field Type according to these requirements: 

      Field

      Requirements

      Caller ID Value String Type

      Compliance

      Boolean Type

      Attempts Integer Type
      Description Integer Type
      Start Time Integer Type. This setting overrides the default value if you set one.
      End Time Integer Type. This setting overrides the default value if you set one.
    6. If you want to set a default field value and your selected Type supports it, enter the Default value. The value you entered applies to all records that don't specify a value for that field.

    7. If your selected Type supports it and you want to prevent the system from assigning a default value to contacts without an assigned value for the field, select Value Required.

    8. Click Add.

    9. Repeat these steps for each field you want to associate with your custom phone field.
  4. Click Create New.

  5. Enter a Field Name and select the Phone or SMSPhone Type.
  6. If you created an associated caller ID, compliance, attempts, description, start time, or end time field to apply to this field, select them in their respective fields.

  7. If you want to set default allowable time ranges for calling or sending SMS messages to contacts, use the Constraints fields. You can create different windows for weekdays and weekends, and each can have multiple time ranges. Because these constraints set the default calling time ranges, the constraints you specify are overridden by values of Start Time and End Time, if you set up related fields.
  8. Click Add.

  9. Repeat these steps for each phone type you want to add to your records.

Upload a Calling List with Multiple Phone Columns

  1. If you haven't already done so, create a calling list:

    Calling list files can't exceed 256 MB in size or 500,000 records. Smaller calling lists result in faster upload and fresher records. Each individual record in a calling list cannot exceed a length of 512 Unicode characters. Calling list uploads support Unicode UTF-8 encoding, which includes Chinese characters and all other languages. If you're creating or editing calling lists in Microsoft Excel, take care to preserve the UTF-8 encoding format.

    CXone strips the formatting from phone numbers in calling lists and stores the phone numbers in a universal format. This allows phone numbers to pass between calling lists and do not call (DNC) lists without conflict.

    1. Open a spreadsheet editor or a text editor.
    2. You can use the first row to label your columns. This helps with automatic field mapping when you upload the calling list. If you're using a text editor, decide whether to separate the values with commas or tabs.
    3. Create the columns for your list.

      For a Proactive Voice calling list, you must have a unique identifier column and a phone number column.

    4. Enter the data for each record in its own row.

    5. Save the file in one of the approved formats shown in the following images.
  2. In your calling list, add columns for each of the custom phone fields and each of their associated custom fields you created.
  3. Upload the calling list.

    If you're re-uploading a calling list after making critical updates, stop the associated ACD skill. Restart the ACD skill when you're done uploading calling lists.

    1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

    2. Go to ListsCalling.

    3. Click Select File.

    4. Read the compliance agreement and click Accept to continue.

    5. Enter a List Name. Select the Upload New radio button if you want to select a new list from your computer, or Select Existing if you want to modify a list you already uploaded.

      If uploading, click Choose File. If modifying, type the File Name or click Browse. Find and select the calling list you want to upload or use. Configure any optional fields as needed.

    6. Click Next.
    7. If you used the first row of your calling list to label the columns, select Use First Row as Column Names next to Header. Review the automatic mapping done by PC, map any unmapped fields, and configure time zone handling and an expiration date.
    8. If it's not already done for you, map your phone numbers and email addresses in Map Destinations. Add and remove destinations as needed.

      If you map a phone field to a specific ACD skill, it appears under the cadence options for that skill. If you don't want to include a specific phone number in the Maximum Attempts or cadence calling order, don't map those phone number to fields. Once you map the field, you can't remove it from the cadence settings.

    9.  When the file uploads, PC displays the progress and the number of records that loaded successfully and unsuccessfully. If the calling list contains invalid records, use the following steps to fix the errors.
      1. Click Download Link in the warning box that appears.

      2. Open the file to view the problems with the upload. In this example, the record in row 6 doesn't have a phone number:

      3. Fix the problem in the calling list and save it.
      4. Upload the updated file.

Set the Dialing Order for Multiple Phone Numbers

Required permissions: Skills Edit

Each Personal Connection (PC) record belongs to a single contact and contains all information for that contact, including all phone numbers associated with the contact. Attempt cadence is the order in which PC calls the single contact's varying telephone numbers, texts the contact's cell phone, or a combination of both. For example, you might set up a cadence so PC attempts calling the contact's phone numbers in the following order: home, home, work, cell, home, home, home, cell SMS, work, work, cell, spouse cell.

PC keeps a record of each attempt along with the outcome. Once a call results in contact with the correct party, PC makes no further attempts on the record. If the outcome is interception or wrong party reached, the system finalizes only the telephone number that generated that outcome and attempts the rest until it reaches the maximum record attempts.

  1. If you haven't already done so, set up a calling list for the ACD skillClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge on which you want to set the cadence.

  2. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  3. Go to Contact SettingsACD Skills.

  4. Click the outbound phone skill in which you want to set the cadence.
  5. Click Parameters. Locate the Cadence Settings option and click Configure or Edit.
  6. To add a new attempt set to the cadence:

    1. Click Add Cadence.
    2. Select a phone number from the Calling Order drop-down. These correspond with the phone number fields you mapped when you uploaded the calling list for this ACD skill.
    3. Set the value in Attempts to reflect the number of attempts you want the dialer to make on that number before moving on to the next number in the cadence. If you set up preview dialing, PC counts it as an attempt when an agent rejects a record.

    4. If the phone number is meant for Proactive SMS messaging, select the Final Outcome. If you set it to SMS Retry, you can configure more SMS attempts later in the cadence.

    5. Repeat the previous step until you have the attempts configured the way you want them. Set the values in the Order column to reflect the order in which you want the number types attempted. The lower the number, the sooner the dialer attempts the number.
  7. Repeat the previous step until you have the attempts configured the way you want them. Set the values in the Order column to reflect the order in which you want the number types attempted. The lower the number, the sooner the dialer attempts the number.
  8. If you want to add time constraints for dialing or SMS messaging to a phone type, do the following:

    1. Click the + time constraints link by the first entry.
    2. On the Weekdays number bar, click and drag over the period of time when dialing or SMS messaging is allowed on weekdays. You can create multiple allowed time periods, if you want. Repeat the process for the Weekend number bar.
    3. Click save time constraints.
    4. Create time constraints as needed for other cadence entries.

  9. Click Done.