Before you read this you should have familiarized yourself with the Call Recycling Assumptions topic.
Fig. 1 - Call Recycling Outcomes
You would be awash in data if Oceanic® allowed you to specify the full range of outcomes in call recycling. So we have devised some rules to handle the excluded outcomes, which should suit the vast majority of purposes. They are:
Answering Machines
The outcome assumptions for no answers are split with answering machines, in the same ratio as you first input them on the Call Outcome Properties page.
In most cases, people will answer their phones when they are in. If they are not very responsive to outbound messages left on their answering machines, this treatment is fine.
But consider what happens in these two circumstances:
1) Called parties use their answering machines to screen out outbound calls
They will listen to your agent but not pick up the phone. If your operation is susceptible to this, and in real life you reckon you can make a fair guess at which answering machine responses are of this type, then don't class this type of call outcome as answering machines. Here's what you can do:
- To put a stop to any retries beyond Cycle 1, treat these calls as a talk band with a short time duration. Do this by classifying them as Live calls on the Call Outcome Properties page, and specify the talk band on the Setup and Talk Properties page.
2) Called parties react positively to a message left on their answering machine
- Do as in the case of screening above, but include these calls within the Results talk band.
Other telco
In the first cycle of calls, you can expect to get telco messages, e.g. network busy and number unobtainable.
Your response in some of these cases (e.g. number unobtainable) may be to not recycle the number. In other cases (e.g. network busy), you will still want to do so. The telco adjustment percentage (see Initial Settings) is applied to the assumption that you make for other telco call outcomes in Cycle 1, and allows you to reduce the incidence of these call outcomes from Cycle 2 onwards, lowering the size of the recycled calling list.
Faxes/ modems
The fax/ modem adjustment which applies from Cycle 2 onwards (see Initial Settings) follows the same logic as described for the Other telco adjustment above. It is likely to have a low value, but don't rule out those cases, especially in the home, where you may have dialed a temporary setting, and a retry could yield a live call.
Abandoned calls
The figure you selected on the Extended Properties page is adjusted downwards to show it as a proportion of total calls made. See also Measuring Abandoned Calls.