Numbergenie and Vicidial

[vicidial101]

I recently got numbergenie but im having trouble loading the list i created to Vicidial. does anyone know the right way to do it?? Thanks

[mflorell]

could you post an example of the format?

[vicidial101]

could you post an example of the format?

yes. gimme a sec

[vicidial101]

i can't post a pic because im a new member. It saves as a Notepad file and the numbers look like this:

7022655443
7022655445
7022655444
7022655449
7022655441
7022655446
7022655440
7022655442
7022655447
7022655448

[mflorell]

All you have are phone numbers?

[vicidial101]

The software only provides a list of numbers which wont load on to Vicidial

[mflorell]

So you have software that generates numbers somewhat sequentially?

You know if you dial this at any high rate of speed in the USA that you can be shut down for terrorist activity. I am actually serious about that.

[vicidial101]

no. my post was an example of how the numbers look in notepad

[mflorell]

The lead loader was not really written to take single field files. I would recommend adding a few fields for list ID and phone code and then you should be able to use the web-based lead loader with custom format option to import this stuff.

[williamconley]

Actually, that did look VERY close to sequential. Dialing numbers in that series would be a very short-lived campaign.

Do we have any Randomization in Vicidial or planned? I'm writing a utility to take a single list (just phone numbers) and modify it to add list_id, dial code, etc, as provided so the list can be easily imported by "average user". I'm thinking of adding "randomize" as a feature of the utility.

[mflorell]

No randomize feature in ViciDial, it really wasn't written for phone-number-only lists. If you have something in the last_name field then you can sort by that. If you just have that field filled with random numbers that would do a pretty good job of randomizing leads.

[williamconley]

I already have an installed randomizer solution (simplistic, but it works) on several of our dialers.

I sacrifice Address 3 (because these clients never use it) and move the last name to the first name field (yes, they have all the names) so that the entire name is in the first name field. then I put a random number in the last name field. Also, a filter requires that the symbol meaning "randomized" be present in Address 3 (like I said, sacrificed) or the lead will not be available for the campaign.

Every hour the system automatically re-randomizes the list and original-randomizes any new leads that have been added. This makes the new leads available AND randomizes them with the existing leads so they are not just dialed first. I also made the first name field much larger on the display for these dialers, and modified the scripts to use the first name field only.

Now I'm toying with the idea of randomizing them before import for clients who never recycle their lists. So randomizing the import order would allow first/last to stay where they belong and allow top-down dialing on the list.

If I combine this with a converter that will take numbers (as supplied by our friend above) and add appropriate vicidial fields (prompted, of course) while optionally randomizing the list ... I suspect someone will find use for the utility.

[kwatson]

Using a previous dialler we found that sorting the records based on the phone numbers last 4 digits reversed provides a good random mix....

Thanks

Kenny

[williamconley]

Unless you will be calling every valid number in an entire area code (over the course of a year) that is not on the DNC. In which case you'd just be cycling through the prefixes and dialing 9999, 9998, 9997 and it would then appear sequential (except for the numbers that aren't active yet). For any given phone company owning 10000 numbers in that area code, they would not see the OTHER calls, but they would see the calls in theirs sequentially reducing and be unhappy with the dialer.

So that works if you have a "low density" of numbers. But not for high.

For the clients who have a 6-month or 12-month budget and actually plan that far, this is actually their concept. They have a DNC list for that area and updates for a year. They WILL call EVERY number in that area during that time period (and quite legally, too). But doing so presents an issue if they appear to be doing so sequentially in any way. Randomizing the list will allow that process to take a year and NOT show up on the radar. This way in addition to being legal they can also reduce the likelihood of any telephone company issues. (Often just the phrase "auto-dialer" freaks out the public these days.)

[mflorell]

Just an update note on this topic:

I just committed to SVN trunk the new RANDOM and LAST CALL TIME campaign lead order options. They work great in production

[williamconley]

Oh that's brilliant. Thanks!