I have the program setup to ask for a confirmation. When a person presses 1, the program should confirm the caller as a yes. However, when testing it out on a cellphone and landline, it isn’t confirming or acknowledging that I pushed yes. I have the right message selected and everything. Please tell me how to fix this.

First, please make sure the designed message is selected from BroadcastByPhone auto dialer. To select a message, choose Broadcast > Select message … from the program main menu. Once a message is selected for a call list, you should see the message ID displayed in the program status bar (lower right corner of the call list spreadsheet). Also, if you have confirmation items set in the message, you should see your call list spreadsheet contains a columen named confirmation.

One common problem with DTMF tone confirmation is that a few VOIP services do not support it. The notable one is RingCentral, which has a pretty decent calling plan and is recommend to use with Voicent AgentDialer. However, Ringcentral does not support DTMF tones, so it cannot be used with BroadcastByPhone auto dialer when tone confirmation is required.

You were right, I changed providers and it now works. A question I have now is when the user presses 1, the system says “thank you and goodbye” and then disconnects them. Is there anyway to keep it from disconnecting the user and continue playing the rest of the message? Also, can I change the voice that says “thank you and goodbye?”

Yes, but you must have Voicent IVR Studio, which is a separate product. BroadcastByPhone contains a simple Message Designer, which supports one level of interaction (one question). For more advanced call messages, such as multiple questions and answers, and linking to database and email, you must use IVR Studio.

Regarding my Broadcast by Phone, Professional version not working properly that I alerted you to, I discovered that what ever wav file I select in the Broadcast -> Start/Schedule, this is the audio file that is delivered even though I set up a two message (answering machine and human) project with different wav files in the Message Designer. What am I doing wrong?

A new question — When the human message is delivered and a touchtone is entered by the recipient in response to my question, nothing occurs and nothing is recorded by Broadcast by Phone. (The recipient pushed a digit programmed to repeat the message, but it didn’t repeat). What am I doing wrong?

Both issues are related to not selecting the designed message. When a call list is not associated with a calling message, the default (let you pickup an audio file when start) is select. To select a message that you have designed using the Message Designer, please choose Broadcast > Select Message from the program menu.

You can see the selected message on the bottom status bar of the Broadcast by Phone auto dialer program.

I’m currently using BroadVoice for VOIP, but they don’t like robo calling. Who do you know provides true unlimited VOIP service that is compatible with your software? All the vendors you mention in your FAQs either bill by the call/time or have a maximum minutes/calls cap.

If your call volume is low, then you do not have much choice with the unlimited calling plans, most of the VOIP services have minute cap. But if your call volume is more than 50,000 minutes per month, then you can look into SIP trunk providers. They are usually more flexible with their terms and more tolarant with robo dialing.

Can I get a list of status results generated by your system (other than what I specify)?

All status result will be shown in the Status column of the call list spreadsheet window. You can search this knowledge base for “call status” for more information.

When I call myself and hang up shortly after my message starts, I noticed he status shows “Call Succeeded” when it actually should show Incomplete. Is there a way to determine when someone hangs up early?

The only way to know for sure someone has listened to the whole message is asking him to press a key to confirm. Voicent system considers a call successful when it detects a live answer and it starts to play the message.

Where do I define what Group 1 and Group 2 (schedules) apply to? Is it only weekdays and weekend, respectively?

Yes, it is normally used for weekdays and weekends. But you can use the groups for odd days or even days.

With the professional version, can I ask a series of questions requesting a touchtone response to each as part of the same call? What about the Enterprise version? Or is this a planned future feature?

You can ask a series of questions using Voicent IVR Studio. For details, please take a look at the BroadcastByPhone video demo (multple questions survey sample)