Channels, Caller IDs, and Dedicated Phone Numbers

Our cloud platform offers flexible subscription. You only pay for what you need. But sometimes it can be confusing with various options of the flex plan. This article explains in more details about the basic terms of the subscription features.

Channels

When you add a user, the plan gives you 2 outbound channels, which is basically 2 telephone lines to make outbound calls. 2 channels means the system allow you to make 2 simultaneous calls.

For outbound campaigns, such as auto dialer and predictive dialer campaigns, you need outbound channels. If you need more simultaneous calls, you can add more outbound channels to your account.

Caller IDs

When you make an outbound call, either manually from Agent Dashboard or from a dialer campaign, the system uses the channels and a caller ID from your account. The caller ID can be set in agent profile or in campaign options.

A caller ID is what displays on your customer’s phone when our system calls. For most organizations, the main business phone number is used.

A caller ID must be set and verified before you can use it. To add a caller ID, first go to the app portal, then select Setup, Account, Caller ID page. The first time you add a new caller ID, the system will automatically make a verification call to that number. Make sure to answer the call and write down the PIN code. Enter the PIN code in the page to verify the phone number.

Dedicated Phone Number

A caller ID is simply a display number. When your customers call that number, they are calling the system that provides the phone number. You will not be able to answer the call in the Voicent system.

In order to answer incoming calls, you need to have “inbound call center with phone number” feature in your subscription plan. In addition to a dedicated phone number, you also get inbound features like auto attendant, voice mail, call queue, etc.

Each dedicated phone number comes with 1 inbound channel, which means only one customer can call you at any given time. In order to allow more customers to call you, add more inbound voice channels.

Please note, you normally have more inbound channels than the number of agents. When you have more channels, additional calls are put in an incoming queue.