📞Outbound
The Outbound interface allows users to view completed and pending outbound call lists, to view outbound status for completed outbound calls, and to queue outbound calls manually through CSV upload.
Navigating to Outbound
Outbound calls can only be made when an application has been deployed.
Outbound Overview
Fuse makes it possible to automate outgoing calls with your digital voice channel. Behind the scenes outbound calling is a little bit different from handling inbound calls.
There are several different components to understand when developing applications for outbound calling, including:
how the outbound call queuing platform works
how to use the outbound APIs to queue calls
how to use the API options to trigger different behaviors
how to get the results of your calls
The Outbound Call Queuing Process
Basic Outbound Call Process
Every Fuse application has its own outbound calling queue. Outbound calls in Fuse are queued on a per application deployment basis.
Here are the basic steps of the outbound call process:
A call is queued by sending a phone_number POST variable to the application deployment’s queue API. This also returns a unique call_id.
The call is inserted into the queue and put into the queued state while waiting for idle outbound capacity.
When idle outbound capacity is available the call is taken off the queue, dialed, and put into into the dialing state.
When the call is answered it is placed into the connected state and the associated application executes.
When the call disconnects it is placed in the completed state.
What You Will Need
A fuse application
A deployment created for the application. A phone number is not needed to for outbound deployment. See Creating a New Deployment for more information.
How to start an outbound call
There are 2 ways to start an outbound call
Queuing through APIs
Queuing through Fuse API
Fuse API supports both single call queuing and bulk call queuing.
If you plan to queue more than one call at a time, use the Queue Multiple Calls API Method. Looping the Single Call API for individual calls can cause DDoS, which will result in all calls failing.
Advanced Outbound Call Features
For more information on the different settings you can set for an outbound call, please visit the Outbound Parameters page.
Understanding Callee Types and Outbound Statuses
The callee is the recipient of an outbound call. Plum Voice attempts to determine the type of callee (also referred as callee type), whether human, answering machine, etc. This information can be useful for determining an appropriate greeting or knowing whether a call was answered.
An outbound call is considered 'completed' when callee types are:
voice: the call was answered by a person
answeringmachine: the call went to voicemail
fax: the call detected a fax machine tone
For best user experience it is best to add callee type detection to your application.
An outbound call is considered 'failed' when callee types are:
busy: the line is in use
noanswer: the call was not picked up and did not go to voicemail
informationtone: the call detected an information tone; causes may include all circuits busy, number was disconnected, etc.
linefailure: similar to information tone, the call detected a failure when calling the number
In rare cases, an outbound call may produce miscellaneous callee types:
noattempt: this can cause an 'uncalled' or 'failed' status and occurs when campaign windows are too short for the amount of calls or cancelling the queue
unknown: this can cause a 'completed' or 'failed' status and occurs when our platform cannot determine the proper callee type
Last updated