Configuring Outbound Calling Policies

Objective

The purpose of this article is to provide information to Outreach Admins in the configuration of Outbound Calling Policies. Outbound Calling Policies allow admins to block users from calling regions and countries, as well as to ensure that users are adhering to US telemarketing regulations both at a federal and state level.

Outbound Calling Policies allows admins to:

• Set default rules for the entire US—choose which days and times your reps can call, and block calls on specific dates like holidays.
• Easily restrict calling destinations—prevent your reps from calling certain areas or countries
• Configure specific rules for individual states

Applies To

• Outreach Admin

Before You Begin

• Requires Outreach Voice
• Primarily impacts calling to US and Canadian numbers

This is a new framework to help admins manage the calling behavior of their users to ensure they are compliant with US telecommunication regulations. There are strict federal laws governing when, how often, and on which days telemarketing calls can be placed. These can vary by industry. Additionally, some states have their own unique rules.

Procedure

1. Log in to Outreach as an Admin.
2. Click Administration.
3. Click Tools > Calls.
4. Select the Outbound call restrictions tab.

• Enable / Disable
  • This turns on or off all calling policies.
• Global Settings
  • Allows you to configure default restrictions for all US and Canadian calling destinations

• Calling hours
  • You can add/remove days by clicking on the picker for days of the week at the top of this section
  • You can select a time range for each day selected
• Restricted dates
  • Allows you to block calls on certain dates. Note: if you are blocking federal holidays, you will need to reconfigure this every year to ensure that the holiday is always blocked
• Blocked calling destinations

• This allows you to block all calls to a certain area either by destination phone number or US zip code
  • This is helpful for preventing users from calling expensive international destinations or if there is a state of emergency and users should not be calling into that area.
• US and Canada region-specific restrictions
• This section allows you to control calling into certain states using the same controls as the default section above
• This is especially useful for states that prevent calls on certain state holidays such as All Saints’ Day in Louisiana

How calls are blocked

These policies are applied globally to all Outreach Voice users. When a user tries to place a call that triggers one of the rules, they receive an error message in the dialer stating that the call cannot be placed. No call log is created in this instance. However, as users still may need to place a call, they have the option to override the error and continue the call. This is detailed later in this document. The configured rules for default restrictions and US and Canada region-specific restrictions work as defined below:

• Default restrictions
  • These apply to all calls to +1 country code (US and CAN only),
    • If a call is placed to certain state that has its own configuration, it will take precedence over the default rules
• US and Canada region-specific restrictions
  • The destination of the called party to apply state based calling policies is determined by looking at both US phone number area codes and, if present, a directly associated Prospect’s US address zip code.
    • If the phone number area code and zip code are for different States, both States policies are checked to determine if the call shall be allowed to proceed.
    • For a Prospect record’s address to be used to apply policy ,the call must be made from the Prospect’s record or from a Call Task created for the Prospect.
• Important notes:
  • Non geographical US phone numbers (e.g. 1-888 toll free) and non US phone numbers are not subject to default restrictions or area based restrictions.
  • Non US prospect addresses, or US addresses missing a ZIP code, are not subject to these policies.
  • Area codes are not guaranteed to always map accurately to called party physical locations due to use of mobile phones, ported numbers and VoIP services.
  • Calls made by entering phone numbers manually may only have policies applied based on the area code dialed.
  • If a call is blocked by multiple policies, only the first policy is shown to the user

Overrides

When an attempt to make a call is not allowed due to an outbound calling policy, the user has an option to continue to the call. This is because users may have a legitimate reason to place the call i.e. it is after hours but a prospect requested a call at a certain time.

If the user clicks on “Continue to call”, they are provided a prompt to explain why they are overriding the policy to make the call (e.g. Prospect gave prior consent to be called). 

If any user overrides the policy, Outreach Admins will receive daily email with an attached CSV file containing events logged when calling policies were overridden by an end user providing business justification to make a call.

Each event contains the following information: