How to set up Clusters/Clustered Dialing

“Cluster” dialing is a buzz word that can mean different things.

“True” clustered dialing involves very specific rules for how each number in the cluster must be dialeed. If this is what you are doing, then take a look at the attached cluster example CLUSTER.ZIP. We recommend that you do as few timed call backs as possible because you often cannot follow the cluster rules once you do.

If you are just trying to get a specific number of completes per cluster (often 1), then this is not “true” cluster dialing and you do NOT want to use this approach. In this case, you just have a lot of different quota cells with small target values, so you want to use the quota in phone record option. Time call backs are not an issue in that scenario because if the cluster fills before they are scheduled, then they won’t be called.

True cluster dialing where there are specific rules for how each number in the cluster is dialed.

If you are doing true clustering as described above, here are the notes from the top of the cluster.qpx that talk about timed call backs and the issues with setting one up.

  • Busies and Call-Backs are a particular headache. If a busy or call-backstatus is given to any number, the special status is removed from thatnumber, but the available flag is not set on it. This number can comeup whenever it needs to, but it will not cause the cluster to be dialed.
  • If a timed-call is set up in the active or lead number in the cluster,this will cause that cluster to become inactive until that timed-callis ready.
  • If a timed-call is set up on the non-active number in the cluster, itwill not be called when it should, if the active number in the clustercomes around first.
  • Should a Time-Call be called again and result in a non-timed andnon-resolved status the special interviewer code of 7 is added back to it.
  • Because there can now be two numbers that are non-special type in a cluster,numbered quotas are used to make sure you don’t end up with two completesin a single cluster. There is a slight possibility that 2 interviewerscould have two different numbers in the same cluster at the same type, butreducing the number of time call backs that are scheduled should make thismostly disappear.

If using a Quota in the Phone Record approach:

Each cluster will likely be a numbered quota cell.

You can use FONEBULD to specify the location of the quota name you want checked before the server releases the phone number. If the quota name is greater than it’s target, the record will be assigned the status you want. This allows you to suppress the release of numbers to a dialer or interviewers that are over quota.

This feature is similar to the “market” feature but has a disadvantage in that it has to check each record for its quota information and then give statuses based on whether it is overquota or not. Markets will disallow access to the stack if the market weight is set to zero so the records are not processed at all.

The advantage of this feature is that it can be used with as many quota names as you want (up to 1000 triple quotas and even more numbered quotas). Also, used in conjunction with the quota_percentage feature you can control the release of sample if you have for instance daily quotas. You may also use this in addition to market controls.

The keywords and their meanings are as follows:

  • cluster.zip