On our last bill, the carrier said we had
27% short duration calls (maybe they are wrong but it was on the bill). It is definitely not call center. But these
callers hangup as soon as they hear answer machine or
most of the time a ring back tone from cell phone. This class of caller will call a cell
phone, hear the ring back, hangup right away and then
call back another 2 minutes later and repeat the cycle.
So, if I have to make it work the way I suggested
(hold the connection open for at least the minimum time, how might you suggest I
do it in the dial plan?
-----Original Message-----
Don't want the tone to be wrong here, but this makes
no sense. Carriers surcharge like this precisely to guard against call center,
predictive and other mass outbound calling scenarios.
It just doesn't make since, math wise, that
individuals hanging up on voice mail are going to significantly impact overall
ACD stats, etc. So unless you have a very strange set of use cases or are
pushing another category of traffic (ie call center) that skews you overall
relationship with the carrier - I would go back and re-negotiate your
arrangement.
Yes, FS is a b2bua and all is possible. But it is
probably a better use of time to approach this as a business issue.
My 2 cents.
On
How can
FS force a
Minimum call duration for
a FS caller (someone calling out of FS)?
We have
a carrier that penalizes us with a surcharge for short duration calls (sound
familiar?).
So when
a FS caller (not a call center or predictive dialer) calls a cell phone and
gets a ring tone or calls an answering machine, the FS caller hangs up because
they do not want to leave a message. But
they do this in less then a few seconds after the call is answered. This becomes a short duration
call and bang the surcharge applies. It
is actually cheaper to pay for a longer call time (6 seconds in this case) and
avoid the short duration surcharge. But
the FS caller does not know this.
So, how
can FS hold the connection to the called party open for at least the minimum
amount of time I need to avoid the short call charge… even though my FS
caller has already hung up the phone on his end? I would like to do this in the xml dialplanif
possible.
Thanks
-Frank