make asterisk your call center

asterCC & asterCC BOX released 0.13

solo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:34 +0000

post: http://astercc.org/tips/2009/11/astercc-released-013.html

asterCC BOX 0.13:

* updated to freepbx 2.6 rc2
* updated to asternic 1.2
* updated to asterCC 0.13

asterCRM 0.061:

* added agents manager in astercrm to manage agents.conf
* fixed the bug that cant edit worktime_package
* added callOrder field in diallist
* added diallist panel in portal page
* added the daemon to convert recording files to mp3 format
* added mp3 online player
* added agent portal panel switcher
* added clear screen button in agent portal

asterBilling 0.11:

* fixed the prefix billing
* added professional mode
* added member mode switch
* added Portuguese support

astercrm agent management

astercrm clearscreen

astercrm diallist pannel

astercrm panels witcher

astercrm mp3player for recording files

asterbilling professional mode

asterbilling portuguese language support

freepbx2.6 in asterCC BOX 0.13

asternic_realtime

tutorial: use astercrm & asterisk for broadcasting

solo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:58:20 +0000

in this tutorial, it will guide u how to broadcast your message in asterisk and astercrm.

1. add outbound context in asterisk

add the following content in your dialplan (like extensions.conf)

[for-outbound]
exten => _X.,1,Dial(SIP/yourtrunk/${EXTEN},45)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

exten => h,1,NoOp(${DIALSTATUS})
exten => h,n,Hangup

here “yourtrunk” should be defined in your sip conf file, or you can use other trunk you have, like IAX2, ZAP, DAHD I…

2. add inbound context in asterisk

add the following content in your dialplan (like extensions.conf)

[for-collection]
exten => _X.,1,NoOp(${EXTEN})
exten => _X.,Background(YOURMESSAGE)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

exten => 1,1,Queue(1000); means when customer press 1 when it’s playing, he will reach your queue 1000

exten => h,1,Hangup()

then it will look like

3. add group in astercrm

4. add campaign in astercrm

then go to diallist->campaign, add a campaign, in outcontext and incontext, we will put the context we added before, for-outbound and for-collection

5. upload the diallist

you can upload a excel/cvs file to diallist, or you can insert record to diallist table using your script

numbers.csv

import:

6. start the dialer

then u can go to dialer page to enable the campaign, also you can set a limitation of the max outbound calls there

7. set a time limitation

if you only want it dial at spcific time, you can add a time package for the campaign. first add some time

diallist -> worktime

then create a work time package and add the worktime in

then set the campaign to use this work time package

8. check dial result

go to diallist -> dialedlist, you can find the result

hope this post can help you create ur first broadcasting campaign, and u can also improve on this, like u can use a script to insert to diallist automaticly or set some survey so customer can press in their option when listening to your message.

asterCC v0.13 beta released

solo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:20:28 +0000

asterCRM 0.06:

* improved survey export feature
* add a switch to control if need close all popup window after a survey
* improved dialer
* added table campaignresult
* added survye <-> campaign connection
* popup survey directly when only one survey enabled
* added surveyresult.agi, can be used to update survey when use AMD
* added new parameters which is used to control cdr data (in table mycdr)
* allow add customer name or add customer connection when import diallist, also added diallist popup
* monitor features was moved to daemon astercc
* add queuestatus page, to display realtime queue status
* fixed the bug that sort only work in the first page

asterBilling 0.1:

* fixed the billing bug when num length and prefix confilict

queue status:

why i cant see booth history when can see the calling call?

solo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:19:27 +0000

some customers find that they can see live booth calls(screen 1) but when call is done, nothing appears in the booth box(screen 2).

this happens coz the admin set sip account in “clid” when it should be “caller id”

check table “mycdr” you will find that the “src” filed would be a number which doesnt match with “channel” field

to fix this, just go to “clid” in asterbilling and change the clid to be the number in src field

how to upgrade astercc

solo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:18:33 +0000

1.upgrade database

unzip the package u could see folder “sql”

files in asterCC 0.12 should be:

astercc0.1b-0.1.sql
astercc0.1-0.11.sql
astercc0.11-0.12b.sql
astercc0.12b.-0.12sql
astercc.sql

say you are using 0.1b now, so you have to execute astercc0.1b-0.1.sql, astercc0.1-0.11.sql, astercc0.11-0.12b.sql, astercc0.12b.-0.12sql one by one, then u get database of v0.12

2. stop astercc daemons

/opt/asterisk/scripts/astercc/asterccd stop

3. cp the new html & daemon files

4. set conf files

files include astercc.conf, asterbilling.conf.php, astercrm.conf.php

5. start astercc daemons

/opt/asterisk/scripts/astercc/asterccd start

6. login and check

asterCC released 0.12-beta

solo — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:03:59 +0000

asterCRM new features:

campaign result statistics
agent dialed result statistics
support set start time and end time for campaign
supply a shell for backup file and database
agent can add a scheduler dial for a customer
support set dial waittime in campaign
agent can add a transfer link in note
astercrm workwith asterbilling simplely
supoort delete a uploaded file
agent pause function
reload or restart asterisk in web

asterBilling new features:

generate sip extension and sip reload by admin
display connect speed of clid
comment in credithistory
reloadrate, useSrcchanWhenNoClid
shortcut update customer rate for groupadmin
support payment by paypal
reload or restart asterisk in web

add callshop & realtime billing feature to your a2billing

solo — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:36:00 +0000

If you have a a2billing working already, you may want to add some more features, like make it work as a hosted callshop, here we’ll introduce how to add callshop feature using asterbilling.

1. add a new conf in your a2billing

add a new conf like [agi-conf2] in a2billing.conf, make sure you have the changed the following options:

; Manage the answer on the call

answer_call = NO
play_audio = NO
use_dnid = YES
number_try = 1
say_balance_after_auth = NO
say_balance_after_call = NO
say_rateinitial = NO
say_timetocall = NO
cid_enable = NO
cid_auto_assign_card_to_cid = NO

anyway, disable all prompt & announcement

2. add new dialplan in asterisk extensions

by default, sip peer generated by a2billing will use context a2billing, so we add

[a2billing]
; for asterbilling booth
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI,a2billing.php|2

3. add costomer in a2billing

then we add a customer in a2billing, make sure you enabled sip or iax account, then click the “generate” button and click “reload” link

also u may want to set this customer as “postpay” and a big number for the limit coz you would not charge customer in a2billing, just make sure this customer could make calls with no problem

4. set your ip phone

go to “List Sip-friend” or “List iax-friend” get the username/secret for your phone, then try make a call, if everything goes well, u should make a call successfully

5. add clid in asterbilling

go to asterbilling and create clid using the username(if there’s callerid defined for this customers, use callerid instead) in sip-friends

6 login as groupadmin/operator and enjoy

building a virtual office using astercrm ,freepbx and asterisk

solo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:07:41 +0000

In a virtual office, you will have few receiption but they can answer calls for hundred company, in such case, they should know which number customer dialed so that they dont mess up the calls, now we introduce u how to build a virtual call center using astercrm & asterisk.

1. add extension for receiption

open your browser and go to freepbx, click extension on left menu and add extensions for your receiption, here we have three extensions: 8000, 8001 and 8888

2. add a queue for your receiptions which would be used to answer incoming calls, we only add 8000 and 8001 in this queue

and u can set some options for this reciption queue

3. add a trunk which could be used for incoming calls

and the most important, set registry for this trunk so that u can get calls in

4. add a inbound route so that the receiption queue could answer your incoming calls

now make a call to your DID number, if everything is allright, phones of receiption should ring

5. go to astercrm and add account for your receiptions

6. add trunkinfo so your receiption could get some information about the number customer dialed

here Trunk Channel should be the username of your trunk, not trunk name in freepbx

7. login as a receiption accound and try make a call

when ringing

when talking

this tutorial could be used on trixbox, elastix or any other system using freepbx, also u can config receiption account and dialplan by your self.

dialer, queue and popup for asterisk callcenter(freepbx,trixbox,elastix,pbxinflash)

solo — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:25:32 +0000

The latest asterCRM has a great improvement in dialer, and with asterCRM, it’s quite easy to build a call center. Here’s a how-to for a outbound call center with Freepbx and astercrm. Following by this how-to, you can creat such a solution:

asterCRM dialer will call the numbers in your diallist, and when the call is connected, it would be redirect to a queue, where your agent will answer the call and talk the customers, they can do survey , sales or whatever you want.

* freepbx is a web gui for asterisk which is widely used in asterisk applications, like trixbox, elastix, pbx in flash …

install freepbx

For freepbx installation, you can read the installation document from freepbx website http://www.freepbx.org. If you are using trixbox, elastix or pbx in flash, then u can skip this, it have freepbx build in already.

install asterCRM, make sure asterCRM daemons (astercc and astercctools) are running

for asterCRM installation, go and check asterCRM wiki:

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/AsterCRM_Installation#Using_the_install_script

add extensions for your agents and set a queue to receive calls from asterCRM dialer

then add a queue

set group/user in asterCRM

next login asterCRM as admin, create group “outbound sales” and add extensions for agents you created above, go wiki for more detail

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Create_Group

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Create_Extension

make sure “Extension” matched “Outbound CID” or “Extension”(if outbound cid is blank) in freepbx

so now all your agents should get a username/password for asterCRM.

set a campaign

put the queue number “02″ in and check the “bind” checkbox, then as soon as customer answer the call, it would be putted into the queue, and your agent could start talk!

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Create_Campaign

import diallist

say you have already get 1000 numbers you want agents make call to, then use import function to import these number to diallist for this campaign

http://astercc.org/tips/2008/11/import-data-in-astercc.html

agents login

your agent should get ready to start! Log into astercrm and log into the queue if they are dynamic agent.

start dialer

both groupadmin and admin could start the dialer, go management interface and then click “Dialer” icon

check the checkbox “start”, it will start dial, u can set limit by channel or limit by agent in the queue, in the latest version, it would not stop dial even u close the page, but will stop if u uncheck the checkbox “start”.

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Predictive_dialer

agents login

when a customer is connected and redirect to the agent in queue, it would popup customer information if you have in database

Survey features in asterCRM for outbound asterisk call center

solo — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:11:02 +0000

In asterCRM, it provides a survey features, so you can set survey for your customers, here will give you a simple introducation for this:

first you need to add a survey, login as admin/group admin go manager interface and click survey icon, click “Add” button for a new survey, you can add several options for one survey, and each survey it provides three kinds: radio, checkbox and text

Click the “item” link next to the option to enter items for this option

keep putting options and items until u finish this survey.

Then you can put a survey from the agent page

*when there’s a customer or contact in your record form, if u click the “Add” link of a survey, the result will be linked with the customer

Click the “Detail” link of a survey, u can get a statistic of this survey