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Automating Customer Calls with UniTalk Auto Dialer and Predictive Dialer

In today’s business environment, effective customer communication is essential for success. Companies are constantly looking for ways to optimize their processes, save time and resources, and maintain a high level of customer service.

One such solution is IVR (Interactive Voice Response) combined with UniTalk’s Auto Dialer and Predictive Dialer. These tools allow you to automate outbound customer calls, collect important information from customers, and automatically transfer the collected data to NetHunt CRM.

What Is UniTalk IVR and How Does It Work?

UniTalk IVR is an interactive voice technology that allows computer systems to interact with users through voice prompts and keypad input (DTMF tones). In the context of automated outbound calling, UniTalk IVR allows you to create call flows that automatically contact customers, provide information, and collect responses to specific questions.

Here's how it works:

1. Create a call flow:
You configure an IVR call flow in UniTalk by defining a sequence of actions for the system to perform. For example, the system can greet the customer, announce a special offer, ask about their satisfaction with a service, or ask them to confirm certain information.

2. Record voice prompts:
All messages the customer hears are recorded in advance. These can include questions, answer options (for example, "Press 1 for Yes or 2 for No"), instructions, and other prompts.

3. Upload a contact list:
Upload a list of customer phone numbers that you want to call.

4. Start the campaign:
The system automatically starts calling the phone numbers on the list.

5. Interact with customers:
When a customer answers, the IVR system plays the recorded prompts and waits for the customer's response, typically entered using their phone keypad.

6. Collect responses:
Customer responses are automatically recorded by the system. Depending on the type of question, the collected data can be stored as text or numerical values.

7. Analyze the results:
The collected data can be used for further analysis, reporting, or integration with NetHunt CRM.

What Is It Useful For?

Automated outbound calling with UniTalk IVR offers a wide range of business applications, helping you streamline customer communication and automate repetitive tasks.

Surveys and Feedback Collection: Quickly and efficiently gather customer feedback about your product, service, or customer experience. For example: "Rate the quality of our service from 1 to 5."

Customer Notifications: Automatically notify customers about new promotions, special offers, changes to business hours, order status updates, or scheduled maintenance.

Appointment and Order Confirmations: Use IVR to remind customers about upcoming appointments, confirm bookings, or verify deliveries. For example: "Press 1 to confirm your appointment."

Marketing Campaigns: Run outbound campaigns with offers that require a quick response or help you measure customer interest.

Reduced Call Center Workload: Automating routine inquiries frees your call center agents to focus on more complex and personalized customer requests. This improves operational efficiency and reduces customer wait times.

Structured Response Collection: Collect structured responses such as Yes/No answers, ratings, or menu selections, making the data easier to process and analyze.

Improved Customer Experience: Providing customers with quick and convenient access to information or simple self-service options can contribute to a better overall customer experience.

Reduced Costs: Automating outbound calls can reduce the need for manual calling and help lower operational costs associated with routine customer communication.

Processing IVR Data in NetHunt CRM

A key benefit of using UniTalk IVR is its seamless integration with NetHunt CRM. This allows you to centralize customer data and automate follow-up actions based on customer responses.

How NetHunt CRM Processes Data from UniTalk IVR

Automatic Record Creation and Updates: When a customer interacts with the IVR system, NetHunt CRM can automatically create a new contact or update an existing record with the collected information, such as survey responses, confirmations, or menu selections.

Detailed Interaction History: Information about automated calls, customer responses, and campaign outcomes is stored in the customer's record in NetHunt CRM. This gives your team a complete view of each customer's interaction history, allowing sales representatives and support agents to review previous communications before reaching out.

Segmentation and Filtering: Use data collected through automated calls to easily segment customers in NetHunt CRM. For example, you can filter customers who selected "2" in a satisfaction survey and automatically create a separate list for follow-up.

Workflow Automation: NetHunt CRM lets you configure automated actions based on data collected through IVR. For example:

If a customer indicates dissatisfaction by selecting "2" in a survey, the system can automatically create a task for a sales representative or support agent to follow up and gather more details.
If a customer confirms an appointment, you can configure an automated SMS reminder to be sent one hour before the appointment.
If a customer provides positive feedback, they can be automatically added to a marketing campaign with a thank-you message or a special offer.

Prioritizing Follow-Ups: With the integration, you can configure NetHunt CRM to automatically identify high-priority cases, such as complaints or urgent requests, and assign them to the appropriate team members with a high priority.

Analytics and Reporting: NetHunt CRM allows you to create detailed reports based on the collected data. This helps you evaluate the performance of IVR campaigns, track customer satisfaction, and make data-driven decisions to improve your business processes.

Let's Move on to the UniTalk Setup

First, you need to configure the necessary settings in your UniTalk account.

In the left-hand navigation menu, go to Dialers → Autodialer:

Next, click Add:

Now, configure the new Auto Dialer campaign. Give it a name, select the incoming and outgoing call flows, and click Save.

Here’s what you should see after completing these settings:

Configuring the NetHunt CRM Side

We need to send the customer's phone number, personal information, and description to your UniTalk account for the automated calling campaign. How can you set this up?

You can use an existing field as the trigger for the automation, such as a Deal Stage field. When the deal moves to a specific stage, the automation is triggered and the Auto Dialer campaign starts.

For this example, however, we'll use a checkbox field as the automation trigger.

💡 Note: The Auto Dialer ID is a unique identifier assigned to each campaign when it is created. To find the ID, copy it from the Auto Dialer campaign you configured in UniTalk.

The next step is to create an automation that sends the required fields from NetHunt CRM to your UniTalk account. Select the Checkbox field as the trigger, then choose the required action: Make an API call.
For reference, see the UniTalk API documentation.

The request method should be POST.
URL: https://api.unitalk.cloud/api/autodial/action
Request body (JSON):

{   
    "id": "Auto Dialer campaign ID",   
    "action": "ADD_NUMBERS",   
    "refreshDuplicates": true,   
    "highPriority": true,   
    "numbersWithData": [     
        {       
            "phone": "Phone number macro",       
            "name": "First and last name macro",       
            "note": "Call note macro"     
        }   
    ] 
}

Finally, add Stop to complete the Workflow automation, then activate it:

Once the phone numbers have been added to the calling campaign, you can view them under Current Auto Dialer numbers statistic:

Great! We've completed part of the setup, but now we need to receive and process the responses collected after the calls.

How can this be configured?

In your UniTalk account, you need to use the API to create records in a dedicated CRM folder after each Auto Dialer campaign. To handle this data efficiently, we created a separate folder that serves as a technical data-processing folder. It collects all the information received from UniTalk, after which the required values can be transferred to the main Contacts folder, where duplicate records can be checked.

To set this up in UniTalk, go to API & Automation, select Event handlers, and click Add New Handler:

Next, click Add to create a new event handler. Enter the handler name, the URL for creating a record in NetHunt CRM, select the POST request method, and choose JSON as the request format.

Use the following JSON payload:

{   
    "timeZone": "Europe/London",   
    "fields": 
    {     
        "IVR Response": "{{IVR_PRESSED_DIGIT}}",     
        "Phone": ["{{PHONE_NUMBER}}"]   
    } 
}

For IVR Response, add the dynamic value Pressed Digit.

For Phone, add the dynamic value Client's Phone.

The next step is to configure the IVR. To do this, go to Calls → Settings →Voice menu (IVR):

Configure the IVR menu by entering a name and uploading the audio file. Then, assign your webhook to each IVR action. The webhook will send the customer's response to NetHunt CRM.
Once everything is configured, save your settings.

Now, go back to NetHunt CRM and continue configuring the folder and its automation.

In this technical folder, add only the fields required to capture the data received from the telephony system. Keep the number of fields to a minimum and include only those needed to store the values sent by UniTalk.

Next, we need to transfer the received values to our main Contacts folder. To do this, create an automation with New Record is Added as the trigger:

Add a field to the Contacts folder where the IVR response will be stored:

Next, add the Create a New Record action for the Contacts folder. At this stage, enter only the phone number so that the duplicate detection rule can check whether a record with this phone number already exists in the folder.

Next, we need to update the IVR Response field in the Contacts folder. To do this, add the Update Record action and map the IVR response value from the technical folder to the corresponding field in the Contacts folder.

You can also transfer additional values to the Contacts folder, such as the call date or any other relevant field.

Complete the Workflow automation setup and click Activate:

Everything is now set up for calling your customers and recording their responses in NetHunt CRM.

We recommend running a few test calls to make sure everything works as expected.

Filtering Responses After an Auto Dialer Campaign

Once your Auto Dialer campaign is complete, you can filter your customers' responses.

To do this, switch to Card View and select the IVR Response field to group the records by the values received:

You can also apply more advanced filters, such as Assignee or the date when the IVR Response field was populated. This can help you distinguish responses from different Auto Dialer campaigns and avoid mixing them with results from previous campaigns.

Based on this information, you can then send targeted email campaigns to customers who have shown interest in your products or services.

Haven’t found the answers you’re looking for? Ask our Users Community.