Purpose: The purpose of this guide is to explain basic phone set-up required at the location level for calls to connect to CallPotential so they can be tracked and routed using your custom call route / IVR. The information and diagrams included here are the basic start for set-up. Depending on your custom route, and if you use CallPotential DIY Call Center and/or CallPotential Pay by Phone, your call routing may include more steps/options than just ringing to the location phone.
Note: This is ONLY required if you are using our Lead Manager or Call Center services and does NOT apply if only utilizing Collections Manager. Additionally, If you only utilize dedicated call center agents to answer calls and do not have employees answering calls at the location, then this phone set-up may not apply to your configuration.
Set Up Diagram
Set-up Explanation
In order for CallPotential Lead and Call Center services to function properly, your main customer/lead dialed phone numbers (so all published/advertised lines) need to connect to our system. This will allow us to route calls according to your custom call route and ring to the location and/or DIY Call Center agents when needed.
Short term, to get started, the simplest solution is to forward the lines to our system. This forwarding can sometimes be as simple as using the *72 functionality on your phone to activate "call forward always". In other instances, you may need to contact your phone provider to set this us.
Once the call forwards to our system, we control the call routing based on your custom IVR (call tree) that we build/customize for you in your CallPotential account. When our call route dictates that we ring the location, we need a unique phone number (different from the customer/lead dialed line) where we can route the calls to ring at the location. We refer to this as the CallPotential "ring to" number. We are unable to ring back to the mainline as this is forwarding to as this would create an endless ring loop sending the call back and forth with no endpoint.
Long term, we suggest porting (moving) the numbers to CallPotential to reduce the costs with your existing phone carrier. This also reduces the number of different carrier touchpoints on a call which may affect call quality and/or the ability to quickly troubleshoot any issues. You still own the numbers and can port them out at any time.
Options for CallPotential "Ring to" Line
- RECOMMENDED - Install CallPotential VoIP - you can utilize our VoIP service as an option for the unique “endpoint” line at the location. More info on CallPotential VoIP
Second traditional line at the location - existing or newly added with your existing phone provider. This should be a non-published number.
If currently using VoIP phone service through another provider - some providers can easily convert the mainline # to a tracking line (not directly associated with the dial tone service on the phone). They would then assign a new phone number to the dial tone line. This number can now be used as the CallPotential "Ring to" number. The mainline # that has been converted to a tracking line, can now easily be forward to CallPotential. It’s important to note that the new "ring to" number on the line must ring directly to the phone without any other internal system answering or routing as this would affect our ability to continue controlling the call past the location ring step if needed. Your VoIP provider MUST use standard sip protocol and send us a signal of "ringing" unless the call is actually answered.
Additional Tracking Numbers
If you have additional tracking lines/phone numbers besides the location mainline, these will connect to CallPotential as part of your mainline forwarding. Since they currently forward/ring to the mainline, when the mainline is forwarding to CallPotential, that results in us receiving all call traffic on these tracking lines. Long term, we would suggest porting/moving these individual lines to CallPotential to allow for better tracking/reporting. Having numbers moved to our system allows you more insight on calls, leads and conversions specific to each tracking number.