In 2007 i’ve start working on something totally new. Application called Asterisk which turns computer into communication server. I’ve never heard about this kind of system so i had to recognize this topic from the very beginning. The goal of this project was to create automatic phone feedback system which will be calling to client right after his contact with call center. It will be asking client a few question which he will be able to answer by pressing phone buttons and at the end will allow to record short opinion about last contact with company. The important thing was that the machine had to call right after conversation with call center. Why? Because it was year 2007 and system was contracting with client to landline phone. If we don’t contact with him quick, he can leave home.
Curio from year 2007
Our machine was calling only on landline phones.
Why?
Because phone calls to mobile number was expensive.
System was calling back only to those clients who has pressed buttons on their phone before they was connected with someone from call center. For example to chose call conversation topic.
Why?
To be sure that this client have phone with tone dialing.
In first version of this solution we install Asterisk on DELL GX-260 with 1.8 Ghz processor and 256 RAM and Digium ISDN 2B+D card. This means that our system could make two callbacks at the same time. I was stunned by possibilities that Asterisk was given us. Plus we could add our scripts to expand this system. I've choose Perl language to do this. I've refresh my school knowledge and i started developing the system.
It turned out that this solution is very effective. Feedback results was going online to our database and could be analyzed in real time. Many clients wasn't only answered to our questions but they leaves us a voice messages. System was working almost all day long so we was getting more and more useful data.
After first success we decided to upgrade our system. We added new ISDN 30B+D card. It wasn't easy to configure it because i was software engineer not telecommunications specialist. But internet and few friends turned out very helpful with this topic.
Next curio.
It took us about 4 days to run the first version of our application.
Dell GX-260 was our only server for a long long time and it was working without any failure.
Firsts records that we played to clients was recorded in our office on PC with simple headphones. The Woman who voice we've recorded was one of the employee from call centre.
After we’ve got a new professional records created in professional music studio the effectiveness of our survey goes down. Clients was starting to disconnecting more often then earlier.
After we've upgraded our system by added new card we've had to change some settings. System shouldn't call to the same client more then once per month. Even if client called to call center more than once per day.
It's the project that i recall really nice. I've spent long time on it and learned more new stuff like Asterisk configuration. I've refreshed and extended my knowledge about Linux and Perl. We've created system worth more money then our multiple payment. But the biggest thing was that our system was working outside of our company and communicated straight to clients.