See Also: Action Items; Executing/Assigning contacts to Action Items; Play or Say Editor; Active Mailboxes; Create New Action Item; Post SQL Button; Scheduled Action Item Execution; Campaign Action Item Execution; Execute Action Item Dynamically

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You create Voice Action Items from an Action Item Template Window (see Create New Action Item).  The Voice Action Item is a template that defines how to call someone.

Voice Action Items can deliver simple recorded message you create, but also support Text to Speech (TTS) or a combination of recordings and TTS.  TTS messages may contain tags.  You can choose the best time of day to call and optionally call the person again in the event the call fails.

After you Execute a Voice Action Item, it is put into a queue. You can view and edit it in the Voice Queue Window.

Adjust your Mailbox Property Settings in the Action Item Voice Setup box pictured below, including which Phone Number fields to dial, how many times to try if call fails, attach email w/ mp3 of voice message attached, etc...  See Mailboxes Properties for details.

After creating the Voice Action Item, the setup window will appear.
 

 

Name, Post SQL etc are common Action Item attributes. See Post SQL Button.

Get the number to dial from these fields: This contains the name of the field that contains the contact's phone number to dial.  When a contact is assigned to the Action Item, ContactTalk will look for the phone number to dial in this field of the contact's record.  The default value is Phone1. If you don't know the field name click the button to select one.

You can combine fields and enter static phone numbers.
For example:

Control Mailbox: The mailbox that will handle the call.  After the number is dialed control is passed to the mailboxes who's job it is to deliver the message and offer options to the caller.  Some mailbox has to handle the call so if you leave this blank the top mailbox will be used.

The control mailbox will play a more important roll if you create multiple voice broadcasts.  You could create a controlling mailbox to handle each Voice Action Item.  This way the contacts called by that Action Item will inherit the options the controlling mailbox and it's sub mailboxes offer. For example you might want to offer recipients of Voice Action Item A the option to leave a message but not recipients of Voice Action Item B.

Only call if the time of day is between: The time of day when it is OK to call. If hundreds of voice broadcasts are queued up, it may take several hours before they are all completed. So by the time call 400 gets executed it may be 3 AM.

If a call is executed outside the time of day boundaries it's considered a failed call. If you don't check the option to reschedule the call ContactTalk will not try again. However, if this option is checked then ContactTalk will try again the next day at the beginning of the time of day to call.

Consider the call failed if:

Reschedule if the call fails: Check this option to try and call again in the event the call fails.  The call may fail for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are defined here but there are others.  For example the Internet connection may be lost, a problem with Skype or SIP or the recipients phone line.

Rescheduling: How to reschedule the call.

 

The Message: The message you want to deliver.  If you leave this blank the message defined in the controlling mailbox will be used.  If you do define a message then it will be used instead of the message defined in the controlling mailbox.  Defining the message here is a convenient way for you to define a single mailbox that can handle several Voice Broadcast Action Items.

To create a message click the Create/Edit TTS Message button .  This will invoke the Play or Say editor.

 

The only remaining step is to assign contacts to the Voice Action Item.