If the call is not logged in Salesforce it didn’t happen.
Your process should ensure timely management of missed calls including the relationship to a Salesforce record.
Inbound Calls Missed and Answered
By now you know that Fastcall logs your calls to a Salesforce Task.
- Each user’s recent calls are in the Fastcall widget
- All calls and calls routed to groups will be found in the Fastcall Control Panel
- A lookup table matches incoming calls to your Salesforce records by caller ID – these lookup relationships should be maintained by your users
- Inbound answered calls have a green inward arrow
- Missed calls have a red arrow.
- Unknown calls did not find a match in Salesforce
- You can easily create a new lead for your “unknown” caller
- Unwanted calls can be blocked
Inbound and outbound calls – logged as a Salesforce Task – will be in your Salesforce reports. For deeper reporting look to our custom objects for calls, connections, and connection attempts where we log each leg of an ACD and transferred calls. This data model is described in detail here.
TIP: Assign a user to monitor missed and unknown calls throughout the day. It is important to search for existing records and/or create new leads for each missed call. The user can be dedicated or users can rotate.
Create New Leads From Unknown Missed Calls
When an inbound call is received Fastcall will try to automatically match a related record. If we do not find a match, our search option will help the user look for a matching related Lead, Contact, etc. If none are found, the user will create a new record. Unknown calls are calls without a matching Salesforce record. These inbound calls with no lookup to a Salesforce record should be managed. These are orphan Tasks. See this page for more details on matching calls to related Salesforce Objects.
When creating new Leads for missed calls, we like using the Lead Status = Lead missed call. Answered calls should use your existing lead status, or Fastcall can set this for you using a Call Result. You have an option to keep Tasks open for missed calls.
When replying to a missed call, Fastcall will create a reply call record. You can compare the time stamps between the missed call and the reply.
When a call is answered or missed, and no matching Salesforce record is found, a lead should always be created by the user. If you wish to maintain exceptional data hygiene you need to manage these calls.
In the Fastcall Control Panel – Fastcall surfaces all calls, not just calls to a specific user. You can filter missed calls by status: replied/not replied.
If you are working in the user widget or control panel you will find recent calls and the option to search related records. If you are on the Salesforce Task, there is a custom button – Assign Record – that will search Salesforce using the “from phone number” and if a match is found will create the lookup.
Note: The button must be added to the page layout.
Reply to a Missed Call With an Outbound Call or SMS
When a call is missed by your user and the lookup is matched to an existing record in Salesforce, the missed call is identified by the task owner and task status. Because there is a lookup to a matching Salesforce record the task is not an orphan.
Fastcall makes it easy to reply to these missed calls and will create a lookup between a missed call and the reply call. We are creating a time stamp so you know how long it took to reply. You create the reply call when returning the call from the widget or the control panel. You can also SMS reply to a missed call.
For unknown missed calls, always create the lead to hold the record before the follow-up call is made. The outbound, follow-up call should only be made from a Salesforce record; from the created lead or the existing lead. This will create a completed task as an outbound call with a lookup to the record. Though Fastcall allows the user to make a call from our widget keypad, this creates an outbound task with no lookup. When a call is made outside the Salesforce record there is no lookup from the task created. The result is dirty data.
Fastcall will associate a subsequent outbound call to the prior inbound missed call when calling from the widget or control panel. An alternative is to call from the open Task optionally created by the missed call. The open task is already related to the Salesforce record. When calling from an open Task, Fastcall will close the Task. In this case, the missed call Task is overwritten. Fastcall gives both options.
Salesforce reports are an alternative to the Fastcall control panel. Create a report of Fastcall inbound calls. Calls with no matched Salesforce record are your orphan Tasks. Put the report in the Console and use it as a hotlist to triage missed calls. This must be a report because Salesforce does support Tasks in the Console or as a list view.
Call Duration is also very important
When a call is answered – as indicated by a long call duration – but there is no lookup to a related Salesforce record, this indicates that the user who answered the call did not relate the call to an existing Salesforce record or create a new record. The user left the ‘Call task’ as an orphan. Even if you have to listen to the recorded call try to find the name of the caller.
Fastcall can set a default status when a lead is created from a missed call.
If the created Task turns out to be a junk call, delete it. Or, create a lead named Junk and use this to match any future calls from this caller ID. You can also block the phone.
Fastcall voicemail is available for calls routed to users or calls routed to groups. Voicemail is shown in the widget and is appended to the Salesforce Task in a custom field for recordings. We also have a missed call email.
Missed Calls Notifications
Enabling missed call notifications is done on each user setting or in the IVR configuration.
Go to My Settings > Inbound Settings > Notifications and enable/disable Missed Calls Notifications.
To set the missed call email subject and body go to Admin Settings > Call Handling > Inbound > Missed Calls Settings. You can also send a copy to another email.
So those are the ways we help manage missed calls
Let’s now talk about ways to reduce missed calls and reduce hangups. Your goal is to reduce wasted or lost ring time to increase the connection rate to your users, and/or increase the pickup rate for voicemail. To do so, you do not want to ring users who are not at their desks.
Increasing your answer rates helps minimize abandoned calls
To help reduce wasted ring time Fastcall can auto-logout users after missing calls.
The Fastcall user panel also shows users their position in the round-robin call rotation. This helps the user know her order for call rotation.
Salesforce tasks for missed calls will have the status = missed
NOTES:
- Recent calls are shown in the Fastcall widget, but only recent calls; not all missed calls.
- Missed call emails may not be the right solution for high volume inbound calls. Emails are for one or two missed calls/day.
- Return calls should be made only from a Salesforce record so the reply call can be logged.
Fastcall creates custom records for calls, connections, connection attempts, and voicemail. Calls can have multiple connections (transferred calls) and calls can have multiple attempts (ACD). See the page for the Fastcall data model for more info.
The Fastcall IVR has settings to help reduce Missed Calls
Next, let’s talk about IVR settings to help minimize missed calls.
- The ACD has a missed call owner – a user, queue, or record owner
- These missed calls optionally create an open Task
- Missed calls can be identified by status (missed call)
- When a missed call has a reply we update the status
When using the ACD to distribute inbound calls to multiple users. Fastcall has a custom data model used for call logging each “child” ACD leg as belonging to the same “parent” call. See our data model for more details.
Follow these tips when setting up the IVR:
- Log out users who miss calls (inbound/missed call settings)
- Use “time” of day routing to avoid ringing after hours
- Keep ACD groups to 4-5 users – so the 4 or 5 are accountable
- Set a missed call owner in the ACD – can be a user or a queue
- Use an intro greeting before the call — “hello thank you for calling our awesome company”
- Fastcall allows overflow from group to group, and the groups can be put in order group1 –> group2 –> group3
Last updated: Fastcall version 8.3.5, 2023-11-16