Outbound calls and campaigns

A campaign lets your assistant call a list of your contacts for you: appointment reminders, confirmations, follow-ups or short surveys. You choose the assistant, the contacts, the days and hours it may call, and what it should say. Ringhum places the calls inside that window, retries people who do not answer, and shows the result of each call.

Outbound campaigns are included in the Team and Scale plans.

What you need

• The Team or Scale plan.
• An assistant to place the calls.
• A phone number in your workspace to call from.
• Contacts with a phone number under Contacts. They build up from calls, or you can add them with Import CSV on the Contacts page. Tags and saved segments make it easy to pick the right group.

There are no fixed campaign types. What a campaign is for is decided by the assistant you pick and the instructions you give it for that campaign.

Create a campaign

1. Open Campaigns and click New campaign.
2. Enter a Name, for example "Recall reminders — March", and choose the Assistant that places the calls.
3. Click Create. The campaign opens as a Draft.

Set it up

Under Settings on the campaign page:

Click Save settings.

The extra instructions are where you say what the call is about. For example: "You are calling to remind the patient of their upcoming check-up and confirm attendance. If they cannot come, offer to book a new time." The assistant keeps all its usual knowledge and abilities, so it can book, reschedule or take a message on the same call if those abilities are on. See Writing good instructions.

Important: The calling window uses your workspace time zone, not each contact's local time. If you call people in other time zones, set the window so it suits all of them.

Add contacts

Use Add contacts on the campaign page:

• By tag: choose a tag and add everyone with it.
• By saved segment: choose a segment from Contacts.
• Search: type a Name or number, tick people, and click Add selected.
• Everyone: Add all contacts adds every contact with a phone number.

Contacts without a phone number are not added, and a contact is never added twice. You can remove a contact while they are still pending.

Start, pause and finish

1. Click Start. If Start at is in the future, the campaign is Scheduled. Otherwise it is Running, and calls go out inside the window.
2. Click Pause to stop placing new calls. Calls already in progress finish. Click Resume to continue.
3. When every contact has been reached or has used all their attempts, the campaign is Completed.

Cancel stops the campaign for good: pending contacts are not called and it cannot be started again. Delete campaign under Danger zone removes it.

Whoever clicks Start gets an email that the campaign started. The person who created the campaign gets an email when it finishes, or if it is blocked because its assistant was deleted or it has no number to call from. These emails follow the Campaign updates switch under Settings → Notifications. A finished campaign also sends the campaign.completed webhook event.

Results

The campaign page shows the progress, the Talk time in billable minutes, Recent calls, and every contact with their status, attempts, last attempt and outcome. Click a call to read its transcript and summary. Export results downloads the list.

• A contact counts as Reached when the call connected and lasted more than 5 seconds.
• Calls that are not answered, or that fail, are retried after Retry after (min) until Attempts is used up.

A/B test your script

1. Click Run an A/B test.
2. Write Variant B instructions, for example a different opening or offer.
3. Set Share of contacts sent to B (%), and save.

Contacts are split between the two scripts at random. The Reach and outcomes per script card compares them. A success is a call that booked an appointment, resolved the request or was transferred. Once each script has reached at least 5 contacts, the better one is marked Leading. Leave the B instructions empty to turn the test off.

Do-not-call and consent

• Contacts marked Do not call on their contact page are always skipped, even if they were added to the campaign before being marked.
• Calls only go out inside the window and on the days you set.
• Calls to premium-rate and other unsupported destinations are refused.

Ringhum does not check whether a contact agreed to be called. Before you start, make sure you have permission to call the people on your list under the rules that apply to you, and mark anyone who asks not to be called as Do not call. If you record calls, see Recording and consent.

Billing

Campaign calls use your minutes like any other call. An outgoing minute is priced by the country you call, so a call to an expensive destination uses several plan minutes per minute. Call rates in the sidebar lists the rates. When your plan's minutes run out, further minutes come from your credit. See How minutes are counted.

Campaign calls also count towards your plan's limit of calls at the same time, together with incoming calls.

Troubleshooting

The campaign is running, but no calls go out. Check that the current time is inside Window from and Window to in the time zone shown, on one of the chosen Days, and after Start at. Check that the campaign still has pending contacts.

Many contacts show as failed. A call cannot be placed when the workspace is at its limit of calls at the same time, or when your credit is empty and the plan's minutes are used up. Lower Parallel calls, add credit under Billing, or upgrade.

"Add contacts first." The campaign has no pending contacts. Add some before you click Start.

"This campaign has ended and cannot be started again." Completed and cancelled campaigns cannot be restarted. Create a new campaign with the contacts you still want to call.