"I live in UQube! Before UQube the task alone of managing the availability of TFNs in an excel spreadsheet took 2-3 days every month. Now that we manage TFNs in UQube all information is stored and kept up to date in once centralized location greatly reducing the time and manpower to manage all TFNs."
- Telesales Ops Manager

TFN/ DNIS Management

Linking marketing campaigns to results across multiple call centers, program types, and campaigns is unbelievably challenging in today’s multi-call center environment. It requires companies to :

establish standards for data collection with a mechanism to correct data as issues arise
have the technical knowledge and diligence to ask for the right information in the right format from their vendors,
centralize information across all vendors, and
establish a reporting infrastructure that can link calls (response), orders (sales) and other outcomes (disposition codes) to the specific marketing campaign that drove them.

Many companies are using individual Toll Free Numbers for each of their campaigns while manually trying to assign, segregate, and link each DNIS to an individual Toll Free Number. Often, more numbers are deployed than need to be resulting in an unnecessary increase in costs. Additionally, a significant risk exists in overlapping Toll Free Numbers on multiple campaigns simultaneously due to difficulties in manually tracking the assignment process.

Summary of the Solution

The ultimate goal of Toll Free Number/DNIS management is to be able to effectively use Toll Free Numbers and their associated DNIS as a mechanism to tie marketing activity directly to sales. A direct systematic process driven link allows marketing and telesales to seamlessly manage Toll Free Numbers and associated DNIS and to communicate on a regular basis in order to share forecasts, assign 800#'s, assign appropriate skill sets and staff levels, and measure call center as well as marketing campaign performance at a granular level.

Click here to learn more about the components of the UQube Toll Free Number Management solution.

Benefits for Telesales.

A centralized location to easily manage and track DNIS across Vendors, Programs, Skillsets and Campaigns.
An apples to apples comparison of Vendors that field calls for the same Toll Free Number/Campaign.
Ability to bucket Toll Free Numbers to be used by the marketing organization to ensure seamless assignment and use of Toll Free Numbers across campaigns.
More accurate and timely forecasts based on marketing activities.
The ability to split out call volume by day when an unexpected DNIS receives calls from multiple campaigns.
A simple to use interface to allow modifications to historic data including splits of existing data across DNIS, the addition of new information, and deletion of data that may result from overflow that occurs or a trunk fails at a call center and calls need to be reallocated to in order to provide accurate reporting.

Benefits for Marketers.

UQube Toll Free Number/ DNIS Management typically pays for itself year after year.
A centralized location to track and assign Toll Free Numbers to DNIS across programs and campaigns.
Elimination of unwanted re-use of Toll Free Numbers across multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Historical tracking of Toll Free Numbers as well as mechanism to plan future use and assignment of Toll Free.
Link Campaign results to the campaigns that drove them (Direct Mail, Direct Response – Promo TV, Radio, Circulars, FSIs).
Systematically manage the assignment of Toll Free Numbers to campaigns based on business rules of your choosing.

The UQube solution to Toll Free Number/ DNIS management is comprised of the following key elements:

The system provides the ability to easily load all 800#s and DNISs providing a centralized repository of all managed 800#s and DNISs across all call centers and vendors. 800#s are not a free resource, a company will always own a finite quantity of 800#s, and any decision to acquire more must start with an understanding of size and status of the current Toll Free Number and DNIS inventory.
A procedural mechanism for intelligently repurposing 800#s that preserves marketing’s response-rate accountability, while simultaneously permitting the company to operate with the fewest required Toll Free Numbers so that costs are more predictable and contained.
A historical record of all campaigns and programs assigned to a Toll Free Number over time so that marketing reports pulled today match marketing reports pulled in the past in terms of the relationships between Toll Free Numbers and campaigns.
A centralized view into the planned use of Toll Free Numbers so that different marketing teams drawing upon the same pool of Toll Free Numbers do not inappropriately link a Toll Free Number to multiple campaigns, or inadvertently repurpose a Toll Free Number unbeknownst to the original user.
An ability for easy, quick and logically sound adjustment to recent or historical Toll Free Number and DNIS relationships based on unforeseen or unknowable circumstances resulting from human error in assignment, or technological failures that redirect call traffic away from the assigned campaign. This is critical to maintain the reliability of reports that relate call volume to specific marketing campaigns.
A systematic process for helping telesales managers identify aberrant Toll Free Numbers or DNIS relationships that appear in call data, but were unplanned or unknown. The Upper Quadrant solution flags these records immediately and summons the user to correct or ID the unknown factors.
Through complete visibility into Toll Free Number / DNIS relationships the UQube TFN/DNIS Management solution allows Telesales to manage vendors consistently, keep Toll Free Number assignment fresh and relevant, thereby keeping telesales channel reporting accurate, fresh, and relevant at all times. Likewise Telesales’ communication / management of the various marketing teams drawing upon Toll Free Numbers and DNISs is consistent, clear, and relevant at all times.
Good Toll Free Numbers/DNIS management saves money by enabling recycling and thereby requiring fewer net Toll Free Numbers for the company. It also enforces accountability upon call centers to manage operations more appropriately and upon marketing’s campaigns through effective, consistent, and historically accurate linking of Toll Free Numbers to campaigns.
Rules based logic in applying a set of guidelines for the business in determining when a Toll Free Number is available for re-use based upon such components as campaign type (Direct Mail, DRTV, Online etc.) period of time from campaign run dates/ drop dates as well as response volume parameters.