Manage telephone numbers

In a CATI context, managing telephone numbers means identifying which telephone numbers must be made available to interviewers, and repeating this identification so as to make the most efficient use of the sample. In CallWeb CATI, this is accomplished in supervision modules which are entered via the cwsuper.cgi program. Any number of projects may by managed from one supervision workstation.

Principles

The principles of telephone number management implemented in CallWeb are as follows:

  • only numbers that have been selected explicitly to be accessed by interviewers are available to them (in the call queue);
  • numbers are added to the call queue only via the cwsuper.cgi update process;
  • updates may be done manually upon request or automatically at regular intervals; automatic updates probably shouldn't be done more often than every 10 minutes; a 20-minute interval has proven effective;
  • each manual update may include different sets of criteria and, hence, draw different types of numbers for interviewer usage;
  • appointments are automatically brought into the cann queue if the automatic update is selected;
  • automatic updates use the update parameters last entered; while previous updates may have left their selected numbers in the call queue, only numbers corresponding to the criteria last entered by the supervisor (and appointments, automatically) are added during automatic updates;
  • once a telephone number has been selected by an interviewer, it is reserved for their use for a period that is selected by the supervisor;

Supervision interface

From the cwsuper.cgi module, the supervisor selects one project to manage. Then, a menu such as the following is displayed.

This main supervision and field management menu is comprised of three areas:

  • the top part reports the number of telephone numbers in the current project call queue;
  • the right end-side lists existing call result codes; the supervisor selects the types of calls that they want added to the call queue and the delay between the last call and a new attempt; this section also allows for the inclusion of additional new cases (that have never been called);
  • the left end-side describes the specifics of the update request:
    • enter the last-call dates for the numbers you want brought into the call queue; this is normally left to default to a very large period of time to avoid losing cases;
    • determine the number of previous calls above which a number will not be brought into the call queue;
    • identify from which stratum or strata numbers should be drawn; it is probably best to select them all (as long as work is required in all of them) since CallWeb CATI manages time zone requirements by itself based on the calling times defined in BASEprojets;
    • select an automatic update frequency or Never for manual updates;
    • select a type of appointment management (relevant only in automatic updates) or None for no appointment management:
      • Massive appointment management: appointment calls are made by the interviewer available next in the project without regard for the identity of the interviewer who took the appointment.
      • Passive personalized appointment management: appointment calls are by the interviewer who took the appointment; if this interviewer is not available in the project, the appointment is missed.
      • Active personalized appointment management: in principle, appointment calls are by the interviewer who took the appointment; if this interviewer is not available in the project, 5 minutes after the appointment time, the number is attributed to the interviewer available next in the project.
    • determine how long the interviewer reserves a case when it is automatically brought to their attention;
    • click Submit to initiate the update; every minute, the server verifies whether it must perform an update, therefore it can take that long before the update is initiated;
    • the Reinitialize button empties the call queue; this is done without further warning.

Manage telephone numbers

In a CATI context, managing telephone numbers means identifying which telephone numbers must be made available to interviewers, and repeating this identification so as to make the most efficient use of the sample. In CallWeb CATI, this is accomplished in supervision modules which are entered via the cwsuper.cgi program. Any number of projects may by managed from one supervision workstation.

Principles

The principles of telephone number management implemented in CallWeb are as follows:

  • only numbers that have been selected explicitly to be accessed by interviewers are available to them (in the call queue);
  • numbers are added to the call queue only via the cwsuper.cgi update process;
  • updates may be done manually upon request or automatically at regular intervals; automatic updates probably shouldn't be done more often than every 10 minutes; a 20-minute interval has proven effective;
  • each manual update may include different sets of criteria and, hence, draw different types of numbers for interviewer usage;
  • appointments are automatically brought into the cann queue if the automatic update is selected;
  • automatic updates use the update parameters last entered; while previous updates may have left their selected numbers in the call queue, only numbers corresponding to the criteria last entered by the supervisor (and appointments, automatically) are added during automatic updates;
  • once a telephone number has been selected by an interviewer, it is reserved for their use for a period that is selected by the supervisor;

Supervision interface

From the cwsuper.cgi module, the supervisor selects one project to manage. Then, a menu such as the following is displayed.

This main supervision and field management menu is comprised of three areas:

  • the top part reports the number of telephone numbers in the current project call queue;
  • the right end-side lists existing call result codes; the supervisor selects the types of calls that they want added to the call queue and the delay between the last call and a new attempt; this section also allows for the inclusion of additional new cases (that have never been called);
  • the left end-side describes the specifics of the update request:
    • enter the last-call dates for the numbers you want brought into the call queue; this is normally left to default to a very large period of time to avoid losing cases;
    • determine the number of previous calls above which a number will not be brought into the call queue;
    • identify from which stratum or strata numbers should be drawn; it is probably best to select them all (as long as work is required in all of them) since CallWeb CATI manages time zone requirements by itself based on the calling times defined in BASEprojets;
    • select an automatic update frequency or Never for manual updates;
    • select a type of appointment management (relevant only in automatic updates) or None for no appointment management:
      • Massive appointment management: appointment calls are made by the interviewer available next in the project without regard for the identity of the interviewer who took the appointment.
      • Passive personalized appointment management: appointment calls are by the interviewer who took the appointment; if this interviewer is not available in the project, the appointment is missed.
      • Active personalized appointment management: in principle, appointment calls are by the interviewer who took the appointment; if this interviewer is not available in the project, 5 minutes after the appointment time, the number is attributed to the interviewer available next in the project.
    • determine how long the interviewer reserves a case when it is automatically brought to their attention;
    • click Submit to initiate the update; every minute, the server verifies whether it must perform an update, therefore it can take that long before the update is initiated;
    • the Reinitialize button empties the call queue; this is done without further warning.