WakeUp calls scheduler - Simultaneous limitations workaround

[tecnotel1]

Hi everybody,
this is my problem: some of our Hotel customers were complaining about that sometimes their customers told the concierge that they did not receive any wakeup calls even though the receptionist did set those right.
Tha strange thing was that when we looked at the call logs we did not notice anything except "not aswered" log in few of them; the receptionist instead was having a "failed" log. Seeking more deeply with reports we noticed that only the first 8 calls of the group were ok and the other XX were not because of License limitation.

So ok, this now makes sense but, wouldn't be better that wake up calls should be treated as system calls ? Honestly one small hotel cannot afford a 64 SC License just because sometimes they have groups of 40/50 people. This is a very bad limitation for selling 3CX to Hotel Customers.

Does anybody know if Call Flow Designer would be helpfull to develop a wake up dialer where, given an X variable (wich is the SC limitation for that customer), the system would schedule X wake up calls in different groups one after another till te end of the customer group?

for exaple: I have a 16 SC license, I have to set a wake up call for 50 people at 7.00 am , the CFD app makes like 16 calls, then other 16 on minute later, then other 16 another minute later and then the last 2 (reaching finally 50)

Thanks in advance, any advise would be gold

 

[VoIPTools]

That is an interesting limitation that I had never considered, although, if you are suggesting a hotel that has 40-50 people who need wakeup calls all at the same time is a "small hotel"... That sounds like a very big hotel to me given most people would simply use their cell phone alarm.

The only way that a CFD could help in this situation would be to have the phone calls take place one after another. If you indeed have 40-50 people that need a wakeup call all at the same time, that is going to take way too much time considering the PBX has to call, play the message, then hang up 40-50 times.

You are going to need a bigger license.

 

[tecnotel1]

Thanks for answering VoipTools, having a 50 people coach tour is not so unusual even for smaller hotels; problem is that it's really difficoult to explain to the customer that (in this case) the have to pay 2k € / year for a license instead of 500 just for wakeup calls.
They surely will think about some other solutions...

 

[edossantos]

If the receptionist is setting this up, and not the user over the phone, then the receptionist might be aware of this, and configure 7/8 alarms at the same minute. The others can be configured for the minute before or after. So if 40 guests want to wake up at 7am, you configure 8 guests at 6:58, another 8 guests at 6:59, another 8 guests at 7:00, and so on.

 

[tecnotel1]

If the receptionist is setting this up, and not the user over the phone, then the receptionist might be aware of this, and configure 7/8 alarms at the same minute. The others can be configured for the minute before or after. So if 40 guests want to wake up at 7am, you configure 8 guests at 6:58, another 8 guests at 6:59, another 8 guests at 7:00, and so on.

Yes, we tried to explain this, but You know, the average user is always itchy... that's why I was thinking to develop something with CFD but it's not so simple...

 

[edossantos]

You can do it with the CFD. It will be a kind of dialer, so you should start by checking this:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/cfd-creating-callflows-dialers/#h.kfd15fdqfpd6
https://www.3cx.com/docs/cfd-creating-outbound-dialer/
https://www.3cx.com/docs/cfd-predictive-dialer/

You will need to create your own UI to store data in a database, so the hotel receptionist can do this. And then the dialer needs to connect to the database and get numbers to call. It can make calls at the pace you define. Not a simple task, but doable...

 

[VoIPTools]

I am sympathetic to your plight. Nobody wants to go back to the customer and ask for more money. However, we need to keep this situation in perspective...

As a business owner myself, there are some expenses that are optional, and some that are mandatory (critical) to my business. In the grander scheme of things the small cost of a larger phone system license is a drop in the bucket. For example, how much does one cleaning person cost a year? Then add taxes, and all the other costs associated with an employee, and you realize the cost of 3CX hardly registers as a business expense. The customer likely pays more for garbage collection. Let's face it, the hotel business is 100% a service business. I think that qualifies the phone system as a mandatory expense.

As a reseller, it may not be that simple given that every business is trying to use their available funds wisely. So it is your job to put the INVESTMENT into perspective. How much does it cost the business if the expected wake-up calls do not take place? What impact does that have on ratings for the hotel? Ultimately, the investment in the phone system is justifiable when you consider the cost of doing nothing.

 

[VoIPTools]

@edossantos, in my opinion, this is a case where the cost of building a CFD solution is FAR greater than the cost of the 3CX license. I don't think this makes any sense to implement a potentially fragile "solution" when it is bound to fail from time to time.

You could argue that building a CFD solution would be a one-time expense, but in my experience that is not the case. They will have to pay (or invest labor) again and again when 3CX makes breaking changes. I am in the business of building 3rd-party add-on tools for 3CX and I do not believe this is a cost-justifiable partial solution. This sounds a little harsh, and I have nothing but respect for you Ernesto, but I think another point of view was needed.

 

[edossantos]

I can't agree more with you Matthew. Just giving the options, but a bigger license looks like the easiest and cheapest solution.