Writing an IVR hand-off function
To conduct IVR interviews, your UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server script needs to perform the following tasks:
▪Dial the IVR system and pass any relevant data from UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server to IVR. Typically, you will pass at least a respondent identification code to link the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server and IVR data.
▪Connect the respondent to the IVR system ready to start the automated portion of the interview.
The simplest way to do this is to write a function. Here is a simple example that you can adapt to suit your company's requirements. It uses the SPSS Dialer methods that are available on the _Dialer and _Extension objects. For IVR information, see your dialer’s documentation.
Function TransferToIVR(IOM, _Dialer, _Extension)
Const IVR_NO = "02071234567"
Const SAMPKEY = "ID"
Dim DTMF, IVRCall
' The DTMF to the IVR system consists of the sample record ID
' and a # symbol requesting IVR to start the interview
DTMF = IOM.SampleRecord[SAMPKEY] + "#"
' Dial the IVR system with a 5 second time-out and send the
' DTMF tone when it connects
Set IVRCall = _Dialer.Groups["ivr_xfer"].DialCall(IVR_NO, , , , 5, , DTMF)
' Wait for the call to connect (2) or terminate (3)
While ((IVRCall.State <> 2) And (IVRCall.State <> 3))
Sleep(100)
End While
If (IVRCall.State = 2) Then
' Connection made. Transfer the call.
QsampExtension.Call.TransferToExtension(IVRCall.Extension.SlaveExtension)
' Wait until the transfer of the original call is complete (and it terminates (3))
While (_Extension.Call.State <> 3)
Sleep(20)
End While
TransferToIVR = True
Else
' No connection - something went wrong.
TransferToIVR = False
End If
End Function
See also
‘Dialing the IVR system’ on page 1123
‘Passing information to the IVR system’ on page 1125
‘Transferring the respondent to IVR’ on page 1130
‘Dealing with failed calls’ on page 1131