Telephone Calling and Message Delivery

[smilemaker]

I'm curious if it is possible for filemaker to call a phone number and play a recorded message via script. I'm not a telemarketer. I would like to have my patient database automatically call certain records and leave appointment reminders. Can this be done with some kind of plugin?? Thanks for any suggestions.

[ernst]

Hi Smilemaker,

If you are using a Mac this is possible. You may need some hardware to connect the speaker output to the phone though.

Regards,

Ernst.

[smilemaker]

I'm using Windows XP. Any other possibilities for Windows?

[Anatoli]

Check http://www.24usoftware.com/SimpleSound

HTH

[dharlow]

The problem is not so much whether you can call someone and play a message but detecting whether someone has answered the phone.

Daniel

[Anatoli]

IMHO -- not really. Why? If someone pick the phone or not, it can still play the message. I would start with several repeats of "please hold, important message from XYZ follows in 10 second"...

[-Queue-]

I despise people who call me like that, not to mention the fact that it's illegal for a machine to call in many places. They aren't smart enough to realize they're 'talking' to an answering machine either. So some moron comes on after 30 seconds going 'hello? hello??' and wastes both our time. I would highly discourage such a feature, unless you want to instantly annoy the people you're calling.

[smilemaker]

Hum....well, this wouldn't be a telemarketing deal. The system would be for patients that request reminders for monthly orthodontic appointments. I dislike all telemarketing calls. Thank for the comments.

[-Queue-]

Well, maybe it's just me, but I would hang up before that annoying message was done broadcasting, whether it was my doctor, vet, or dealer calling about regular car maintenance. If they're going to make me wait 10 - 30 seconds to talk to them and repeat a message over and over in the meantime, I'll just let them talk to my machine, which they're usually too slow to realize is on in the first place. The bottom line is it's a good way to annoy your clients, regardless of your business.

[Lee Smith]

I think you need to do two things.

Maker sure that the client has agreed to received such reminders (sign up is good).

Expect that some of these people will not show up for their appointments because they didn't get the message.

BTW, Even Kaiser has a person call to remind you of an appointment?

[-Queue-]

Even Kaiser has a person call

Person: good. Machine: bad. Machine telling you to wait for person: worst.

[Anatoli]

I hate telemarketing and spam and all that stuff.

But if my doctor reminds me about my check up with what-ever-technology I would be grateful. The other option is bad -- I will always forget.

[BobWeaver]

Well maybe.

It seems to me that you are saying, "You are getting a machine generated message because, not only am I too important, but my receptionist is also too important to talk to you personally." I don't really believe this is your intention. There are times when a personal touch is required. If you want to send your patient a machine generated reminder, then send it in the mail, or by email, but don't use a recording. If I got a message like that, I would probably switch doctors.

[smilemaker]

lol...interesting responses. Well, I think that voice messages are a bad idea too--after more consideration. I'm just learning what Filemaker can do and trying to decrease the costs of care. Thanks for the comments.

[Bob Minteer]

I was asked to develop something like this for our business last year. We do all flooring installations for a major hardware store chain in North Texas.

They wanted us to contact each customer the day before and remind them to have their rooms ready so that when our flooring installers arrive, they can get right to it. That's about 40 -to- 80 phone calls to be made. Hmmm... lotsa man hours.

I figured that vanilla FileMaker wouldn't be able to make voice broadcasts, but it could certainly create my list of scheduled jobs for the following day and export that list with phone numbers to a program that could.

The software I found to be most compatible is a program named, "CallAudit Voice" from Mountain Systems ( http://www.mtnsys.com/pages/cavoice/cavoice.htm ).

I just used McKee's free FileToolbox Plugin to create the dialer list in the format that CallAudit Voice expects and then let the phone people (we have "phone people" <grin> ) kick off the automated dialing frenzy after they generate their exported list.

I haven't polished this particular add-in yet, but I did note that I can retrieve a "status result" of the called numbers that I can import back into Filemaker on the flip side of this automated contact system.

regards...

Bob Minteer

IT Manager, Cooper Flooring, LLC

Dallas, TX

[stardust]

Hi, Smilemaker! I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with using an automated voice system to send reminders to your patients.

As long as you are doing this on a permission-only basis, it is a perfectly viable form of relationship marketing. It is no different than your local pharmacy contacting you via a recording to let you know your order's ready for pick-up.

Permission marketing is also a great way to build goodwill with your patients. I hope this helps!

[The Mad Jammer]

Why in the world would anyone use Filemaker to do this when there are millions of autodialer applications specifically designed to do this very thing? For a few hundred bucks you can have a system that will call everyone you want automatically and deliver the message. And the software can differentiate between answering machines, fax numbers, live voices, out of service phone numbers and all kinds of stuff. Not to mention the fact that you call out on multiple lines simultaneously. Or you can call out on a some lines and use the other available lines for call-ins (i.e. voicemail). Some of the equipment is very cheap to own and operate and all you need is a PC, a voiceboard and some cheap autodialer software.

I have a client who's business it is to make phone calls to parents of absent students daily. I have set up his entire operation using old PC's, Dialogic voice boards, VB programs and cheap generic autodialer software. His operators, and now also 8 lines on the autodialer, process thousands of outgoing calls every day. Of course, this is not telemarketing because he has a contaract with the schools to do this and I would highly suggest an autodialer to do your out dialing. You can get a used Dialogic D/41D voice board for about $150 (4 lines) or a D/41H (which is a D/41D half size board with Caller ID recogition) for about $200 on eBay. These boards use ISA slots. A 4 line Dialogic PCI voice board (D/4PCI) is about $500 on eBay. The software I bought for my client was $300 and is licensed for 12 lines. The PC is an old K2-350 with 128MB RAM and WIN 95. We ahve 2 D/41D's in it now running 8 lines.It works like a charm. We are going to buy a D/41H to fill out the other 4 lines. I'd use another D/41D but the CPU colling fan is in the way.

The Mad Jammer

And then...there was nothing