Outbound VRU System

The ARCOS Outbound Voice Response Unit (VRU) makes phone calls to employees during a callout and interacts with them using touch tones through the telephone system. The VRU interprets the tones and responds accordingly per your company's established call flows. Each company's call flow is very detailed and very different from the next.

Generally, all outbound calls begin with a greeting, identifying the company and the date and time. ARCOS then provides a list of options from which the employee or person answering the phone may choose:

• If this is John Smith (employee's name is spoken here), press 1.

• If John Smith is not at home, press 2.

• If you need more time to get John Smith to the phone, press 3.

• To repeat this message, press 4.

Depending on the option chosen, ARCOS moves to the next step in the company's call flow.

If the employee presses 1 to continue, ARCOS prompts him to enter his PIN number, followed by "#". Once the PIN number is verified, ARCOS plays a message that varies from company to company, generally providing information about the callout type, callout reason, trouble location, job classification, and any other custom message information (if the company uses Wave to Web). ARCOS then prompts the employee to accept or decline the job. When ARCOS offers the callout position through the Outbound system, the employee can Accept, Decline, or indicate a Qualified No.

If the employee is not at home, but someone else answered the phone and pressed 2, ARCOS leaves a message stating that the employee should call the company callout system for information about this callout. When the employee calls back, he will interact with the ARCOS Inbound VRU System.

If the person answering the phone pressed 3, ARCOS plays a message every 5 seconds that says, "Press any key to continue." This continues for up to 90 seconds depending on company preferences, to allow the employee extra time to come to the phone. When the employee comes to the phone and presses any key, ARCOS plays the welcome message to identify the company callout and then plays the same script as when an employee presses 1.

If the person answering the phone pressed 4, ARCOS repeats the welcome message.

If ARCOS does not receive touch tone feedback to indicate 1, 2, 3, or 4 was selected, ARCOS plays a message at least twice that provides the callout information for the employee. Some companies have the message repeat three times instead. Again, that is a company preference and varies.

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*Note: ARCOS documentation is a living document. For inconsistencies or missing features, contact ARCOS Support. Not all companies have all items in the Online Help.