Overview
Sync dialer activities to NGP VAN by setting up sync instructions for dialer-specific custom fields, or regular tags/custom fields gathered during the dialer script or in the during/post-call additional report.
Dialer Custom Fields
There are two dialer-specific custom fields that Impactive configures by default to allow campaigns to sync back phone bank activities to NGP VAN.
The custom fields are the following:
Last Called At
Call Outcome
Last Called At
The “Last Called At” custom field is appended to a contact on Impactive anytime the predictive dialer attempts to call a contact in a phone bank. This means that regardless of whether the contact was reached or the call went to voicemail, the custom field is recorded. This custom field gets recorded as a “Last Called At" custom field in our system with a timestamp as a value.
Use the “Last Called At” custom field in your Impactive sync instructions to ensure that your contact history in NGP VAN is up-to-date.
Toggle "NGP VAN" under "Instructions For".
Name your sync instruction in "Instruction Name". We encourage you to call it "Last Called At".
Select "Custom field" under "Instruction For"
Under "For custom field", select "Last Called At".
Under "Type", select "Canvasser Response".
Under "Object", select the VAN contact type of your choice. We encourage you to use "Phone call".
Last, under "Result code", select the VAN result code of your choice.
Once the sync instruction is correctly configured in Impactive, the platform will pass contact history to the voter’s profile in NGP VAN with the timestamp, contact method, and result code.
Call outcome
The “Call Outcome” custom field is a multiple-choice custom field that is surfaced to the volunteer when they are recording the outcome of a connected call on an Impactive phone bank. This is a default custom field in Impactive, meaning you will not need to create it.
When the call outcome prompt is surfaced, the volunteer should pick the appropriate outcome of the call. Below are the options Impactive provides that your campaign can use to its discretion:
Completed
Answering Machine
No Answer
Busy
Not Home
Wrong Number
Moved
Deceased
Refused
No language in common
The selected result will be recorded as the value of the “Call Outcome” custom field for the contact. The field is also auto-populated automatically by the dialer when answering machine detection is enabled for a particular phone bank action. It will map its auto-detected outcomes to the call outcomes listed above.
Creating a sync
Create sync instructions using the "Call Outcome" custom field in your Impactive sync instructions to ensure that your contact history in NGP VAN is up-to-date.
Note: You will need to create a sync instruction for each call outcome response (ex call outcome - completed, call outcome - not home, and so forth)
Toggle "NGP VAN" under "Instructions For".
Name your sync instruction in "Instruction Name". We encourage you to call it “Call Outcome”.*
Select "Custom field" under "Instruction For"
Under "For custom field", select “Call Outcome”.
Under "Target Value", select the appropriate "Call Outcome" (ie Completed)
Under Sync CustomField with integration, select your VAN instance
*A sync instruction will need to be created for each call outcome
Advised Sync Instructions
Below is a table of the advised Impactive custom field target values and VAN objects to sync for call outcomes. These are all for the custom field "Call Outcome." As stated above, a sync instruction will needed to be created for each call outcome (Target Value).
Target Value | Type | Object | Result Code |
Completed | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Canvassed |
No language in common | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Other Language |
Wrong number | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Wrong Number |
Refused | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Refused |
Deceased | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Deceased |
Answering machine | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Not Home |
No answer | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Not Home |
Busy | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Not Home |
Not home | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Not Home |
Moved | Canvasser Response | Auto Dial | Moved |
Regular Tags/Custom Fields
In addition to dialer-specific custom fields, data can also be gathered from phone banking actions in the form of regular tags and custom fields.
There are two ways to gather data from your callers' phone banking conversations:
Custom fields gathered via the script itself. Script questions can be linked to custom fields, which will then store contacts' response data as those custom field values.
Additional tags and custom fields gathered during or after the call. Use the Report Settings section on the phone banking edit page to input additional tags and custom fields to gather during this action. These will appear to volunteers as the call report, which is both available during the call (in a separate tab on mobile, or open on the right-hand side on web) and appears after the call. This report is a good place to gather any data that can't be gathered via script questions - for example, script questions cannot gather tags or text-based custom fields.
Regardless of how this data is gathered, these regular tags and custom fields can be synced to VAN/EveryAction in the same way that this data is synced across other action types across Impactive - via sync instructions, set up in the Integrations tab. Learn more about setting up sync instructions here.