9.1 Call Screening - Introduction

STFax has an built in call 'filter' system that will perform different actions based on available Caller ID.

When a call is incoming to a server, STFax will check the phone number (where a number is available) against a list of phone numbers and actions you have setup within the Call Screening preferences.

If there there is a phone number entry listed within the Call Screening preferences, STFax will execute the action(s) assigned to this number as soon as the server answers the incoming call.

Call Screening enables you to playback a custom greeting for particular callers, allows you to ignore all callers except for certain numbers, allows you to ignore specific numbers and much more.

9.2 Understanding the Call Screening Preferences

• Enabled - turn on Call Screening. If this is disabled, STFax will not examine incoming phone numbers against any phone numbers listed within these preferences. The STFax modem/server will answer in the normal manner.

• Add/Remove buttons - add or remove an entry from the list.

• Move up/down buttons - move any entry further up or down the list of entries.

• Name: - this is the name associated with the screened number. You can add a name manually of, if you choose a number from the phonebook, and a name is already associated with the number, the name will be inserted automatically.

  Note that you do not require a name for Call Screening to preform an action on a selected phone number.

• Number: - this is the phone number that Call Screening will use to check against and incoming call. If the incoming phone number exactly matches the phone number entered into Call Screening, STFax will perform an action based on the number.

  Note that the number has to match the incoming number. For instance, if a user has '01325 460112' listed within Call Screening, and a call comes in from '01325 460121', STFax will not match this with the number listed within Call Screening, so will answer the call using the normal method.

• Action: - this is where you select the action based on the phone number entered into the Call Screening list.
  1. Use custom greeting - by using Caller ID, a user can "assign" personalised greetings to particular caller. An example:

     "Mike half-heartedly asked his girlfriend to dinner that evening but wanted to confirm by telephone. He phones her, she's not at home, but her sister informs Mike that she will call when she returns.

     Damn, he's got to go out and meet someone and can't wait for the call. Mike records her a personal greeting, "Lisa, I had to rush out. Can we meet at Giovanni's around 7.30pm this evening? Leave me a message if there is a problem, if not I'll meet you at the restaurant".

     Lisa arrives home, hears the message but realises she won't be able to make it for 7.30pm, so calls Mike and returns the message "Hi Mike, can't make 7.30pm, but I'll meet you there before 8pm".

     Obviously Mike is not at home, but he can get to hear this message. He calls from a phonebox after his meeting, remotely accessing his voicebox, hears the message and makes his way to the restaurant for 8pm."

     In this example, Lisa is the only person who hears the personalised greeting. If someone else called before or after Lisa, they would have heard a standard greeting such as "Sorry, I am currently unavailable. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you", or something similar.

  2. Warn user - by using call priority you can also set priorities to callers, using their Caller ID. Busy, but don't want to miss an important number? Maybe you are a freelance journalist needing to meet an important deadline, but daren't ignore every call in case the editor phones! Well, assign a priority to the editor's phone number and when he calls STFax would warn you of this incoming call and only this call. All other calls would be routed to a general greeting such as "I am not available at the moment, leave a message and I will get back to you soon".

     To set this up you would need to:

     • Enter the numbers you want to be warned about, towards the top of the list. For instance, if you only want STFax to warn you when calls are incoming from '01325 460112' and '01234 567890', move these number to the top of the list.

     • Place a 'stop' after the above numbers. This stop is simply a '*' (star). So the Call Screening preferences might look like:

       Chris Wiles	01325 460116
       John Smith	01234 567890
       	*
       Sue Jones	0113 23456789
       James Smith	0181 234 5678

       STFax will only perform actions based on the numbers above the stop ('*'), numbers below would be ignored, until the stop is removed.

     • Play custom script - STFax can even execute a complete advanced tree script, based on an incoming call. For instance, you might want to offer the incoming caller a number of different options. Perhaps you want to offer established customers more of a personalised service? Well, instead of being greeting with the usual menu greeting (press 1 for…press 2 for…press 3 for…) a customised script, routing them to shorter set of options could be made available.

       Perhaps the caller never does anything but contact a certain member of your staff? Quickly route that caller to that staff member, but offer them the chance to move back to the main menu greeting, as an option.

       A custom script could also be used to quickly transfer a caller to an external number or at least offer this service to specific customers.

     • Ignore call - by using Caller ID you can set a blacklist of numbers which you want to ignore, or be auto-answered. Tired of salesmen? Sick of constant nagging from the mother-in-law? Put their phone number in the blacklist!

       Number "WITHHELD", "UNAVAILABLE" and "INTERNATIONAL" calls can also be blacklisted or you can have STFax perform actions on these numbers. Very few people call friends and deliberately withhold their phone number, but a lot of sales people making cold calls use "WITHHELD", so you aren't aware of who is making/made the call.

       To blacklist a withheld or international number, enter this information into the Call Screening preferences:

       Type	Name	Number
       Withheld	WITHHELD	P
       International	INTERNATIONAL	O
       Unavailable	UNAVAILABLE	O

     • Answer in operator mode - STFax will immediately notify the operator that a call is incoming and allow them to answer in operator mode - or put the caller on hold, transfer the caller or even ignore the caller.

     • Execute command line - STFax will execute an external program or command line. Could be useful for starting your contact database or similar.

       Once the command has been executed, STFax will continue to answer as normal.