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Overview

For phone surveys in India, Exotel is a widely used third-party calling service. IDinsight provides a SurveyCTO field plug-in that makes it easier to use SurveyCTO, Exotel and SurveyStream together. Using Exotel along with the Exotel field plug-in allows surveyors to initiate a phone call between themselves and the respondent by clicking a button in the SurveyCTO form. The advantage of using Exotel over direct calling is that it records both sides of the conversation and the Exotel recording can then be used for performing Audio Audits using the Media Audits feature on SurveyStream. Exotel field plug-in screen with dialer button(s) for primary and secondary phone numbers:
For IDinsight teams, the SurveyStream team can provide access to our organization’s Exotel account. However, please note that your team is responsible for adding credits, monitoring credit usage, and dealing with any Exotel issues that might arise during your survey.

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Prerequisites

  1. Understand how to work with SurveyCTO field plug-ins Configuring a field plug-in is part of coding the SurveyCTO form. Check out this documentation to better understand SurveyCTO field plug-ins.
  2. Add credits on Exotel Recharge Exotel with credits required for the survey. Exotel costs Rs. 0.60 per minute for calls, in addition to Rs 5,999 every 5 months to extend validity.

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Configuration

1

Add required fields in the SurveyCTO form

Use this template as a reference for the changes listed below:
  1. Add a calculate field called scto_stable_id with calculation: 
    once(uuid())
    This is the unique identifier used to link a SurveyCTO submission with the corresponding Exotel call recording.
  2. Add calculate fields hash_primary and hash_secondary with calculations specified in the template
  3. Add a text field to the form (called dial_number_primary in the template attached) with the following value in appearance: 
    custom-calling-service(
    enum_number=${enum_phone},
    primary_number=${primary_number},
    secondary_number=${secondary_number},
    primary_credential=${hash_primary},
    secondary_credential=${hash_secondary},
    caller_id=`EXOPHONE`,
    status_callback="true",
    scto_stable_id =${scto_stable_id},
    primary_call_service_text="To trigger a call with the primary number click here",
    secondary_call_service_text="If after trying 3 times it doesn't work, click here to trigger a call with the secondary number",
    primary_dialer_text="If unable to trigger a call, click here to directly call the primary number",
    secondary_dialer_text="If the primary number doesn't work, click here to directly call the secondary number"
)
    Kindly note that:
    • EXOPHONE is the placeholder for the Exophone number. Copy the 10-digit number (without hyphens), which can be found on your Exotel account. If you are using the IDinsight Exotel account, the Exophone number can be found here.
    • Update the referenced variables ${enum_phone}, ${primary_number}, ${secondary_number}, ${hash_primary}, ${hash_secondary} and ${scto_stable_id} to match the names you’ve given them in your form.
    • If your form does not have secondary numbers, make the following changes to the parameter list in order to hide the secondary number buttons on the plug-in:
      • Set secondary_number=””
      • Remove the secondary_credential parameter
    • If your form has a secondary number field, make sure to set missing values equal to “” so that the secondary number buttons on the plug-in will be hidden for households where there is no secondary number to call.
    • Update the value in primary_call_service_text, secondary_call_service_text, primary_dialer_text, secondary_dialer_text to change the text displayed on the field plug-in screen (like to show the instructions in another language).
2

Attach the plug-in to the SurveyCTO form on SurveyCTO

Download the field plug-in from this Google Drive folder and upload it to SurveyCTO as a form attachment.
3

Test the form

Make sure to test the form after these changes to ensure that you are able to make calls successfully using the plug-in as expected.

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Additional Notes

Project teams have sometimes reported low call pick-up rates using Exotel probably because of the number getting marked as spam. The Exophone number can be updated in these cases to find a number which is not marked as spam. However, ensure that no other teams are using Exotel before making any changes.