Blog

Import Data

This patch we added some import fields to the entire system, to preserve information during uploads and make it easier to update erroneous data due to user error. These fields will also be used with Carrier syncs so we can maintain reference information between them when necessary. Often times carriers allow us to sync data via CSV downloads, as opposed to normal push and pull methods, so these fields will take care of it! This also frees up our Reference ID and Referrer field which was being used for this before.

When importing leads into the system, the Import Source and Import Row will be automatically set unless overridden by the Vendor Map and the mapped fields present in the CSV. If no mapped fields are detected it will mark the current filename of the import as well as the row on the lead. The Import ID is optional, but when provided, if no policy, dependent, or note Import ID, Import Row or Import Source is present it will use the leads Import ID. Policies, Dependents and Notes can have their own individual import fields overridden by the Vendor Map if needed.

Leads

• New fields
  • Dialer ID
    • Any Character (Max 255)
    • This field has been added over using the leads reference_id. We have updated the DB for those who were using this section for the Dialer’s Lead ID. We have made it intentionally ambiguous in case we decide to support other native dialers other than Vicidial.
  • Import ID
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Source
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Row
    • Any Number (Max 8 Million)

Policies

• New Fields
  • Import ID
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Source
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Row
    • Any Number (Max 8 Million)
  • Commission Paid Chargeback
    • This is the Chargeback you charged the agent. Eventually Payroll will auto fill this out, but for now you can use it as you see fit.
  • Commission Received Chargeback
    • System use only for now, use Commissions Paid Section under Commissions.
• Feature: Conversion Lockout
  • In Options -> Dialer you can now find an option called Conversion Lockout Timer.
    • You can leave black or set to 0, or any positive number of minutes.
    • When a policy has been verified or sold, if the policy is still within the lockout timer a regular agent can still edit it. This is useful if you need the Agent to fill out information that they had forgotten to input during verification or submission and the agent is the one contacting the client

Dependents

• New Fields
  • Import ID
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Source
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Row
    • Any Number (Max 8 Million)

Notes

• New Fields
  • Import ID
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Source
    • Any Character (Max 255)
  • Import Row
    • Any Number (Max 8 Million)

Options

• Cleaned up the Options -> Dialer section.
  • Now a lot less messy and friendly to use. So many options!

Users

We gave the user edit interface some love as it has been the same for many years now.

• Users have been cleaned up.
  • Groups and Permissions have been moved under General
  • Groups, Roles and Abilities have been converted to Multi-checkboxes with filters.
    • This is much easier than the previous role manager, since you had to hunt for the permission you wanted to add or remove.
  • TLDialer Options for User Creation on Adding new users are now much more robust.
    • Defaults have been set but can now be overridden. Some fields are not available as we generate them for you.
  • TLDialer in User Edit
    • You can now see very detailed information on the TLDialer Config panel for the user.

Maintenance & Performance

• Enabled GZIP Compression for HTML.
  • Site should load much faster now.
• Combined Fonts CSS into one file, and now hosting Google Fonts Locally
  • Also faster.

Lead Posts

• Return Types
  • Return Type setting has been added to Lead Vendors
  • We now support both JSON and XML Response Types for Lead Posts. Default is still TEXT as it always has been.

TLDialer

If you have your Vicidial Config setup correctly, you can now automatically create vicidial users and phones while adding a TLD user. A checkbox will show (default checked) as well as a choice of user group and choice of user level for the user. We may add more options in the future, but for now the config options for the user are set to our most common use case. You can always edit the user in Vici later while we merge over the panel to TLD.

• Qualification Time
  • Qualification Time now updates the lead by removing the price when the call is hungup within the allotted time.
  • The Qualification Time will not be removed if it has been created after the first day. Since leads are in real time, the lead should have been created just before or during the load if it was a live transfer. This is just an extra measure.
  • Once a lead has been qualified or unqualified, it can not be qualified or unqualified again.
• Automatic User and Phone Creation
  • Vici Username set to TLD User ID
  • Vici Password (Now more secure) creates a hash password for Vici.
  • Vici Phone and Phone Pass remain the same.
• Automatic Sync of Vici Data when Editing user.
  • If your User account has a User ID from creation of Vici, it will automatically check both the User and Phones settings and update TLD. This is for cases where a manager in Vici made a modification to your extension or your phones. It also allows us to pull most recent information for Updating VICI Users from TLD.
• Coming Soon: Update VICI from TLDialer
  • When editing a user, it is now possible to modify VICI settings from the TLDialer Tab. Once you update the user, it will check to see if any changes have been made, and if so, will update VICIDial with the users settings.

Bugfix

• Changed the way user meta is handled. Now all using the same function. Also cleaned up the function to recognize numeric previously sequential arrays and maintain behavior.

System

• Added revision flag to force download of new CSS and JS, aside from version flag.

TLDialer

• Added Refresh Lead button while on call. If you navigate away from the lead you are working on while on a call, this button will take you back to the current lead in TLD.
• Session Connects / Disconnects – Resolved all major issues.
  • If you hang up your phone while in a call, it will hang up the client instead of leaving them in limbo, and log you out completely. This is similar to Vici solution itself.
  • If you refresh your screen, it will hang up the client instead of leaving them in limbo, and log you out completely. This is better than current Vici solution that leaves the client in limbo. (Connected to the call, but no one on the other end or any way to retrieve.)
• Added Qualification Time from Vendor Settings to the Dialer and Lead Info section.
  • Qualification Time has a countdown timer based on the calls initial pickup by a queue or agent, so the numbers may seem less than the time you are on the call since it is based on the time the client has been on the call.
  • When the Qualification time is about to hit 10 it will turn red.
  • When the Qualification time is up it will turn back to light blue and be crossed out.
  • Save your company some money! Hang up the call if the person is a piker!
• When a lead is loaded in TLD by Vici, TLD will now Update Vici’s vendor_lead_code to TLD’s lead_id, but only if the call is an inbound call and the inbound number is set to the vendor_lead_code or the vendor_lead_code is blank for the lead. This will trigger a refresh of the hidden vici screen so data is preserved.
• Now displaying Call Connected message.
• More accurate / consistent notifications.
• Added Feature: Sync TLD to Vici
  • When you press save (including dispo), the lead data will automatically update Vici’s records including if you are not logged into the dialer. It will attempt to refresh any agents vici screens when this happens so that data is preserved.
• Added Feature: Hangup on Dispo. This is configurable in the system settings.
  • When you disposition a lead, it will automatically hangup, so you can skip a click!
• Disabled the “Are you sure you want to close this window?” from TLD when Vici is loaded because it was causing issues with agents clicking cancel which then did not load the lead. Vici itself will give the popup if the agent tried to close out of the actual TLDialer.’
• Cleaned up some buttons and colors on the dialer control panel.

Notes

• Notes got cleaned up so that all the boxes will always be even.
• CSR section got cleaned up to be more even with the rest of the box, the CSR buttons now just say CSR with icons on it, and will describe the action on hover.
• CSR Agent and Schedule have been moved to the same line.
• CSR info related to dates and users are now in color coded takes (grey for request, red for schedule, green for complete
• Notes tags will now say “My” when the note was created by you.
• CSR tags will now say “My” when the CSR is created by you and unassigned, or assigned to you, or completed by you.
• Note Tags now have different colors
  • New Note is always Blue
  • Notes are White
  • CSR Pending are Yellow
  • CSR Overdue are Red
  • CSR Complete are Green
• CSR’s will now show their status in the top right box
  • Pending CSR
  • Overdue CSR
  • Completed CSR
• Quick Notes had some Style changes
  • Smaller Box, but more space
  • Added “X” to close it quickly.
  • You can click and drag the box around if it gets in the way, it will reset when you save.
  • Mobile Optimizations (bigger on smaller screens)

Vendors

• Inbound -> Qualification Time
  • This works as other a data point reference for the qualification time to be charged on an inbound vendor.
  • There is a system option that will allow you to show the QT time on the lead itself for those of you not using the Dialer. Just enable it and if a QT time is Set it will show up.
  • Added QT Time to the Vendor Table as it is an important info item.
  • When working in conjunction with TLDialer, the QT Time will be displayed next to the timer on the right in light blue. QTtime is in seconds.
    • This will give you agents a clue as to how fast they need to talk with the lead before hanging up and incurring a charge.
    • Coming soon: On Hangup of the Call, a call to TLD will be fired with the elapsed time. If there is a QT set, and the elapsed time is less than the QT time, the default cost will be removed from the lead and set to 0. This should help with CPA reporting.

TLDialer

• Fixed some login, logout and status workflows.
• Added debug panel
• Recordings shouldn’t go bonkers anymore with notifications

Uploader

• Added ability to Update Lead when a duplicate lead if found. This works alongside the attach notes / policies / dependents to lead feature.
  • Coming Soon! Update Policy based on Criteria

Lead

• New Lead Fields
  • Assigned ID / Assigned Agent
    • This field is meant to allow you to assign a lead to an agent to show up in the “My Leads” section.
    • You can assign and Agent and set the Date Assigned right on the lead if you are an admin, superadmin or Manager.
    • You can assign and set the date in the Mass Edit feature in the lead section as well.
    • Assigned Agent and Assigned Agent Date can now be set in the lead uploader
  • Date Assigned
    • Settable date when you assign a lead to an agent. Can be used to calculate when it should no longer be that agents lead.
      • We will probably create a background process that will reassign leads to the system user when a lead has expired. We may opt to use Campaigns to do this in the future!
  •  Link
    • Will produce a link to lead a link.
    • Added to lead uploader and post system.
  • Image
    • Will load and show an external image and also open the image on click.
    • Added to lead uploader and post system.
• Updated Lead Fields
  • Owner ID
    • Now returns a User ID in the following order:
    • Agent ID (Converter)
    • Assigned ID
    • Creator ID
  • Owner Group ID
    • Now returns a Group ID in the following order:
    • Agent ID (Converter)
    • Assigned ID
    • Creator ID

Dashboard

Dashboard got some visual updates. We standardized the links to look more like buttons. They are very large so they won’t be missed easily. We added the My Business buttons in the agent dashboard so they can easily be opened on mobile as well as desktop. You will also see your “My Filters” if any are set for quick access.

My Leads

The my leads section now works with the agent assignment system. This is great for agencies where manual distribution is necessary.

Uploader

• Added Options Button to Uploader
  • Dupe Criteria
    • You can now override default dupe check to check by the following
      • Name (First and Last)
      • Phone
      • All Phones (1 OR 2 OR 3)
      • Email
      • Address (Like)
      • City (Like)
      • State
      • County (Like)
      • Zipcode (Like)
      • Reference ID
      • Referrer
  • Attach Notes / Policies / Dependents to Dupes
    • This will make it so that when a dupe is encountered, it will attach any notes, policies or dependent to the duplicate lead. This will be shown as success code 2.
    • You can use this to updated notes from other CRM’s where you have unique data in the system. When you upload leads we recommend to use the referrer and reference ID fields to mark the unique ID in another system so it is easy to update.
  • Bypass Default Dupe Check
    • This will allow you to upload leads and policies that do not have a phone or email present. Useful for bringing clients in from other systems where data is missing or not available. This will work in conjunction with the Dupe Criteria checkboxes. So if you choose Name as the criteria it will still check dupes, just not require a phone or email. If you choose phone and choose bypass, it will still check for phones but will check for a blank phone if none is provided.
• Fixed Bug: Some User fields were not being added on upload to policies, this has been corrected

Mobile

• Made Mobile Quote Tool links easier to see.

Admin Dashboard

• Tables can now be sorted by clicking the column.
• Tables now have total information in the footer.

Users

• The system user should always be visible now and selectable and active. It will show (MASTER) next to it.

We added a ton of life insurance based fields this patch, don’t worry though! If you don’t want them you can disable them in the Options section under Data and Hide Policy Fields. These new fields will give us more flexibility in the future and all have been standardized per our research. If we are missing some data options, please let us know!

Policy Statuses

We added some new Policy Statuses! We also cleaned up some of the workflow (Which buttons show when). We tested it pretty thoroughly but if something isn’t working as intended please let us know.

What Changed?

• “Pending” Statuses no longer show up before Submission as most people have moved away from this workflow.
  • To use a “Pending” status you should submit the policy, then move the Policy into the appropriate pending status.
    • This way the Sale Date gets stamped on the lead because the policy was indeed submitted to the carrier at that point.
    • You can reactivate the policy once it moved out of pending, or set it to a negative or other pending status.
• “Renewal” statuses related to payments now only show on Active policies, or Lapsed / Termed or other Renewal Policies. Normal payment issue statuses will show otherwise. They only cross paths on an Active Policy.
• All pending statuses now show as yellow “In Work”.

As usual, you can disable some of these statuses from showing in the dialer section if you don’t want to use them.

• New Pending Statuses
  • Pending: Approved
    • Policy is approved by underwriting but not yet placed or in force.
  • Pending: Finalized
    • Work on the approval process has been done by case manager, but waiting for underwriting.
• New Interrupted Statuses
  • Death Claim
    • Client died and a death claim has been made.
  • Payment Issue (General)
    • This is a generic payment issue for use after a policy is active as well as during the verification and submission process.
• New Cancelled Statuses
  • Cancelled: Client Deceased
    • Client has passed away and the policy is cancelled.
  • Cancelled: Rescinded
    • Cancelled due to Wrong medical information provided on an app, MIB Report being different than the information on the app. This can also happen at the time of Death Claim. It would be the final status over Client Deceased if this was the case.
  • Cancelled: Client Surrendered
    • The client themselves called and cancelled the policy.

Workflow Theory for Life Insurance where Sale is made after Approval.

• Press Sale
• Press Verify
• Press Pending Approval
• Press Pending: Finalized
• Press Pending: Approved
• Press Submit
• Press Pending Pending Carrier Payout

Alternate Workflow Theory for Life Insurance where Sale is made before Approval

• Press Sale
• Press Verify
• Press Submit
• Press Pending Approval
• Press Pending: Finalized
• Press Pending: Approved
• Press Pending Carrier Payout
• Press Reactivate

Products

• Added new Validation Rules
  • Student Age Limit
  • Child Only Age Limit
    • This is for Child Only Plans, where the owner is the primary contact but the covered person is the dependent child.
  • Maximum Dependents
  • Maximum Children
• Coming Soon: Internal Product Quote and Pricing Tool
  • We have been working hard on the “Pricing” section of our Product system It has become exceptionally robust and allows for you to fill in premiums, enrollment fees and admin fees for nearly any combination of allowed options.
  • We are looking into a way to lock users into having to choose the available options. At the start, they will be just clickable suggestions.
  • We built this to grow in the future. We can add new criteria at will and make it as complex or simple as needed. We may even be able to use it for marking commissions or points.
  • We have added tons of tools to make it easy to fill out the data.
    • You can filter individual permutation columns so you can search for permutations that are the same and use our copy tools to auto fill the costs.
    • You can auto fill either blanks in the same column, overwrite everything below a certain permutation’s column, or copy over all permutations in that column. This makes data entry a snap.
    • We will be providing system standardized configurations for certain products in the future as we get them. You will be able to copy the defaults in with the click of a button if provided.

Here are some screenshots of our new Pricing configuration tool! We are really proud of this!

Policies

• New Billing Field
  • Billing Cycle
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Semi-Annually
    • Annually
• New Life Fields
  • Paid Up
    • 7  Pay
    • 10 Pay
    • 20 Pay
    • Pay to 100
  • Issue Type
    • Underwritten
    • Simplified
    • Guaranteed Issue
    • Medical
    • Non-Medical
  • Issue Test
    • CVAT (Cash Value Accumulation Test)
    • GPT (Guideline Premium Test)
    • TAMRA (Technical Miscellaneous Revenue Act 7-Pay Test)
  • Rating Class
    • Preferred
    • Preferred Plus
    • Standard
    • Standard Plus
    • Preferred Smoker
    • Standard Smoker
    • Sub Standard
  • Dividend Option
    • Cash
    • Apply to Premium
    • Dividends on Deposit
    • Accumulate Interest
    • Paid Up Additions
    • One Year Term
  • Coverage Type
    • Level
    • Graded
    • Modified
    • Variable
  •  NFO
    • Cash Surrender
    • Extended Term
    • Automatic Premium Loan
    • Reduced Paid Up
  • MEC
    • No
    • Yes
    • Pending
• These new fields can be hidden under Options -> Data -> Hide Policy Fields
• These new fields can be added as validation rules in product configs.
• These new fields can be posted and uploaded into the system and have been added to the Vendor Post system.
• These new fields have been added to the policy schema and should work in the column builder.

Lead Filters

• Added County search

Policies Filters

• Added new sidebar menu item: Life
• Added Paid Up Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Issue Type Multi-checbox under Life
• Added Issue Test Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Rating Class Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Dividend Option Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added NFO Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added MEC Multi-checkbox under Life

Product Validations

We have made some major modifications so that when you change carriers in the carrier select menu on the dialer screen, we now do a lookup in the database for any rules related to this product. This will provide us with many useful features to come (including some basic pricing auto fill capability).

If a product has state or zipcode limitation and there is no state or zipcode provided on the contact/lead, it will disable the option (but still show it) and append a message in brackets next to the product name such as [STATE REQUIRED] or [ZIPCODE REQUIRED]

If a product has state or zipcode limitation and there is is an invalid state or zipcode set on the contact/lead, it will disable the option (but still show it) and append a message in brackets next to the product name such as [STATE INVALID] or [ZIPCODE INVALID]

We originally considered hiding the menu option items outright, but realized this could cause confusion for agents and more reason to ask managers and admins where the heck their products went once they had these rules set.

If the CONVERSION Validation section of a Product has the “User License Required to Sell in State” selected it will show a warning in brackets [STATE UNLICENSED] next to the product names that the agent is unlicensed in but WILL allow an agent to select it. This allows your agents to set a quote for someone before passing it on to a licensed agent. If you try to press “Sale” on that policy, it will give the unlicensed error since it was set to conversion. We recommend not to set License Required for Verification and Submission unless your agents self submit, so that your verifiers and submitters can continue to process the application as they do not require a license to do so.

State Validations

• Trying to quote, verify, or submit with an incorrect state will give an error as it has before
• We now check, on change of carrier, the states required for each product. If a product required a state and no state is selected, it will disable the option and list [STATE REQUIRED] next to the product name. If a state is selected and the state is invalid it will disable and show [STATE INVALID]. These queues should help your agent understand why they can’t quote those policies.

Zipcode Validations *New!

• You can now set a comma separated list of zipcodes in product validations anywhere between 3 to 5 numbers long (yes we keep the front 0 for those pesky zipcodes that start with 0).
• Trying to quote, verify, or submit with an incorrect zipcode will give an error when zipcodes are provided as it would with states. If you change the zipcode to get around the limitation, it will still check for each part of the process. Try not to circumvent the system…if there is an error ask an admin to add the zipcode to the product config.
• We check from left to right, to allow you to take care of 3 – 4 digit prefixed zipcodes instead of having to type in all 5 numbers. This allows you to cover more territory with less work.
  • For example: You enter: 330. This means that Zipcodes such as 33015, 33014 and 33025 will be valid. If you set 3301, then 33015 and 33014 will be valid and 33025 would be invalid. If you set 33015 as the zipcode, only 33015 would be valid.
• You can mass edit Zipcode validations.

Leads

• Leads Total and Notes Total added to lead schema and are now selectable in the column builder. Use it to build some reports with the aggregate Checkbox!

Policies

• Added Group Notes to Policies.
• Dependent Age Range added to Lead Schema and now can be searched in both Leads and Policies sections. Added Dependent Ages Combined and Dependent DoB’s Combined to Schema so you can get a list.
• “New Customer” was added to Schema. This is a customer that no policies sold other than on a single date.
• “Group State” was added to filters in Leads and Policies. Use this with the Aggregate checkbox to create some custom reports!

Commissons

• Now showing Policy Status in commissions list. We had a client who discovered, while using the commissions tool, that the carrier had not paid two initial payments but was paying residuals. They recovered over $1,000!
• Fixed an issue with Typeahead for Editing Commissions after entered.

Admin Dashboard

• Sales summary now shows total unique customers for the search (unique leads).

Vendor Fields

• Added Date Terminate to Post Fields