LeadRefinery — How the Platform Works

Where a lead’s details travel

This page follows one merchant’s phone number from the moment a client uploads it to the moment a number appears on a screen. Every other page in this site describes one part of that path. This one shows how the parts join, and where the path can stop.

A diagram in eight numbered steps. A client uploads a file of leads, and each number is stored unchecked. A check against the do-not-call, litigator and reassigned-number lists can write an entry on the stop list, which covers one number, one lead, or every client at once. The release lets leads out at a steady rate. Every release then passes one safety gate that asks six questions in order: is the number on the stop list, is a consent record on file, is the list check still fresh, is it a legal hour where the merchant is, has this person been called too often, and has a phone number any calls left today. Only a passing check reaches the call. The call platform runs the conversation and the phone company carries it, or a rehearsal calls a stand-in instead. Each event that comes back is stored after its signature is checked, and a reading service turns the words into an outcome. The outcome, cost, length and number used are written to the record of the attempt. If the person asked not to be called again, that writes a stop-list entry at once. Counts and timings from every step go to the platform’s own measurement stores, which the screens read, and those measurements decide nothing.
The path of one number. The gate in the middle is the only way to a call.

The upload leaves every number unchecked

A client sends a file of leads. The platform stores each number with the consent record the client supplied. It marks the check against the lists as not done.

This is deliberate. The platform does not assume a number is safe to call because a client sent it. A number stays unchecked until something checks it.

The check against the lists

A separate service compares each number with three kinds of list: the do-not-call registers, known litigators, and numbers that now belong to someone new.

A hit writes an entry on the stop list. That entry can cover one number, every number on one lead, or every client on the platform at once. A do-not-call hit uses the widest of the three.

The check expires. A number checked eleven weeks ago is not a number checked today. The gate refuses a stale check the same way it refuses no check.

The release, and then the gate

Leads are let out at a steady rate across the day. They are never all released at once.

Every released lead then meets one gate. The gate asks six questions in a fixed order, and the order is chosen so the cheapest and most decisive question comes first:

  1. Is the number on the stop list?
  2. Is a consent record on file?
  3. Is the check against the lists still fresh?
  4. Is it a legal hour where the merchant is?
  5. Has this person been called too often, by this client or any other?
  6. Has one of the client’s phone numbers any calls left today?

A failure at any question ends the attempt. There is no second route to a call. This is the most important property of the platform. If a call could be placed any other way, every rule on this site would be advice rather than a control.

The call, and what comes back

A passing check reaches the call. The call platform runs the conversation and the phone company carries it. A rehearsal calls a stand-in service instead, so no real person is dialled.

Each event that comes back carries a signature. The platform checks the signature before it stores the event, so an event that did not come from the provider changes nothing.

A separate reading service then turns the words of the call into an outcome: who was reached, what they wanted, and what should happen next.

The record, and the second way a number stops

The outcome, the cost, the length and the number that was used are written to the record of that attempt. The record is written once.

If the person asked not to be called again, that request writes a stop-list entry immediately, and it covers every client. This is the second of the two ways a number reaches the stop list. The first is the check against the lists, before any call. The second is the person saying so, during one.

The measurements decide nothing

Counts and timings from every step go to the platform’s own measurement stores. The screens the team watches read those stores.

Nothing on that side of the picture can allow a call. It can show that calls happened, what they cost, and which of them the gate refused. It cannot place one. That separation is why a broken screen is an inconvenience and never a compliance event.