Call Transfer and Conference
Call transfers are supported using the Transfer Request [TR] message. The agent (or the agent application) sends this message to Softdial CallGem™ to initiate a call transfer.
The Transfer Request [TR] message initiates a call transfer from the agent identified by the Agent Identifier (AN) parameter to either
- an agent identified by the Second Agent (A2), Agent Extension Identifier (AE), or external number identified by the External Address (EX) parameter (see External Transfers below)
The agent identified by the AN or AE parameter must not be in a call
or - a queue (or group) identified by the Group Address (GA) parameter (see Transfer to Queue below).
As a rule the agent being transferred to must be in the Not Ready state otherwise the transfer will fail. Agents who have gone available on an ACD campaign (inbound or outbound) are reserved to the ACD. There are, however, mechanisms to allow transfers between ACD agents, using the call blending features available in V10. (see Types of Call Transfer > Other > Transfer to Queue and Requeue, below)
Once a call is associated with a campaign, the call stays with that campaign for the duration of its existence. This means that agents are moved between campaigns to handle call transfers.
For example. if the transferee agent is not on the transferring inbound or outbound ACD campaign, the transferee agent is moved to the transferring campaign for the duration of the call. This approach ensures accurate call accounting and enables tracking of what campaigns agents spend their time working on.
V10.7 Update
From V10.7 - the External Address (EX) parameter of the Transfer Request [TR] is used for universal addressing, and can contain a queue/ group address, an agent extension, endpoint name or user name.
The External Address (EX) parameter now checks addresses in the following order:
- extensions
- queues (follows transfer station logic)
- groups (expands group and finds first station capable of handling the session media type in idle state. If no agents in idle state, finds first agent in waiting state.
- agent names (station IDs)
- user names (expands user and finds first station capable of handling the session media type in idle state). If no agents in idle state, finds first agent in waiting state.
Types of Call Transfer
Basic
There are 3 basic types of call transfer/ conference, each starting out with a Transfer Request [TR] message.
| Transfer type | Description |
|---|---|
| Blind | Assuming the transferee is in a state to receive a call, the transferee will receive an Agent Connect [AC] notification. The transferee will be responsible for completing the call cycle. The transferor will be returned to the pool. |
| Supervised (Screened) | The transferee will get an Agent Connect [AC] notification if they are in a state able to receive calls. The agent will then be connected to the transferee. At this point the called/ calling party is not conferenced. The first agent to drop out by using Start Wrap [SW] will leave the other party connected with the called/ calling party to complete the call. |
| Conference | Works in the same way as a supervised transfer except that all 3 parties will be able to communicate at the point that the transferee is connected. |
Other
Before going into the detail of other types of call transfers, the distinction between a Transfer request and a Requeue needs to be made clear:
- A Transfer request is a request to transfer a customer call from an agent to another individual.
- A Transfer to Queue request does not actually put the call into a queue; it means 'transfer this call to any agent who is a member of the specified queue (or its overflows)'. A Transfer to Queue request that is sent when all agents are occupied* will result in the transfer request failing.
*The transferee agent must either
- not be ACD available, or
- be ACD available and in Waiting state and have Allow immediate blend/ transfer for outbound agents set in the agent's queue configuration. - A Requeue is a request to take an inbound call out of its current queue and put it into a different queue. A Requeue request to a queue whose agents are all occupied will result in the call being requeued and waiting until an agent is free to deal with the call.
This distinction is made between Transfer to Queue and Requeue with good reason. In an IVR application it is necessary to build flow control around call transfers to provide handling of failed transfer by, for example, offering a callback or a connection to a different department. A Requeue operation is effectively ending the IVR transaction as flow control has passed to something external to the script.
| Transfer type | Description |
|---|---|
|
External Transfer |
Transfers may be made to external numbers i.e. numbers which Softdial CallGem™ does not recognise as a logged in agent extension. In order to support this kind of transfer, Softdial CallGem™ temporarily creates a spoof agent associated with the external number which it logs into the system campaign. An External Transfer is initiated by sending a Transfer Request [TR] message with the External (EX) parameter. |
|
Transfer to Queue (group) |
The Transfer Request [TR] message supports transfer to agents that are members of a queue (or its overflows) by specifying a Group Address (GA) parameter in the message. An error is thrown on validation if the group specified by the Group Address (GA) parameter (and its overflows) does not contain a transferable address. Transfer to Queue is available for all types of real and virtual agents. Transfer to Queue may be used to allow agent to agent transfers in a predictive campaign. To do this each agent must have their own queue set up in AU\PR1 may result in additional call abandons (see Changing Agent Status) |
|
Requeue |
From Version 10.0.1.15 Softdial CallGem™ and Softdial Telephony Gateway™ support the Requeue [RQ] message and the Requeue (RQ) parameter in the Call Disconnect [CD] message. An error is thrown on validation if the group specified by the Group Address (GA) parameter (and its overflows) does not contain a transferable address. Requeue is available for all types of real and virtual agents. Requeue applies only to Inbound calls. Unlike Transfer to Queue where an error will be thrown if there are no agents available in the queue, a requeued call will be handled like an inbound call to a queue. This means that if there are no agents available to take calls on the queue at the time the call is requeued, the call will be held in the queue until
|
Example - Transfer/ Conference/ Barge-In
To have a conference-type transfer (where agent A, agent B and the caller/ callee are conferenced together), issue a Transfer Request [TR] message with the 3-party Conference (C3) parameter. You can see the behaviour of this if you use Softdial Phone™ to initiate a conference (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 - Softdial Phone Conference Button
Barge-in is achieved by the transferee party issuing a Transfer Request [TR]. (On Softdial Phone™ click the Transfer button while conferencing.)
From a messaging perspective, barge-in works as follows.
Let use assume we have a supervisor with agent name supervisor logged in to the system, and an agent named agent already talking on the phone to a customer on campaign xyz'.
The supervisor may be on-hook and logged in to the system campaign, or may be nailed up and logged in to the xyz campaign. It does not matter; this approach will work in either case.
The supervisor client would issue a Transfer Request [TR] for either a conferenced or blind transfer (depending on whether this is a supervisor barge-in and conference or a take-over).
- TR\CNxyz\ANagent\a2supervisor\C3
- TR\CNxyz\ANagent\a2supervisor\BL
If the supervisor is off-hook, the supervisor's phone will ring and upon answer the supervisor will either be inserted into conference with the agent (C3) and the customer, or will take over the call (BL).
If inserted into conference, the supervisor would issue either
- TA\CNxyz\ANsupervisor\RS0 - to take over the call from the agent. or
- TA\CNxyz\ANsupervisor\RS1 - to leave the agent talking to the customer.
If the supervisor is monitoring or coaching the agent, and decides to barge in, the monitor session would need to be ended before the barge-in begins. This would involve sending
- LR\CNxyz\ANsupervisor\A2agent - without the OnOff (ON) parameter, to cancel monitoring.
CTI Integration Issues
The call transfer API has a CTI API and an Agent API. These fulfill 2 different purposes and allow us to track the session through transfer.
CTI API
The CTI API is session-centric. Any partner integrating call transfers must implement this API. From the point of view of the CTI layer, the transfer starts with a Call Transfer [CT] message that tells the telephony layer that it needs to transfer the customer call associated with Session Identifier (SI) to the Agent Extension Identifier (AE) address, e.g.
CT\TDdefault\CNfoo\SI123\A2SpoofBE08FBB2-2630-47EF-85F4-172FCA4B5808\RI15\AE626\SA
The CTI layer response must go through the following steps, in order to track time for reporting, and in order to ensure interface separation between the telephony and agent layer APIs.
- Softdial CallGem™ initiates transfer
Call Transfer [CT] with Session Identifier (SI) and Second Agent (A2)/ Agent Extension Identifier (AE) - Telephony signals offering
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Session Identifier (SI) and Resource Status (RS) of 3 - Telephony signals connected/ conferencing
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Session Identifier (SI) and Resource Status (RS) of 4 - Telephony signals completed successfully (0) or withdrawn (1)
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Session Identifier (SI) and Resource Status (RS) of 0 or 1
All call transfers that connect a third party to a call successfully must report Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Session Identifier (SI) and Resource Status (RS) of 4.
Once the call is connected and conferencing there are various ways in which the conference may end:
- Softdial CallGem™ may know the call to be a blind transfer. In which case Softdial CallGem™ will signal the end to the conference, dropping the transferor from the call and leaving the transferee in control.
- The transferor may
- signal to push the call to the transferee (withdraw).
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Agent Identifier (AN) and Resource Status (RS) of 1 - signal to withdraw the transfer.
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Agent Identifier (AN) and Resource Status (RS) of 0 - hang up their phone, which has other consequences, but also leads to the transfer being withdrawn.
- signal to push the call to the transferee (withdraw).
- The transferee may
- signal to push the call to the transferor (complete).
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Agent Identifier (AN) and Resource Status (RS) of 1 - signal to complete the transfer.
Transfer Acknowledge [TA] with Agent Identifier (AN) and Resource Status (RS) of 0 - hang up their phone, which has other consequences, but also leads to the transfer being completed.
- signal to push the call to the transferor (complete).
Agent API
This means that the agent API is simple.
- TA\AN\RS0 means 'Give me the call'.
- TA\AN\RS1 means 'I don’t want the call'.
In the case of conflict between transferee and transferor, the first agent to signal wins.