Changing Agent Status
There are various scenarios where agents may be made unavailable:
- system-related reasons (e.g. blending control)
- first party control (agent wants to go on break)
- third party control (Supervisor moves agent to other campaign)
In order to provide consistent handling when there are conflicting requests there is an order of precedence to requests to make agent unavailable from the predictive pool.
The precedence list, highest to lowest, is as follows.
Show precedence list
| Request | Priority (PR) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kill agent | 2 (default) |
| 2 | Agent requests unavailable | 2 |
| 3 | Kill agent | 1 |
| 4 | Agent requests unavailable | 1 |
| 5 | Kill agent | 0 |
| 6 | Agent requests unavailable | 0 |
| 7 | Scheduled Callback | - |
| 8 | Campaign is stopping | - |
| 9 | Campaign is suspending | - |
| 10 | Chaining agents from one campaign to another | - |
| 11 | Manual move by supervisor | - |
| 12 | Automated blend move | - |
So for example, a request to go unavailable for a scheduled callback will override a request for a manual move by a supervisor, but will not override an agent’s request to go on a break.
It is not possible to give user control of precedence. This order is necessary to enable reliable operation of the ACD and prevent conflicts from arising.
Managing Priority (PR) when going unavailable
The Priority (PR) parameter in the Agent Unavailable [AU] message is used to determine how an agent is released from a campaign, when he requests to go unavailable. The range of circumstances is as follows:
| Priority (PR) | Predictive | Progressive | Open Preview |
|---|---|---|---|
| PR0
Softdial CallGem™ is asked to release the agent as soon as possible, but minimising the risk of an abandoned call |
PR0 should always be used, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Its use means that an agent may sometimes be asked to take another call, following the one that he may be on, in order to avoid the risk of an unexpected abandoned call |
Either PR0 or PR1 may be used to release the agent at the end of his current call, where the number is being dialed, or the agent is in talk or wrap. |
|
| PR1
Softdial CallGem™ is asked to release the agent at the end of the current call |
There may be reasons sometimes why it is imperative that an agent must be released as soon as he has finished a current call, but use of PR1 should be discouraged; see above. |
||
| PR2
Softdial CallGem™ is asked to release the agent immediately |
For example, if a supervisor wishes to terminate a live conversation immediately, because of agent behaviour. Must only be used in emergency due to the impact on abandoned calls (See below). |
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The Priority (PR) parameter is also used in the Ask Preview [AP] message (deprecated from V10.6.)
The Agent Unavailable [AU] message is not required when the CRM application suspends or closes a campaign for all agents. See Changing Campaign State.
The effect of bad agent management on Predictive campaign performance
Effective management of the abandon call rate on a predictive campaign relies on Softdial CallGem™ knowing precisely what resources are available to handle the calls in progress.
If agents go Agent Unavailable [AU] using the Priority (PR) parameter with
- PR0 or PR1, Softdial CallGem™ can limit the number of abandons that might otherwise result from a sudden reduction in available agents
- PR2, Softdial CallGem™ has no opportunity to manage the dialing rate to minimise abandons.
For this reason agents must only be made unavailable using priority PR0 or, in exceptional circumstances, PR1.
If an agent hangs up on a predictive campaign without first requesting to go unavailable, this will cause them to be made unavailable with PR2 and will almost certainly result in one or more abandoned calls.
If this behaviour causes the target abandon rate to be exceeded, Softdial CallGem™ will reduce the dialing rate to bring the abandon rate within target, thereby reducing the productivity of the campaign.
For best campaign performance, do not allow agents to hang up on a campaign without them first requesting to go unavailable and allowing Softdial CallGem™ to release them in a controlled manner.
Changing Agent Identification Numbers
As agents log in and out, the CRM application may reassign Agent Identification Numbers. The main reason why it may want to do this, is because it may choose to map these numbers to particular workstations, and if agents change workstations, as they log out and then in again, the CRM application will need to change their identification number.
If Softdial CallGem™ receives a login message with the same Agent Description (AD) as for an agent session that is currently logged out, it will assume that the same agent is logging in again, even if the Agent Identification Number has changed. Statistics for the agent will continue to accumulate from the time logged out.