Waiting queues telephony

Info about the queues properties can be viewed and edited from the corresponding account page, by accessing the Queues tab and then pressing on the queue name.

The telephony tab allows for viewing and editing the queue properties specific to the telephony protocol used by Accolades.

Info

The account info shows the account that contains the current waiting queue.

The name property defines the generic name of the queue inside Accolades.

The DID property defines the phone number that the queue is reachable, for incoming calls outside the account. This number has to be unique at a server level.

The Time condition property defined the time condition process that will be applied to this queue or "Inactive" if no time condition is applied.

The public caller id defines the phone number that will be displayed to the called device when the queue initiates a call (for the last resort redirect, for example).

The local phone number defines the number that the queue is reachable from inside the account. This number has to be unique at an account level.

The agent announce property defines if the agent or user that takes a call will have an audio file played before connecting the call. Usually the audio file states the name of the queue and is used when an agent or user is assigned to several queues. When this option is enabled an additional input is displayed, allowing the administrator to upload a .wav file with a maximum size of 3 MB.

The music on hold property allows the administrator to select a music on hold set (from the sets defined for the account) that will be played to the waiting calls.

The agent ringing timeout defines the number of seconds that the queue will leave a call to an agent, before considering a timeout.

The call recording property defines if the calls for the queue are recorded to the server.

The retry property defines the interval (in seconds) that the queue will wait before retrying to reassign a call to agents. If none of the agents answers a call, then the queue will wait a number of seconds before restarting to call all agents again.

The wrapup property defines the interval (in seconds) that an agent will not receive any calls, after finishing a call. For the queues with dynamic agents, this value can be overrode by setting up the agent to automatically start an after call pause after a call has been finished. In this case, the agent will have to manually exit the break, when he is ready to receive calls again.

The max no. of calls waiting property defines the maximum number of allowed waiting calls, for the queue. The incoming calls, above this threshold will receive a busy tone. If the parameter is set to 0 then no limit is set.

The service level agreement defines the number of seconds for calculating the call level. Two types of indicators are used: SL and SL2.

SL is computed using the formula:

(total answered calls in threshold / total answered calls) * 100.

SL2 is computed using the formula:

((total calls answered in threshold + total calls abandoned in threshold) / (total calls answered + total calls abandoned)) * 100.

The agent selection property defines the algorithm used for selecting the agent for a call. A description for each algorithm is displayed under the value of the property.

The new call in empty queue property defines the way that the queue will manage the case when an incoming call is received by the queue, but no agent are logged in to the queue.

The remove calls from empty queue defines the way that the queue will manage the case when no agents are logged in to the queue.

The event member status property defines if QueueMemberStatus events should be emitted (along with many other events) for further processing. The events are emitted by the Manager application (from Asterisk).

The event when called property defines if events are emitted when an agent is called. The events are emitted by the Manager application (from Asterisk).

The agent report - hold time defines if, before connecting the call the agent will be informed with the waiting time of the caller.

The periodic announce property defines if additional messages will be played to the caller, along with the music on call set defined for the queue.

The periodic announce frequency defines the frequency for playing periodic announces to the caller.

The last resort redirect defines if the call will be redirected to a phone number when no agents are logged in. Depending on the property value, the interface will display additional inputs for selecting the target for redirecting.

The early media property defines if an audio file will be played to the agent instead of the usual ringing tone.

Periodic announce to caller

This section is available only from the queue info page (it is not available from the editing page). The interface allows for managing the files that will be played to the waiting calls. To add a new file the user has to click the Add button. For deleting the file, the user has to press the name on the file. The Delete button will be displayed in the window with additional info about the file, after the user pressed the Details button.

Static users

A queue has two types of agents (users): static and dynamic.

The static agents (called users, because they do not have an administrator attached) are always connected to the queue, can not login or logout and they do not need the graphical interface for using the queue. The dynamic agents are the ones that need to login to one or more queues, can put themselves on breaks, can edit the info about the callers (can use the CRM module). This type of agents are specific to the call center activity.

This section is available only in the queue info page (is not available in the editing interface). The interface allows for managing the static users for the queue. For adding a user (phone) the Add button has to be pressed. For deleting a user the Delete button has to be pressed, displayed after clicking on the user name.