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Contents
Using the outbound feature
- About the outbound feature
- Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) variables
- Outbound call events
- The BAResponse ECC variable
About the outbound feature
CRS 5.0(1) includes an outbound feature. The outbound feature allows agents in a CSQ to handle outbound campaigns. When an agent handles an outbound call, the agent is presented with contact information about a customer. The agent has several options regarding this customer contact information. If the agent decides to call the customer, a call is made from the agent phone to the customer. For details about the outbound feature please see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solutions Administration Guide.
Unified CCX CTI server supports this feature using the CTI protocol messages. Agents with outbound capability should specify this capability in the AgentCapacity field of the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. When an agent with the outbound capability is logged in and the agent is part of an outbound campaign, the agent receives a special sequence of messages to handle an outbound call.
Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) variables
Unified CCX uses pre-defined ECC variables to exchange data with CTI clients for the outbound feature. See the following table for a complete list of the pre-defined ECC variables that are used for the outbound feature.
Note
These ECC variables should not be used by the CTI client for other purposes. They are reserved for the outbound feature.
Outbound call events
When Unified CCX needs to request an agent to make an outbound call, Unified CCX initiates a sequence of call events that is similar to those for making a call.
- Before an outbound call is placed, an available agent is reserved.
- Unified CCX sends two call events to the agent: BEGIN_CALL_EVENT and CALL_DELIVERED_EVENT.
- Although the call IDs used in these events are real, these call events are created by Unified CCX artificially. There is no actual phone call being made by any device. The call represented by these artificial call events is called a reservation call.
- The BAStatus ECC variable is set to "DO" for these events. This indicates that the call is an outbound call.
- When a CTI client receives these events, it should inform the agent about the customer contact information in the outbound ECC variables. It does this through the BAResponse ECC variable. At this point, the CTI client should send a SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of the values in Table 1. If the BAResponse value is Accept, Reject, Reject-Close, or Cancel Reservation, Unified CCX sends a CALL_CONNECTION_CLEARED_EVENT message to the CTI client with the reservation call ID.
- If the customer contact is accepted by the agent, Unified CCX makes a call from the agent device to the customer phone. This call is termed the preview call. For preview calls, the BAStatus is set to CO.
Call Classification
For preview calls, a connected customer call is classified as Voice in Unified CCX by default. The agent has the option to change the call classification after accepting and while connected to the customer or when in the Work state.
The CTI client may change the call classification by sending the SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of values in Table 1. In addition to reclassifying the call, the CTI client may also set the BAResponse ECC variable to schedule a customer callback, terminate the current call, and call the next available customer phone.
The BAResponse ECC variable
Table 1 lists the values you can use with the BAResponse ECC variable.
Table 2 The BAResponse ECC variable values Values used to respond to the reservation call
To accept the current customer contact. This will initiate the outbound call to the customer from the agent’s phone.
Once the agent responds with Accept, the call becomes a preview call.
To reject the current customer contact. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
To reject the current customer contact and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
To skip the current customer contact. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
To skip the current preview call and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
To cancel the agent reservation and to set the agent to Not Ready state. The record remains open in the database. Clicking Cancel Reservation has a similar effect to clicking Reject except that the agent goes to Not Ready instead of Ready.
Values used during a preview call
Indicates the preview call is reclassified as ANSWERING MACHINE.
Indicates the preview call is reclassified as INVALID PHONE NUMBER.
Indicates the preview call is reclassified as a phone number to be added on the DO NOT CALL list.
Indicates the customer wants a call back at the specified time
Indicates the phone number that the customer wants to be called back with. This value may be sent to Unified CCX after the Callback is sent.
Indicates the customer wants to cancel a previous callback request.
Indicates an agent request to call the next available customer phone number.
Informs the agent that the number called is a wrong number. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.
Informs the agent that the customer is not at home. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.
