Manage Voice Contacts

About the Voice Channel

You can use Agent Desktop to receive and respond to customer calls depending on the permissions assigned to you by the Organization Administrator.

Answer a Call

You can receive a customer call if the Organization Administrator provides you the necessary permissions.

When you receive a call from a customer, a notification dialog box or the voice contact card appears in the Active Contact List under the Voice and All tabs in the Agent Desktop. The dialog box displays the phone number of the customer, the queue that routed the call to you, and a timer indicating from how long the call is offered to you. You can see the status of the contact as RINGING.

If the voice contact card is not accepted within the configured timeout interval, the notification card blinks for some time in the Active Contacts List. Then, the system changes your status to Ring On No Answer or RONA.

When you are in RONA state, you cannot receive any contacts. You will have to manually change your status from RONA to Available state to receive contacts of any media channels including new voice contacts.

When you receive a call, use your physical phone to answer it. The status of the call changes to CONNECTED in Agent Desktop.

While helping your customers, you can do the following tasks:

After you have helped your customer with their queries, you can end the call. However, it is good practice to ask the customer to end the voice call. For more information, see End a Voice Call.

Pause and Resume Recording During a Voice Call

You can use Agent Desktop to pause the recording of sensitive information during a call, and again resume the recording, depending on the permissions assigned to you by the Organization Administrator.


Note

You can see the call recording if it is enabled for your organization.

In Agent Desktop, click Pause Recording to pause the recording of an active call.

Your Organization Administrator configures a time period beyond which the recording automatically resumes. But, at any time, you can manually resume the recording by clicking Start Recording.

Enter Call-Associated Data

Your organization can collect data about the call through the Call-Associated Data (CAD) variables. The Organization Administrator configures the CAD variables from the Webex Contact Center administration portal. If CAD variables are configured for your organization, then you can edit one or more CAD variable fields in Agent Desktop during a call with the customer.

During a call, click a CAD variable field and enter the appropriate value. Contact your supervisor for the appropriate values for that field.

The values that you enter are saved in the Webex Contact Center database after you enter the wrap-up information for the call. If you transfer the call to another agent or queue, both of you can enter or edit CAD values, but only the values that are entered before the last wrap-up entry are saved in the database.

Hold and Resume a Voice Call

In Agent Desktop, to put a connected call on hold click Hold. To continue your call with the customer or the consulting agent, click Resume.


Note

When you are consulting with another agent, the customer is automatically put on hold. When you take the customer off hold, the consulting agent is automatically put on hold. You cannot put both the calls on hold simultaneously. For more information, see Consult with Another Agent During a Call.

Transfer a Call

If you cannot resolve a customer query and want to escalate the voice call to a different agent or supervisor, you can transfer the active voice call.

Transfer a Call to a Specific Agent

You have to consider the following before transferring a call to a specific agent:

  • For blind transfer, the agent must be in the available state.

  • To receive a consult-transfer, the target agent must be in Available or any idle state when you initiate the consult request.

To transfer an active call to a specific agent:

Procedure

Step 1

In Agent Desktop, click Transfer.

The Transfer Request dialog box appears.

Step 2

In the Transfer Request dialog box, select Agent.

A list of available agents appears.

Step 3

Select an agent from the drop-down and click Transfer.

The system transfers the call to the selected agent and the WRAP UP page appears.

For more information, see Wrap-Up Voice Communication.

Transfer a Call to a Different Queue

To transfer an active call to a different queue:

Procedure

Step 1

In Agent Desktop, click Transfer.

The Transfer Request dialog box appears.

Step 2

In the Transfer Request dialog box, select Queue.

A list of telephony queue appears.

Step 3

Select a queue from the drop-down.

The call is transferred to that queue and routed to the agent based on the routing strategy of the queue. The WRAP UP page appears.

For more information, see Wrap-Up Voice Communication.

Transfer a Call to a Specific Number

You can transfer a call to a valid phone number that is accessible by your system.

To transfer an active call to a specific number:

Procedure

Step 1

In Agent Desktop, click Transfer.

The Transfer Request dialog box appears.

Step 2

In the Transfer Request dialog box, select DN.

Step 3

Enter a valid phone number.

Alternately you can select a contact from the DN drop-down.

Note 

The contacts that appear in the DN drop-down are from your enterprise address book.

Step 4

Click Transfer.

The call is transferred to the DN and the WRAP UP page appears.

For more information, see Wrap-Up Voice Communication.

Consult with Another Agent During a Call

You can consult with another Agent Desktop user while you are on the phone with a customer.

To consult with another agent during an active call:

Procedure

Step 1

In Agent Desktop, click Consult.

The Consulting Request dialog box appears.

Step 2

You can select one of the following targets:

  • Select Agent and select an agent from the drop-down. Only agents who are currently logged in appear in the list.

    The color of the status indicator beside the name of the agent name indicates the current state of the agent. The color of the status indicator is as follows:

    Color

    Status Indicator

    Green

    Available

    Blue

    Connected (on a call)

    Gray

    Idle

  • Select Queue and select a queue from the drop-down.

    If the Queue option is not available for your enterprise, then Consult is disabled.

  • Select DN and enter a valid phone number. Alternately you can select a contact from the DN drop-down.

    The contacts that appear in the DN drop-down are from your enterprise address book. It is possible that the contacts are not available in Agent Desktop during your transfer.

Note 

An agent in the Connected state (blue color) can receive a consult call only if that agent's physical phone device has the capability to receive more than one call at a time. In order to receive more than one call at a time, the Call Waiting feature has to be enabled on the device. If the consultee phone cannot receive more than one call at a time, Error-[14]-Consult failed error will be shown.

Step 3

Click Consult.

The system puts the customer on hold and sends your consult request to the specified target. The End Consult button appears in your screen and your call status changes to Consult Requested.

If you are consulting to a queue and a destination agent is available, a message appears which asks your confirmation to proceed. Click Consult within a predetermined time interval or the consultation request is cancelled. Check with your supervisor for the time interval.

If the specified target does not answer the consultation fails. You can then either click Consult again and specify a different target, or take the customer off hold by clicking Resume.

While you are consulting with another agent, you can do the following:

  • Click Transfer to transfer the call to another agent. For more information, see Transfer a Call.

  • Click Resume to take the customer off hold and hold the agent.

  • Click Conference to start a conference between you, the consulted agent and the customer. For more information, see Create a Conference Call.

Step 4

(Optional) If you reach the voice mailbox of the target, you can end the call with the consulted agent without disconnecting the call with the customer. Do one of the following:

  • Click End Consult. This ends the call with the consulted agent, and you can continue your call with the customer.
  • Use your physical phone to disconnect the call with the agent. This ends the call with the consulted agent but keeps the customer on hold.
  • Resume the call with the customer. The system automatically re-establishes the audio and calls you back.
Note 

To receive an inbound consult while connected to a call, you must use the second line key or flash function on your agent phone to accept the inbound consult and to toggle between the connected caller on Line 1 and the inbound agent consult on the second line of the Agent Desktop.

The following table records the actions that each user can perform during a consult call:

Agent 1—Refers to the agent who initiates a consult call.

Agent 2—Refers to the agent who accepts the consult call.

Role

Summary

Customer

  • A customer cannot initiate a consult call.

  • When Agent 1 consults with Agent 2, the customer is put on hold.

  • The customer can drop from an ongoing call with Agent 1, thereby ending the interaction.

Agent 1

  • Agent 1 can initiate and end a consult call.

  • Agent 1 can resume a customer call that was put on hold.

  • Agent 1 can consult with Agent 2 and put Agent 2 on hold.

  • Agent 1 can transfer a call to Agent 2. When the transfer request is initiated, the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1. The call continues between Agent 2 and the customer.

  • Agent 1 can start a conference call with Agent 2 and a customer.

  • When a customer drops from a consult call, the interaction ends, and the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1.

  • Agent 1 can end a consult call by clicking the End Consult button or by hanging up the physical phone. The customer and Agent 2 are dropped from the consult call.

Agent 2

  • When Agent 1 resumes a call with the customer who was put on hold, Agent 2 is put on hold and the customer is taken off hold.

  • Agent 2 cannot resume or end a consult call.

  • Agent 2 cannot apply a wrap up reason for a consulting call.

  • Agent 2 can end a consult call by clicking the Exit Consult button, and the call continues between Agent 1 and the customer.

  • Agent 2 can accept a transfer request made by the Agent 1 during the consult call.

  • If Agent 1 starts a conference call when consulting Agent 2, Agent 2 will be part of the conference call.

  • If the customer drops from a consult call, the interaction ends. Agent 2 is dropped from the call without wrap up.

Create a Conference Call

You can create a conference call with a customer and another agent using Agent Desktop.

While you are consulting with another agent, click Conference in Agent Desktop. For more information, see Consult with Another Agent During a Call.

The customer is taken off hold and you, the customer, and the other agent can communicate with each other.

The following table records the actions that each user can perform during a conference call:

Agent 1—Refers to the agent who starts a conference call.

Agent 2—Refers to the consulted agent who is part of the conference call.

Role

Summary

Customer

  • A customer cannot initiate a conference call.

  • When Agent 1 starts a conference call, the customer is taken off hold. The call continues between Agent 1, Agent 2, and the customer.

  • The customer can drop from an ongoing call with Agent 1 and Agent 2, thereby ending the interaction.

  • During a conference call, the customer cannot be put on hold.

Agent 1

  • Agent 1 can start and end a conference call.

  • Agent 1 can start a conference call with Agent 2 by clicking the Conference button.

  • During a conference call, Agent 1 cannot put a customer or Agent 2 on hold.

  • Agent 1 can transfer a call to Agent 2. When the transfer request is initiated, the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1. The call continues between Agent 2 and the customer.

  • When a customer drops from a conference call, the interaction ends, and the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1.

  • Agent 1 can end a conference call by clicking the End Conference button or by hanging up the physical phone. The customer and Agent 2 are dropped from the conference call.

Agent 2

  • Agent 2 cannot end a conference call.

  • Agent 2 cannot apply a wrap up reason for a conference call.

  • Agent 2 can end a conference call by clicking the Exit Conference button, and the call continues between Agent 1 and the customer.

  • If Agent 1 starts a conference call when consulting Agent 2, Agent 2 will be part of the conference call.

  • Agent 2 can accept a transfer request made during the conference call by Agent 1.

  • If a customer drops from a conference call, the interaction ends. Agent 2 is dropped from the call without wrap up.

Make an Outbound Call

You can call a customer if your administrator has authorized your agent profile to communicate with customers by phone.

The settings in your agent profile determine the format of the phone number you can dial. For example, you might be restricted to dial phone numbers of specific length or beginning with specific area codes.

In the Agent Desktop Dialpad, if the Outdial ANI drop-down is available, you can select a number as your caller ID before you call.

To make an outbound call:

Before you begin

To make outbound calls, you must be in Idle state.

Procedure

Step 1

Click Dialpad in the navigation bar.

The dialpad appears.

Step 2

Click Start a new call and perform one of the following.

  • Select a number from the address book. The contacts that appear in the address book are from your enterprise address book which is configured by your administrator.

  • Dial the number of the customer from the dialpad. Your agent profile must have appropriate permission to dial a number using the dialpad.

Step 3

Click call button at the bottom of the dialpad.

Your call request is sent to the phone number you specified, and your call status is set to OUTDIALRESERVED. An outbound voice contact card appears in the Active Contact List.

You get a call on your physical phone.

Step 4

Answer the call on your physical phone, and wait for the customer to answer.

When the customer answers, your call status changes to CONNECTED.

Step 5

End the call after you help the customer with queries. However, it is best practice to ask the customer to end the call. For more information, see End a Voice Call.

Note 

  • Error code 20 (Outdial Failed) indicates that the call could not be established either with the agent's phone or with the caller's phone.

  • Error code 21 (Outdial Rejected) indicates that the application server has not initiated the call setup. Contact your administrator for assistance.

End a Voice Call

After you have helped your customer with their queries, it is a best practice to ask the customer to end the voice call. When the customer ends the call, the WRAP UP page appears. If necessary, you can also end the call.

To end a call in the Agent Desktop:

Procedure

Step 1

In an active call, click End.

The WRAP UP page appears.

Step 2

From the Select Wrap Up drop-down, select the reason for ending the call.

When you select the reason, the call ends.

For more information, see Wrap-Up Voice Communication.