Re: Call Pickup by one agent keeps ringing agent in Reserve

eheston · ‎07-31-2003

I have agents getting stuck in a Reserve state. I think what is happening is that the other agents are doing a call pickup on their line. The manager has listed the ability to do call pickup as a requirement. They do not want the call to have to go back to the queue. I want to confirm that this is a problem before I tell them it shouldn't be done. Should the agents not be doing call pickup (is it not supported by Cisco, not just abnormal call center behavior)?

More info:

I have setup the system to not put the agents in a "Not Ready" state when they miss a call. The agents and the manager have expressed that they do not want to go "Not Ready" most of the time. They might miss a call because they are talking with a customer face-to-face or because they stepped away to do other work. They do not want the call to go back to the queue. They would prefer that an available agent perform a call pickup on the call.

IPCC Express Standard 3.0(3a) spC

with Cisco Agent Desktop

A different question (optional): Can someone please point me to a document that explains how to setup the IP Phone Agent Services in CM? I have searched and can't seem to find this information. I have never setup Phone Agents before.

Thanks much, Eric

aslam · ‎08-01-2003

Hi Eric,

Call pickup on ICD calls is not a good design and I think its surely not supported by cisco. What we need to understand here is that Call pickup is supported by the call manager, not by the agent desktop ... and when a call is picked up this way ... all the CTI data associated with it gets lost. So the recommendation would be that the agents do a proper transfer after picking up the call.

I am not sure why the customer does not want the call to go back to the queue, because it will be ultimately delivered to another free agent. If they are really concerned about the time it takes, you can decrease the time interval for call to be pulled back into the ICD system.

HTH.

eheston · ‎08-01-2003

Aslam,

I agree with your note about it being bad design. Since my last post, I've instructed the users to use Call Pickup as little as possible, to go not ready whenever they take calls, and to logout of the system and Call Forward all to the Main # if they are away from their desks.

The reason they wanted Call Pickup is that they have 7910s (single-line) and they receive personal calls and business calls directly to their extensions. These calls won't go the queue, but will instead ring constantly until the caller hangs up. The other agents need a way to retrieve these calls when the agent has stepped away, etc. In addition they are in a lobby with customers, and they don't want the phones ringing excessively.

I guess if they had 7940s, you could do 2 lines with different rings and use one for ICD only. Can you recommend any better solutions to this problem with the current hardware? They would be appreciated.

Thanks, Eric

aslam · ‎08-01-2003

Hi Eric,

This is what I would do,

Configure the ICD system to pull back the call after three rings ( or lesser based on secondds ) and deliver it to another free agent, that way the phone wont ring for more that 3 rings for ICD calls and you will avoid the agents getting stuck in the Reserved state.

I think we do not have a voicemail system or any other place to forward the call since you mention that the phone rings constantly until user hangs up ...

so I guess we'll have to do some user training to pick up the call after.. x no. of rings ( as configured for ICD ) that way they can pick up the personal calls ... and I think you would have already disabled call waiting on thse lines.

HTH

eheston · ‎08-02-2003

Thanks for the suggestion.

I will present this as an option. I think I'm going to try to steer them to 7940s with distinctive ring for their personal extensions, though. It just seems cleaner. Hopefully they won't mind spending the extra cash.

Thanks again.

Eric

abdulr · ‎08-04-2003

IPCC Express 3.1 has got a feature where direct calls to the agent extension can be forwarded to voice mail or any other extension and the call via the Q will be pulled back to the Q if the agent doesn't answer.

Officially this feature wasn't supported in earlier version of IPCC Express product.

aslam · ‎08-04-2003

Hi Eric,

For your second problem with IP Phone Agents, go to the following link, open the Installation Guide, go the the section:

"Configuring Cisco CallManager IP Phones to Work With IP Phone Agent"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/sw/custcosw/ps1844/products_release_and_installation_note_book09186a0080101a0b.html

hope that helps

mlinsemier · ‎08-08-2003

Eric,

We have a similar issue as you where calls were not requed. To fix it, under the Failed section of the Connect (resource) we Dequeue the call, set the priority and then send it back up to the select resource.

This fixed our "calls left in the void" issue.

Matt

alan.basinger · ‎02-18-2004

Eric,

This sounds more like a traditional hunt group than an ACD agent? This would never put the customer in a queue and also allow them to utilize the call park and call pick features. Plus in 4.0 the word is that the Hunt Group feature has been changed to drop phones from the HG if they are off hook....

Hope this helps.