Lucent Technologies CentreVu Advocate Release 8, CentreVu Advocate User Manual

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CentreVu



Advocate

Release 8 User Guide

585-210-927 Comcode 108502162 Issue 1 December 1999

Notice

Every effort was made to ensure that the information in this book was complete and accurate at the time of printing. Howev er, information is subject to change.

Your Responsibility for Your System’s Security

Toll fraud is the unauthorized use of yo u r te lecommunications system by

an unauthori zed party, for example, persons other than your company’s employees, agents, subcontractors, or persons working on your company’s behalf. Note that there ma y be a risk of toll fraud associated wit h your telecommunication s system and, if toll fraud occur s, it can result in substantial additional charges for your telecommunications services.

You and your system manager are responsible for the security of your system, such as programming and configuring your equipm ent to prevent unauthorized use. The system ma na ger is also responsible for reading al l installation, instruction, and system admi nist ra tion documents provided with this product in order to full y understand the features tha t c an int roduce risk of toll fraud and the steps that can be taken to reduce that risk. Lucent Technologies does not warrant that this product is immune from or will prevent unauthoriz ed use of common-carrier tele communication services or facilities accessed through or connected to it. Lucent Technologies will not be responsible for any charges th at resul t fr om such unauthorized use.

Lucent Technologies Fraud Intervention

If you suspect that you are being vi ct imized by toll fraud and you need technical support or assistance, call Technical Service Center Toll Fraud Intervention Hotline at 1-800-643-2353.

Federal Communications Commission Statement Part 15: Class A Statement. This equipment has been tested and found to

comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful in ter feren ce when the equi pmen t is opera ted in a comme rcial environment. This equipment gene rat es, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, i f not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may ca use harmful interference to radi o communications. Operation of this eq ui pment in a residential area is li ke ly t o cause harmful interfer ence, in which ca se the u ser will be requ ired to corre ct t he interference at his own expense. Part 15: Person al Computer Statement . This equipment ha s bee n certified to comply with the limi ts for a C lass B comput ing dev ice, pursua nt to Subpart J of Part 15 of FCC Rules. Only periph erals (computing input/ output devices, term inal s, pri nter s, etc.) certi fie d to comp ly with the Cl ass B limits may be attached to this computer. Operation with noncertified peripherals is likely to r es ult in interference to rad io and televi sion reception.

Part 68: Answer-Supervision Signaling. Allowing this equip ment to be operated in a manner that does not provide proper answer-supervision signaling is in violation of Part 68 rules. This equipment returns answersupervision signals to the public switched network when:

• Answered by the called station

• Answered by the attendant

• Routed to a reco rded announceme nt that can be administered by the CPE user

This equipment returns answe r-supervision signals on all DID calls forwarded back to the public sw it ched telephone network. Permissible exceptions are:

• A call is unanswered

• A busy tone is received

• A reorder tone is received

Canadian Department of Communications (DOC) Interference Information

This digital apparatus does not exce ed the Class A limits for radio noise emissions set out in the radio interfere nc e regulations of the Canadian Department of Communi cations.

Le Présent Appareil Noméri que n’émet pas de bruits radioé le ctriques dépassant les limites applicables aux appareils numériques de la class A préscrites dans le reglement su r le brouillage radioélectrique édi cté par le ministére des Communications du Canad a.

Trademarks

●

CentreVu is a trademark of Lucent Technologies.

●

DEFINITY is a registered trademark of Lucent Technologies.

●

INFORMIX is a registered trademark of Informix Software, Inc.

●

SPARC trademarks, including SPARCserver are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International Inc. SPARCserver is licensed exclusively to Sun Microsystems, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an acrhitecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

●

Sun, Sun Microsystems, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, the Sun logo, the SMCC logo, SunLink, SunSelect, Solaris, and Solstice DiskSuite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

●

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Corporation.

●

Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, Access, Windows and Windows 95 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

●

All other product names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Ordering Information Call: Lucent Technologies Publications Center

Voice: 1-800-457-1235 International Voice: +1-317-361-5 353 Fax: 1-800-457-1764 International Fax: +1-31 7-3 61- 53 55

Write: Lucent Technologies Publications Center

P.O. Box 4100 Crawfordsville, IN 47933 U.S.A.

CentreVu®

Order:

Document No. 585-210-927 Comcode 108502162 Issue 1, December 1999

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

For additional documents, refer to the section entitled “Related Documents” in the Preface. You can be placed on a Standing Order list for this and other documents you ma y ne ed. Standi ng Order will enable you to automatically receive upda te d versions of individual document s or document sets, billed to account information that you provide. F or mor e information on Standing Orders, or to be put on a list to receive future issues of this document, please contact the Lucent Technologies Publications C enter.

Warranty

Lucent Technologies provides a limited warranty on this product. Refer to the “Limited use Software License Agreement” card provided with your package.

European Union Declaration of Conformity

Lucent Technologies Business Communications Systems declares that XXX equipment specified in this document conforms to the referenced European Union (EU) Directives and Harmonized Standards listed below: EMC Directive89/33 6/EEC Low Voltage Directive73/23/EEC

The “CE” mark affixed to the equipment means that it conforms to the above Directives.

Comments

To comment o n this docu ment, retu rn the co mme nt card at the f ront o f the document.

Acknowledgment

This document was developed by Lucent Technologies Global Learning Solutions Organiza ti on .

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

iii

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-1

Organization and Use of This Document . . . . . . . . . . P-2

Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . P-5

Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-6

1 Introduction:

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

CentreVu

Advocate

Release 8 User Guide

Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-1

Advocate Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-1

Organization of Document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-2

Report Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P-5

CentreVu

Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Agent and Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Call Selection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Understanding Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Greatest Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Skill Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Percent Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Service Objective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Call Selection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Predicted Wait Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Call Selection Method—Example . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Service Level Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Reserve Agent Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Call Selection Override . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Agent Selection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Least Occupied Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

LOA and AUX Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

EAD-LOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

UCD-LOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

Most Idle Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

EAD-MIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12

UCD-MIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12

Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12

2Custom

CentreVu

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Call and Agent Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Planning Your Call Center—

Advocate Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Understanding Call Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Service Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Predicted Wait Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Understanding Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Least Occupied Agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

LOA and AUX Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Agent Call Handling Table . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Direct Agent Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Top Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Service Level Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7

Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7

Reserve Agent Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8

Call Selection Override . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8

Call Selection Override ON . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8

CentreVu

Advocate with EAS. . . . . 2-13

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13

Separate Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-14

System Level Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-14

System Level Decisions Table . . . . . . . . . . . 2-15

Organization Level Decisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-17

Organization Level Decisions Table . . . . . . . . . 2-17

Within an Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-19

Skill Level Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-20

Skill Level Decision Table . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-20

Agent Level Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-21

Agent Level Decisions Table . . . . . . . . . . . 2-22

Call Center Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-23

Combining

CentreVu

Advocate Solutions to Meet Call Center Needs . 2-24

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-24

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Match Caller With Most Qualified Agent . . . . . . . . . 2-24

Build Stronger Relationships with Some Customers . . . . . 2-24

Improve Overall Call Center Efficiency. . . . . . . . . . 2-25

Help Schedule Agents with Multiple Skills . . . . . . . . 2-25

Treat All Agents the Same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-25

Treat Some Agents Differently . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-25

Improve Agent Fairness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-26

Automate Supervisor Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-26

Combining

CentreVu

Advocate Solutions Table . . . . . . 2-26

Getting the Most from Y our Call Center . . . . . . . . . . . 2-31

For Best Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-31

Least Occupied Agent vs. Most Idle Agent . . . . . . . 2-31

Predicted Wait Time vs. Current Wait Time . . . . . . . 2-31

ACW Considered Idle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-32

Service Objective and Predicted Wait Time . . . . . . . 2-32

Matching Features to Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-32

3 Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

CentreVu

Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Real-Time Split/Skill Call Profile Report . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 3-8

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report . . . . . . . . . 3-11

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 3-12

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12

Historical Split/Skil l Call Profile Report . . . . . . . . . 3-15

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 3-15

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Historical Split/Skill

Graphical ASA Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 3-17

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18

VDN Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-19

Historical Agent Summary and Agent Group

Summary Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-19

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20

4 Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

CentreVu Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

CentreVu

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . 4-7

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Assigning Reserve Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Additional Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Real-Time Graphical Skill Overload Report . . . . . . . . 4-10

Things to Know for

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Real-Time Graphical Staffing Profile Report . . . . . . . . 4-13

Things to Know for

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15

Historical Graphical Skill Overload Report . . . . . . . . 4-18

Things to Know for

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-20

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-20

Integrated Graphical Skill Overload Report . . . . . . . . 4-21

Things to Know for

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-21

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-22

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-22

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23

Skill State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 4-10

Advocate . . . . . . . . 4-13

Advocate . . . . . . . . 4-18

Advocate . . . . . . . . 4-21

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

VDN Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24

Agent Occupancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-25

5 Call Center Solution: Minimize Abandoned Calls. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

vii

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

CentreVu

Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Predicted Wait Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Service Level Supervisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . 5-6

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

Additional Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

Real-Time Split/Skill Call Profile Report . . . . . . . . . 5-9

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 5-9

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report . . . . . . . . . 5-11

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 5-11

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-12

Historical Split/Skil l Call Profile Report . . . . . . . . . 5-14

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 5-14

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15

Historical Split/Skill Graphical ASA Report . . . . . . . . 5-16

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 5-16

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-17

Historical VDN Graphical Busy/Abandon/

Disconnect Comparison Report . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 5-18

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18

Modified Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19

6 Call Center Solution: Automate Agent Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

viii

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

CentreVu

Advocate Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . 6-6

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Drill-Down Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Real-Time Graphical Staffing Profile Report . . . . . . . . 6-9

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 6-9

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11

Real-Time Graphical Active Agents Report . . . . . . . . 6-14

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 6-14

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16

Reserve1 AUX Agents Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-19

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 6-19

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-20

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-20

Reserve2 AUX Agents Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-22

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 6-22

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-23

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-23

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-25

Real-Time Multi-ACD Top Agent Report . . . . . . . . 6-25

Real-Time Queue/Top Agent Status Report . . . . . . . 6-26

Real-Time Graphical Top Skill Status Report . . . . . . 6-27

Real-Time Skill Top Agent Report . . . . . . . . . . 6-27

Drill-Down Top Agent Work State Report . . . . . . . 6-28

Drill-Down Work State Report . . . . . . . . . . . 6-29

Integrated Graphical Split/Skill View Report . . . . . . 6-29

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-30

7 Call Center Solution: Make Average Speed of Answer More Uniform . . . . 7-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

CentreVu Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Option A: Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Option B: Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Additional Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 7-7

Real-Time Split/Skill Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 7-7

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Historical Split/Skill

Graphical ASA Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 7-9

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

Historical Split/Skill Graphical ASA Daily Report . . . . . . 7-11

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 7-11

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12

Historical System Graphical Maximum Delay Report . . . . . 7-12

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 7-12

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-15

8 Call Center Solution: Better Serve Selected Callers . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

CentreVu

Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . 8-5

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Additional Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Real-Time Graphical Split/Skill Call Profile Report . . . . . . 8-8

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 8-8

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Historical Split/Skil l Call Profile Report . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Things to Know for

CentreVu Advocate . . . . . . . . 8-10

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Historical Split/Skill Graphi cal Multi-ACD Service Level Daily

Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12

Things to Know for

CentreVu Advocate . . . . . . . . 8-12

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-13

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-13

Real-Time Queue/Top Agent Status Report . . . . . . . 8-13

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report . . . . . . . . 8-14

Integrated Graphical Split/Skill View Report . . . . . . 8-14

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-15

9 Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

CentreVu

Advocate Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Real-Time Graphical Allocated Agents Report . . . . . . . 9-7

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 9-7

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Historical Graphical Average Positions Staffed Report . . . . 9-11

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate . . . . . . . . 9-11

Input Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13

Integrated Agent Graphical Information Report . . . . . . . 9-14

Things to Know For CentreVu Advocate. . . . . . . . 9-14

Report Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-14

Report Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-15

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17

Real-Time Graphical Agent Information Report . . . . . 9-17

Real-Time Split/Skill Graphical Status Report . . . . . . 9-17

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report . . . . . . . . 9-18

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-19

10 Call Center Solution: Make Agent Idle Time More Uniform. . . . . . . . . 10-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1

CentreVu

Advocate Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1

Customer Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Switch Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Customer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Verifying the Solution Through Reports. . . . . . . . . . . 10-3

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3

Drill-Down Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3

Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4

Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 10-4

Modified Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4

Real-Time Graphical Agent Information Report . . . . . 10-5

Real-Time Split/Skill Graphical Status Report . . . . . . 10-5

Real-Time Queue/Top Agent Status Report . . . . . . . 10-6

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report . . . . . . . . 10-7

Real-Time Split/Skill Graphical Top Skill Status Report . . . 10-8

Real-Time Skill Top Agent Report . . . . . . . . . . 10-9

Historical Agent Summary and Agent Group Summary. . . 10-9

Drill-Down Top Agent Work State Report . . . . . . . 10-10

Drill-Down Work State Report . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

Things to Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-12

11 Administer CentreVu

Advocate on DEFINITY® ECS . . . . . . . . . . . 11-1

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11- 1

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-1

Administering Agent Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

Agent Selection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

Before You Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

Setting Up Agent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

To Administer an Agent Selection Method . . . . . . . 11-3

To Administer MIA Across Skills . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

To Include ACW in the Calculation of Agent Occupancy . . 11-5

Administering Call Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Call Selection Measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Before You Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

To Administer Call Selection Measurements . . . . . . 11-6

Service Level Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-7

Before You Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-7

To Administer Service Level Supervisor. . . . . . . . 11- 10

xii

Worksheet for Service Level Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . 11-13

Call Handling Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-14

Service Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-14

Call Handling Preferences and Service Objective. . . . . 11-15

Setting Up Call Handling Preference . . . . . . . . . 11-18

Feature Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Abandoned Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Add/Remove Skill Via FAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Agent Hold – With and Without Multiple Call Handling . . . . 11-25

Agent Login/Logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Agent Work Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Agent Work States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

Attendants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

AUDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

Auto Available Splits/Skills (AAS) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

Basic Call Management System (BCMS) . . . . . . . . . 11-26

Interaction with Service Level Supervi s or . . . . . . . 11-26

Call Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Call Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Call Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Call Pickup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Conference/

Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Direct Agent Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Interaction with Percent Allocation . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Interaction with Service Level Supervi s or . . . . . . . 11-28

Interaction with Least Occupied Agent . . . . . . . . 11-28

Distributed CommunicationsSystem (DCS) . . . . . . . . 11-28

Expected Wait Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Extension Calls and LOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Most Idle Agent (MIA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Move Agent While Staffed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Multiple Call Handling (MCH) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Interaction with Percent Allocation . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Multiple Priority Queuing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Multiple Skill Queuing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Non-ACD Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Redirect on No Answer (RONA) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Interaction with Service Level Supervi s or . . . . . . . 11-31

Timed ACW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Interaction with Service Level Supervi s or . . . . . . . 11-31

Uniform Call Distribution (UCD) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

VDN of Origin Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

VuStats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

xiii

12 Administer

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-1

Agent Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

Call Center Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-12

CentreVu

Advocate through

CentreVu

Supervisor . . . . . . 12-1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

Review Agent Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3

Add Skills per Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3

Delete Skills per Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4

Administer Call Handling Preferences . . . . . . . . 12-4

Percent Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5

Use an Agent Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6

Assign Direct Agent Skill. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6

Multi-Agent Skill Change Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . 12-7

Add Agents to Skill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8

Remove Agents from Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-9

Move Agents Between Skills . . . . . . . . . . . 12-10

Move Agents Between Skills Dialog Box . . . . . . . 12-11

Set Acceptable Service Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-12

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box . . . . . . . . 12-12

Field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13

Advocate Database Items and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . 13-1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-1

How Database Items and Calculations Are Presented . . . . . . 13-2

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Sample Database Item Table. . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Database Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Items in Different Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Items in Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Index Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3

Database Item Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3

Historical and Real-Time Data . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3

Call-Based Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-4

Interval-Based Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-4

New Tracking It ems with

Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-5

Sample Dictionary Calculations Table . . . . . . . . 13-6

Database Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-6

Database Table Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Real-Time Table Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Historical Database Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Interactions With Switch Fea tures . . . . . . . . . . . 13-8

Split/Skill Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Type Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Real Time Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Historical Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Customizing Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-9

Split/Skill Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-10

Switch Cross-Reference for Split/Skill Database Items . . . 13-15

CentreVu

CentreVu®

Advocate . . . . . . . 13-4

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

xiv

Agent Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Type Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Real-Time Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Historical Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Agent Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Switch Cross-Reference for Agent Database Items . . . . 13-18

Agent Login/Logout Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-19

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-19

Agent Login/Logout Database Items . . . . . . . . . . 13-19

Switch Cross-Reference for Agent Login/Logout

Database Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-20

Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-21

Reports-specific Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-22

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GL-1

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IN-1

Preface

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

P-1

Preface

The

Audience 0

CentreVu Advocate Release 8 User Guide

center administrators and users who need a general understanding of

CentreVu

Advocate and how this feature can impact both call and agent

selection while providing a powerful tool for meeting business needs.

document is written for call

Overview 0

Advocate Benefits

This document includes the following information on

●

An overview of

●

Implementing business solutions through

●

Recommendations for which

CentreVu

Advocate

CentreVu

together

●

Combining

●

Creating new

●

Administering

CentreVu

Advocate solutions

Advocate call center solutions

Advocate on the

Communications Server (ECS) Release 8

●

Administering

●

CentreVu

With

CentreVu

●

More evenly distribute calls between agents

●

More efficiently select agents for calls

●

Reduce the wait time for incoming calls

●

Generate reports based on

CentreVu

Advocate through

Advocate database items and calculations.

Advocate, you can:

CentreVu

Advocate features and their

impact.

CentreVu

Advocate:

Advocate

Advocate features work well

DEFINITY

CentreVu

‚ Enterprise

Supervisor

Preface

Organization and Use of This Document P-2

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Organization and Use of This Document 0

Organization of Document

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Preface: includes information on document standards, a brief introduction to the document, and a description of each chapter in the docume nt.

Introduction: gives an overview of the five overview of agent and call selection methods, and lists terminology specific to the

Custom

CentreVu

and provides a table that lists each prerequisite switch and Supervisor admini stration, its supporting reports, which other and any comments regarding implementation. This chapter also includes information on what users need to know in order to implement custom call center solutions through pairing objective groups with suggested combinations.

Maximizing Revenues: this call center business need is described, along with the CMS and implementation, the reports an d report elements used to verify th e solution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Greatest Need with Service Objective and Least Occupied Agent components of

The following list describes the contents of each chapt er and appendix in this document:

CentreVu

Advocate feature set.

CentreVu

Advocate solutions to work together in the call center environment,

Advocate Solutions: gives guidelines on administ e ring

CentreVu

Advocate solutions the solution does and does not work with,

CentreVu

Advocate, and includes a Table of Objectives

Advocate solution with its

CentreVu

Supervisor administration necessary for

Advocate.

Advocate features, an

Advocate solution

Chapter 4

Handle Any Media: this call center business need is described, including setting different levels of service for different media, along with the CMS and

CentreVu

and report elements used to verify the so lution, and th ings to keep i n mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Greatest Need or Skill Level with Service Objective, Least Occupied Agent, and reserve agents with Service Level Supervisor components of

Supervisor administration necess ary for implementation, the reports

CentreVu

Advocate.

Preface

Organization and Use of This Document P-3

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Minimize Abandoned Calls: this call center business need is described, including controlling maximum wait time, along wit h the CMS and

CentreVu

Supervisor administration necessary for implementation, the reports and report elements used to verify the solution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Predicted Wait Time, Least Occupied Agent, and Service Level Superviso r components of

CentreVu

Advocate. Automate Agent Moves: this call center business need is described, along

with the CMS and

CentreVu

Supervisor administration necessary for implementation, the reports and re port eleme nts used to ver ify the sol ution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Service Level Supervisor component of

CentreVu

Advocate.

Make Average Speed of Answer More Uniform: this call center business need is described, along with the CMS and

CentreVu

Supervisor administrati on necessary for implementation, the reports and report elements used to verify the solution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Least Occupied Agent and Predicted Wait Time components of

CentreVu

Advocate.

Better Serve Selected Callers: this call center business need is described, along with the CMS and

CentreVu

Supervisor administration necessary for implementation, the reports and re port eleme nts used to ver ify the sol ution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Skill Level with Ser vice Object ive and Least Occupi ed Agent component s of

CentreVu

Advocate.

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Control Agent Time in Skill: this call center business need is described, alo ng with the CMS and

CentreVu

Supervisor administration necessary for implementation, the reports and re port eleme nts used to ver ify the sol ution, and things to keep in mind when implementing the solution. This chapter discusses the Percent Allocation and Service Level Supervisor components of

CentreVu

Advocate. Make Agent Idle Time More Uniform: this call center business need is

described, along with the CMS and

CentreVu

Advocate.

Administer

CentreVu

Advocate on the

DEFINITY

information about planning and administ ering a call center f ro m the ECS side to optimally use

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Advocate to meet business needs.

ECS: includes

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Preface

Organization and Use of This Document P-4

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Chapter 12

Administer

information about administering through

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Chapter 13 CentreVu

on the database items and calculations that have been added and/or modified to support

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Glossary

Defines

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Advocate With

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Advocate for agents and skills

Supervisor: includes

Supervisor.

Advocate Database Items and Calculations: includ es information

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Advocate, along with general information regarding the

CMS database.

CMS, Supervisor, and

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Advocate terms.

Preface

Conventions Used in This Document P-5

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Conventions Used in This Document 0

The following conventions are used throughout t his document:

Report Examples0

Window Titles Are always capitalized.

* Informix is a registered trademark of Informix Software, Inc.

The report examples included in this document were taken from test lab machines and are not intended to emul ate real data. Report data will v ary depending on your individual site.

Preface

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Overview 1-1

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

1 Introduction:

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Advocate

Overview 1

Advocate is a set of breakthrough capabiliti es that provides new

Glossary

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in this document.

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Advocate works in conjunction with

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Advocate features are used: one

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Advocate can be used

Enterprise

Advocate

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Terminology 1

Agent and Call Selection

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methods and added flexibility for selecting an agent for an incoming call, or an incoming call for an agent. and requires Expert Agent Selection (EAS) on the Communications Server (ECS) R6 and later. The new elements are discussed in detail later in thi s chapter.

For a complete list of terms including terminology specific to Advocate as well as call center terminology applicable to Advocate, see the

There are two situations in which or more agents available for the inc oming call, and one or more queues with

calls when an agent become available. A call selection occurs any ti me that more calls are coming into a call center than there are agents to handle them. This happens during periods of high activity at a call center; for example, a seasonal rush at a catalog hotline. Conversely, an agent selection occurs any time there are more available agents than calls coming into the call center. This situation gives the opportunity to route calls to the most preferential agent in a particular skill. to route calls to agents in either a call surplus or an agent surplus situation.

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Call Selection Methods 1-2

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call Selection Methods 1

Overview 1

There are several call selection options available for call centers using

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Advocate. Several of these selection options are already on

your system. The call selection options include:

●

Call Handling Preferences:

— Greatest Need (existing call selection method) — Skill Level (existing call selection method) — Percent Allocation

●

Service Objective

●

Call Selection Measurements:

— Predicted Wait Time (PWT) — Current Wait Time (CWT)

●

Service Level Supervisor:

— Call Selection Override ON

Call Selection Override OFF

NOTE:

Understanding Call Selection

These are options for selectin g a skil l to serve. Once a skill is selected, then the chosen call is always the hi ghes t prior ity, oldest call in queue f or that skill.

The components of call selection that you will need to underst and before implementing custom

●

If any skills are in an overload state, then the skill whose PWT or

CentreVu

Advocate solutions are described here:

CWT is the highest percentage of the overload 2 threshold is selected, and if there are none in overload 2, the call with the same criteria in an overload 1 skill is selected.

●

If Call Selection Override is on, then standard and reserve agents will be diverted from their primar y call handli ng tasks to answer calls in the overload skill. If Call Sel ectio n Overr ide is of f , then the agents will remain on their primary call handling tasks.

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-3

●

If no skills are in an overload st ate, t hen calls will be se lected bas ed on the call handling preference administered to an agent:

1. Greatest Need: Greatest Need will select a skill for an agent based on the call at the highest priority whose wait ti me (PWT

or CWT) for a skill is the longest (the call with the “greatest need”). See also “Service Objective” in this chapter

2. Skill Level : Skill Level will select a skill for an agent based on the agent’s skill l evel, wi th the high est- level skill being sel ect ed first for the oldest call in queue (PWT or CWT) at the highest priority. See also “Service Objective” in this chapter

3. Percent Allocation: Percent Allocation will select a skill for an agent based on what will best match an agent’s administered percent for al l skills. Queue pri ority, skill level, and wait time are ignored with this preference.

Once a skill is selected u sin g th e above methods , t he ca ll sel ected wi t hin the skill is the highest priority, oldest call waiting.

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Greatest Need 1

Administration 1

Skill Level 1

Administration 1

Greatest Need is an EAS-based call selection method that can be administered for an agent. Greatest Need will select a skill for an agent based on the call at the highest priority whose wait ti me (PWT or CWT) for a skill is the longest.

Greatest Need is administered in either of two places: through Supervisor and on the switch admini stration forms. For new agents (new login IDs), Greatest Need is selected on the Agent administration switch form. Once the new agent has initially logged in using the new call handling preference, then that agent may have his or her call handling preference modified through

Skill Level is an EAS-based call handling preference administered for an agent based on the agent’s expertise in one or more skills.

Skill Level is administered in two places: through and on the switch administration forms. For new agents (new login IDs) , Skill Level is selected on the Agent administration switch form. Once the agent has initially logged in using the new call handling preference, then that agent’s record may be modified on the Change Agent Ski ll s form in

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handling preference modified through

Supervisor. Any existing agent may also have his or her call

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Supervisor.

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Supervisor.

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Supervisor

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-4

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Percent Allocation

Administrat io n 1

Result 1

Percent Allocation is a third cal l handling pr eference opti on, in additi on to Greatest Need and Skill Level. Percent Allocation allows you to assign a

percentage of an agent’s time to each of their assigned skills to total 100% of their staffed time. Percent Allocation compares an agent’s work time in each assigned skill, expressed as a percentage of staffed time, against an administered percentage allocation for each of the agent’s assigned skills to determine which call to select whe n an agent becomes available.

Percent Allocation is administered through Change Agent Skills dialog box or f rom the switch adminis tration termi nal (SAT). After accessing an agent entry, that agent’s call handling preference can be administered to be Percent Allocation. You can then administer percentages for each of the agent’s assigned skills, based on their expertise per skill. For new agents (new logi n IDs), Percent Allocation is selected on the Agent administration switch form. Once the new agent has initially logged in using the new call handling preference, then that agent may have his or her call handling preference modified through

Percent Allocation is designed to solve the pr oblem of specifying the amount of time agents will spend in each of their skills. Currently, each agent is able to take calls from up to 20 skills at 16 preference levels. Without Percent Allocation, it is very difficult to predict what mix of calls agents will receive from th eir assigned skills. Without Percent Allocation, the calls that an agent takes are de termined by the a gent’s skill level and call handling preference, and the inc oming calls’ priority levels coupled with the amount of time that calls have spent in queue. With Perc ent Allocation, calls are selec ted to best match t he agent’s assigned skill mix.

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Supervisor.

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Supervisor on the

Service Objective

Description 1

Service Objective works in conjunction with the Great est Need and Skill Level call handling preferences to assign calls to agents as the agents

become available. This feature is designed to give different levels of service to different skills.

Service Objective allocat e calls according to an administ ered acceptable service level pe r skill. The call with the highest percentage of time over the accept able servi ce level .

DEFINITY

ECS will determine which skill has a

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-5

NOTE:

If all skills have the same acceptable service level, this feature will have no impact on the call center.

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call Selection Method

Administration 1

Result 1

For each skill level assigned to an agent, the compare the wait time, current or predicted, of the call at the head of the

queue to the skill’s administer ed acceptable serv ice level. The skil l with a call whose wait time is the highest percentage of the acceptable servi ce level will be selected. Therefore, calls in skills with a lower acceptable service level (lower administered acceptable wait time) are answered faster.

Service Objective is administered for agents through either the switch administration forms or Service Objective is administ ered for an agent with Greates t Need or Skill Level call handling preferences on the Change Agent Skills form. This method is used for modifying an existing agent’s cal l sel ection method. For a new agent (new agent login ID), Service Objective is set on the Agent Login ID form. The Acceptable Service Level is admini stered on the ECS Hunt Group form. The acceptable service level must also be administered on CMS through the Call Center Administration: Split/Skill Call Profile Setup dialog box.

Service Objective can be used to increase the level of service for a particular skill or skills. You can set the acceptable service level befor e answer on an important queue to be lower than other sk ills. Fo r example, a credit card company hotline may have agents assigned to a skill for answering calls from Platinum card holders. Those calls would be answered faster than other calls, thereby increasing the level of service and promoting customer satisf action. Service Objective should make the percent within service level more uni form across all skills by ensuring th at calls for smaller, more important skills are handled quickly.

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Supervisor. In

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ECS will

Supervisor,

This feature can be used instead of queue priority to continuously increase the importance of a call being answered. Even calls queued in less important skills event ually become important to be answered as they near 100 percent of their service level.

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-6

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Predicted Wait Time

Description 1

Call Selection

Method—Example

Predicted Wai t Time is a call selection measurement that uses the time a call is predicted to wait in queue instead of the time the call has already

waited.

Predicted Wa it T ime determines which cal l currently in queue is exp ected to wait the longest for delivery to an agent. Predi cted Wait Time can then select the call that, based on its current wait time in queue and the estimated time until the next agent becomes available, will wait the longest overall.

In a call center, a call may be queued for a specialized skill that has a small number of agents staffed. Although this call may have only been

waiting in queue for 30 seconds, it has a predicted wait time of an additional 90 seconds because of the small number of agents assigned to the skill. Another call is queue d for a general skill that is staff ed by many agents. This call has been waiting for 60 seconds, but is predicted to wait in queue for an agent for only 15 more seconds. Predicted Wait Time will select the ca ll for the special ized skill first, be c a u se its overall predicted wait time will be 120 seconds, or two minutes. The other call will continue to wait in queue because its overall Predic ted Wait Time is only 75 seconds total.

Administration 1

Current Wait Time 1

Service Level Supervisor

Predicted Wait Time is administered on the Parameters form, in the Call Selection Measurement field. The other valid entry in this field is Current Wait Time.

If Current Wait Time is selected in the System Parameters form: Call Selection Measurement field, the ACD will only consider how long a call has already waited when using the call selection algorithm.

Service Level Supervisor is an override feature used to select skills for agents. Service Level Supervisor has Expect ed Wait Time (EWT)

thresholds set for skills and can override normal a gent call handling preferences to handle calls from a skill whose t hreshold has been exceeded (automatically changing cal l answering priorities for standard agents). Optionally, standard agents can keep their normal agent call handling preferences. Additional reserve agents can also be activated automatically when the skill is in the over threshold condition.

DEFINITY

ECS System

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-7

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Thresholds 1

Over Threshold State 1

Service Level Supervisor allows you to administer two thresholds, based

on the administered EWT, for each skill. When a particular skill’ s EWT exceeds the first thres hold, the skill goes into t he Overload 1 state. When the skill exceeds the second threshold, the skill goes into the Overload 2 state. When Call Selection Override is ON (set to Yes (Y) on the System Parameters Features form), as agents become available for calls, if any of the agents’ assigned skills are in an Overload 2 state, the agents’ normal call handling preferen ce is ignored and they r eceive calls fr om the Overload 2 skill. If there are no skills in the Overl oad 2 state, agents will be connected to any calls in skills that are in the Overload 1 state. If no skills are in the Overload 1 state, then agents receive calls based on their administered call handling preference; that is, skill level, greatest need, or percent allocation.

When more than one skill is at the same overload level, Service Level Supervisor will select the skill with the hi ghest priority call in queue whose call selection measurement is the highest percentage above the administered threshold. If a skill has a top pr iority call with a predicted wait time of 30 seconds and a threshold of 20 seconds, that skill is at 150% of its assigned threshold. If another skill has a top pri ority call with a predicted wait time of 100 seconds and a threshold of 100 seconds, that skill is at 100% of its as signed thr eshold. The call from the fi rst s kill is at a higher percentage of its threshold, and wil l be answered first.

Reserve Agent Activation

Call Selection Override

Call Selection Override ON 1

Reserve agents can be activated at each overload threshold. These reserve agents will be made available to take calls from a skill only when

it is in an overload condition. When the skill returns to a normal state, calls from that skill will not be sent to reserve agents.

Within Service Level Supervisor, there is a Call Selection Override system-wide parameter. The default setting for this parameter is ON (Yes

(Y) on the System Parameters Features form). For more informati on on Call Selection Override and t he resul ts of tu rning i t on or o f f, see Chapter 2, “Custom

When call selection over ride is on, agents will receive cal ls based on t heir assigned call handling preference as long as the skills are in an underthreshold state. Once a skill or skills that agents have assigned as standard or reserve goes into an over threshold state, agents who become available with this skill are diverted from their primary tasks and start receiving calls f rom the skil l that is over t hreshol d. This incl udes top,

CentreVu

Advocate Solutions” in this document.

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Call Selection Methods 1-8

backup, roving, allocated, and reserve agents. All agents who become available ignore their normal tasks and help the skill that is in trouble. As soon as a skill goes over threshold, all agents who have this skill are automatically reprioritized until the skill returns to normal.

In general, agents are less efficient when they are not working on their primary task. When thresholds are set too low or one or more skills are understaffed, one skill going over threshold can cause others to go over threshold, which in turn can cause others to also go over threshold in a domino effect. This option is not intended to improve percent within service level for a skill, but i s designed for call centers t hat currently move agents from skill to skill during the day to alleviate emergencies.

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call Selection Override OFF 1

When Call Selection Override is OFF, agents always handle calls based on their assigned call handling preferen ce. When the overload threshold is exceeded for a skill, standar d agent s conti nue with t heir primary task s, but will serve a skill to which they are assigned as reserve agents if that skill is over threshold and if none of thei r standard skills have call s waiting in queue. See the following table for an example of when reserve skill calls will be answered before standard skill calls when Call Selection Override is off .

Call Handling Preference Reserve Skill Call Delivered First When:

Greatest Need A reserve skill goes over threshold and the

call at the head of the q ueue for the reserve skill has the highest priority and longest wait time (because the reserve skill is now treated as a standard skill).

Skill Level When a reserve skill goes over threshold, it

is treated as a level 16 skill and could be delivered before other level 16 ski ll calls.

Percent Allocation When a reserve skill goes over threshold, it

is treated as having 0% assigned. A call from the reserve skill will be delivered before a call from a standard skill in which the agent is above the assigned percentage.

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Call Selection Methods 1-9

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Calls in Standard and Reserve Skills 1

Agent Occupancy 1

If you want to guarantee that a standard skill is handled befor e a reserve skill, use Skill Level call handling preference and have no standard skills assigned as level 16. Agents stay focused on their prim ary tasks even when thresholds are exceeded. If agents have no calls waiting in their primary skills, these agents ca n then help a ski ll that is over threshold. This option allows threshol ds to be set much lower without impacti ng the overall efficiency of the call center. This option can be used to improve the percent within service level for a skill in overload while protecting the service level of the skill in normal mode.

This option gives call centers a better l evel of agent occupancy without sacrificing the service level on skills. On the agents were assigned backup skills to improve agent occupancy in smaller skills. If the backup skill ha d many call s wait ing in queue, the occupancy for those agents increased significa ntly. However, since the agents in the smaller skill are now busy more often, the service level for the smaller skill drops. With the call selection override option set to OFF, agents in the smaller skill can be assigned another skill as a reserve skill and they will only help the reserve skill when that skill is in trouble and there are no calls waiting in queue for the smaller skill. Most of the time, the reserve skill is in normal mode and good service is provided to the

smaller skill. When the reserve skill goes over threshold, the agent’s occupancy goes up. If no call is waiting in queue for a smaller ski ll, the agent handles a reserve skill call, and while the reserve skill is in overload, the service level of the smaller skill drops because the agents are busier.

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ECS Release 5,

Result 1

The net effect of using Service Level Super visor is to allow agents to be automatically moved to calls in the s k ills that are becomin g or ha ve become overloaded, as defined by t he administered thr esholds. In steady state situations, that is, no skill s have exceeded their administered thresholds, the agents’ normal call handling preferences apply for call selection.

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Agent Selection Methods 1-10

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Agent Selection Methods 1

Overview 1

Least Occupied Agent

Agent Selection 1

There are several agent selection methods avail able for call centers

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using already on your system. The agent selection methods include:

●

Expert Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (EAD-LOA) (new for

●

Uniform Call Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (UCD-LOA) (new for

●

Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idl e Agent (EAD-MIA)

●

Uniform Call Distribution-Most Idle Agent (UCD-MIA).

Least Occupied Agent is an agent selection method that uses agent occupancy, rather than position in an idle agent queue to determine

which agent to select when a call arrives and one or more agents are available.

Agent selection through Least Occupied Agent is based on agent

occupancy—the total time an agent has with one or more ACD calls ringing, active, or on hold for any of an agent’s assigned skills and optionally, the total ACW time for any of an agent’s assigned skills, divided by the total time staffed in any assigned skill, less the agent’s time in AUX (see the

Advocate. Several of these selection methods are

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Advocate)

Glossary

for the Agent Occupancy calculation).

LOA and AUX Time1

The following table il lustrates how LOA tr acks extension cal ls since agent AUX time is not included in the calculation of agent occupancy:

The Extension Call is: LOA:

in AUX ignores this time in Auto-In/Manual-In with no ACD

call on hold with an ACD call on h o ld tracks this as w o rk ti me

tracks this as id le time

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Agent Selection Methods 1-11

The Extension Call is: LOA:

in ACW If “ACW Considered Idle?” is Y on

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

the

DEFINITY

Parameters form, LOA tracks as idle time If “ACW Considered Idle?” is N on the Parameters form, LOA tracks this as work time

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System

Administration 1

Result 1

EAD-LOA 1

UCD-LOA 1

Least Occupied Agent is administered on the ECS Hunt Group form in the Group Type: field.

Least Occupied Agent is designed to spread calls more evenly between

agents, and should reduce the number of both “hot seat” agents (in MIA, the call is sent to the first available, highest skill level agent) and idle agents. This helps reduce agent burnout and increase call center productivity.

Expert Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (EAD-LOA) is a variation of LOA agent selection that selec ts the highest skill level, least occupied agent in the skill to take an incoming call. In EAD, a cal l queued for a skill will go to the least occupied agent with the highest skill level. Agents who have low occupancy and who have the skill assigned at lower levels will receive a call only if there are no agents with higher skill levels available.

Uniform Call Distribution-Lea st Occupied Agent ( UCD-LOA) is a variat ion on the LOA agent selection method that select s the least occ upi ed agent when more than one agent is available to take a call. UCD-LOA evenly distributes calls across agents , sendi ng queued calls to the available agent who is the least occupied.

Most Idle Agent 1

EAD-MIA 1

Most Idle Agent (EAD-MIA) is an agent selection method that select s the most idle agent in the skill to take an incoming call.

Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idle Agent ( EAD-MIA) is an agent selection method that selects the highest skill level, most idl e agent in the skill to take an incoming call. In EAD-MIA, a call queued for a skil l will go to the most idle agent with the hi ghest sk ill lev el. Agents who ar e idle and who have the skill assigned at lower lev els will receive a call only if there

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Agent Selection Methods 1-12

are no agents with higher skill levels avai lable. MIA maintai ns a queue of idle agents and distributes a call to the a gent who has waited the longest

since the last ACD call and is not “busy.” (“Busy” is defined as being in ACW, on an auxiliary in or out [AUX IN/OUT] call, or on an ACD call for another skill.) Agent s i n mult ipl e s kills a re in multipl e “ elig ible a gent” li sts . There is one list for each skill. If MIA across skills is enabled, agents are put at the bottom of all agent lists after compl e ting an ACD call for any skill. If MIA across skills is for another skill continues to move up the list of eligible agents for other skills. Agents in ACW may or may not be in the eligible agent lists, depending upon whether the system option ACW Considered Idle ? is set to Y or N (ECS R5 and later).

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not

enabled, an agent who is on an ACD call

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Administration 1

UCD-MIA 1

Administration 1

Most Idle Agent is administered on the ECS Hunt Group form in the Group Type: field.

Uniform Call Distribution-Most Idle Agent is an agent selection method that selects the most idle agent in a skill when more than one agent is available to take a call. This option does not consider the agent’s skill level. UCD-MIA evenly distributes calls across agents, sending queued calls to the first available agent (idle the longest since the last ACD call).

UCD-MIA is administered on the ECS Hunt Group form in the Group Type: field.

Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions

Overview 2-1

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

2 Custom

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Advocate Solutions

Overview 2

This chapter gives guidelines on administ ering solutions to work together in the call center environment. This chapter includes the following topics:

●

Understanding Call and Agent Selection

●

Planning Your Call Center— Selection (EAS)

— Administering agent s in separate organizations — Administering agents within an organization

●

Getting the Most From Your Call Center

— For Best Performance — Matching Features to Goals Table

●

Combining

— Business Objectives — Combining Solutions Table.

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Advocate Solutions to Meet Call Center Needs

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Advocate Using Expert Agent

Additional Information

The Combining Solutions table graphically presents which Advocate/EAS call center solutions wor k well together to suppor t specific call center goals and which do not, along with guidelines for admin istering solutions to best enhance your call center business.

For additional information on administering your call center, see the

CentreVu® CMS R3V8 Administration

document (585-210-910).

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Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions

Call and Agent Selection 2-2

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call and Agent Selection 2

Introduction 2

Understanding Call Selection

You need to understand the concepts of call and agent selection before administering custom This section describes how calls and agents are selected using EAS.

Call selection is the selection of a call when an agent becomes available

and one or more of the agent’s assigned skills is in a call sur plus

condition. The components of call selection that you will need to understand before implementing custom are described here:

●

If any skills are in an overload state, then the skill with the highest priority, oldest call waiting for the overload 2 state is selected, and if there are none in overload 2, the call with the same criteri a in an overload 1 skill is selected.

●

If no skills are in an overload state, then multiple agents may be available for calls, and calls will be selected based on the call handling preference administered to an agent as follows:

1. Greatest Need: Greatest Need will select a skill for an agent based on the call at the highest prior ity that has been waiting in queue for a skill the longest (the call with the “greatest need”).

CentreVu

Advocate solutions for your call center.

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Advocate solutions

Service Objective 2

2. Skill Level: Skill Level will select a skill for an agent based on the agent’s skill lev el, with the highes t-lev el s kil l bein g se lected first for the oldest call in queue at the hi ghest priority.

3. Percent Allocation: Percent Allocation will select a skill for an agent based on what will best match an agent’s administered percent for all ski lls.

Once a skill is selected us ing the above methods, the cal l sel ected wi thin the skill is the highest priority, oldest call waiting.

Service Objective works in conjunction with the Great est Need and Skill Level call handling preferences. It selects skills for agents as they become available based on how far along each skill is in exceeding its service objective (Acceptabl e Servi ce Level - ASL), within which calls must be answered. The

either the highest current wait time or the highest predicted wait time, compared to the acceptable service level and which skill is the greatest percentage over its administered service level. The skill that best fits

DEFINITY

ECS will determine which skill has

Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions

Call and Agent Selection 2-3

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

these criteria is selected for an agent. Servi ce Objective is used when different acceptable service levels are set for different types of incoming calls, based on skill.

For example, if a skill’s top priority call has a predict ed wait time of 30 seconds and an administered thres hold of 20 seconds, th at s kill i s at 150 percent of its threshold. If another skill has a predicted wait time of 100 seconds and an administered threshold of 100 seconds, then that skill is at 100 percent of its threshold. A call will be selected from the first skill.

Predicted Wait Time

Understanding Agent Selection

Predicted Wait Time is a call selection method that uses the total time a call will wait in queue if it is not handled by an agent, as a selection

criteria. Predicted Wait Time will then select the skill whose call will be waiting the longest overall.

Agent selection is the selection of an agent when a call arrives for a skill and that skill is in an agent surplus condition. With EAS, you can assign

agents up to 20 skills with 16 skill levels each. Through

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Advocate, agents can also be assigned reserve skil ls with levels of 1 or 2. An agent is only activated on the reserv e skills when t hose skills en ter an overload state.

In a situation where there are no calls queued and agents are i dle, agents can be selected for skill calls in one of the two following ways:

●

Uniform Call Distribution (UCD): With UCD, t he most idle agent or least occupied agent is selected for the ski ll. The two UCD types are:

— Uniform Call Distributi on-Most Idle Agent (UCD-MIA) — Uniform Call Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (UCD-LOA).

●

Expert Agent Distribution (EAD): With EAD, the most idle agent or the least occupied agent with the highest skill level is selected for the call. Agents who are idle and have the skill assigned at lower skill levels will receive a call only if there are no agents with higher skill levels available. The two EAD types are:

Least Occupied Agent

— Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idle Agent (EAD-MIA) — Expert Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (EAD-LOA).

Least Occupied Agent is an agent selection method that uses agent occupancy within a skill, rather than position in an idle agent queue to

determine which agent to select when a call arrives and one or more agents are available. Agent selection through Least Occupied Agent is

Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions

Call and Agent Selection 2-4

based on the total time an agent has with one or more Automatic Call

Distribution (ACD) calls ringing, active, or on hold for any of an agent’s assigned skills, and optionally, the total ACW time for any of an agent’s assigned skills divided by the total time staffed in any assigned skill. Agent AUX time is not included in the calculation of agent occupancy.

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

LOA and AUX Time2

Agent Call Handling Table

The following table il lustrates how LOA tr acks extension cal ls since agent AUX time is not included in the calculation of agent occupancy:

The Extension Call is: LOA:

in AUX ignores this time in Auto-In/Manual-In with no ACD

call on hold with an ACD call on h o ld tracks this as w o rk ti me in ACW If “ACW Considered Idle?” is Y on

Skill call distributi on and preference handling dis tribution work t ogether in the following ways to affect overall call distribution, as shown in the

following table. Note that once a skill is chosen, then the highest priority, oldest call waiting is chosen. The foll owing table discu sses skil l select ion:

tracks this as id le time

the

DEFINITY

Parameters form, LOA tracks as idle time If “ACW Considered Idle?” is N on the Parameters form, LOA tracks this as work time

DEFINITY

System

Agent Goes

Available, and

Call Handling

Preference is:

Skill Level Call Handling Preference (without Service Objective)

Calls Waiting

T ake the hi ghest skill level, highest priority, longest wait time call in queue.

EAD-MIA—

No Calls

Waiting

Put the agent on the MIA list by skill level.

UCD-MIA—

No Calls

Waiting

Put the agent at the back of the MIA list.

EAD-LOA—

No Calls

Waiting

The next agent selected is the highest skill level agent with the least occupancy.

UCD-LOA—

No Calls

Waiting

The next agent selected is the agent with the least occupancy.

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CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Agent Goes

Available, and

Call Handling

Preference is:

Skill Level Call Handling Preference (with Service Objective)

Greatest Need Call Handling Preference (without Service Objective)

Greatest Need Call Handling Preference (with Service Objective)

Calls Waiting

T ake t he highest skill level, the highest priority call whose wait time is the greatest percentage of ASL.

T ake t he highest priority, longest wait time call in queue.

T ake t he highest priority, oldest call whose wait time is the greatest percentage of ASL.

EAD-MIA—

No Calls

Waiting

Put the agent on the MIA list by skill level.

Put the agent on MIA list by skill level.

UCD-MIA—

No Calls

Wait ing

Put the agent at the back of the MIA list.

EAD-LOA—

No Calls

Waiting

The next agent selected is the highest skill level agent with the least occupancy.

The next agent selected is the highest sill level agent with the least occupancy.

UCD-LOA—

No Calls

Waiting

The next agent selected is the agent with the least occupancy .

Percent Allocation Call Handling Preference

Take the skill that is most needed to maintain the specified percentages of time per skill.

Considerations 2

Put the agent on the MIA list by skill level.

Put the agent at the back of the MIA list.

The next agent selected is the highest skill level agent with the least

The next agent selected is the agent with the least occupancy .

occupancy.

The considerations that users must keep in mind regarding agent selection when creating custom

CentreVu

Advocate solutions are

included in the following list:

●

MIA Across Splits/Skills: MIA Across Splits/Skills indicates if agents completing an ACD call for o ne split/skill should be removed from the idle agent list for all of their splits/skills or whether the agents should remain in the other splits/skills idle agent list. The system default for this optio n on the Syst em Parameters Feat ures is

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No (N), which allows the agent who i s acti ve on a ca ll fo r one s kill to move up the idle agent list for all other skil ls. Yes (Y) is always recommended with idle since the last call in any skill will be selected, which tends to

eliminate “hot seat” call distribution (not used with LOA).

●

ACW Considered Idle: ACW Considered Idle determi nes whether an agent in after call work for an ACD call is considered idle. When administering this op tion on the system Parameters Features Form, N (no) is always recommended as this choic e will not place an agent on the MIA list until after the age nt has c ompleted al l af ter cal l work. Yes (Y) will place an agent on the MIA list when he or she has completed a call, before after call work. Selecting Yes does not include ACW time as work time in determinin g agent occupancy and percent allocation.

CentreVu®

CentreVu

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Advocate, as the agent who has been

Direct Agent Calls 2

Direct Agent Calls allows a call to a specific ACD agent to be treated as an ACD call. If that agent is logged in but not available, the call wi ll queue for that agent. If the agent is not logged in, the call will follow the agent's coverage path. Zip-tone answer, ACW, and other ACD features can be used with direct agent calls.

EAS Direct Agent Calls is accomplished by diali ng the login with the proper class of restriction (COR) settings; that is, both the caller (trunk, vector directory number [VDN], or stati on) and the agent must have the direct agent COR settings. Customers could actually call an agent directly using Direct Inward Dialing (DID) if the agent's login ID is a published number, or customers could dial a toll-free number and be prompted for the agent's login ID extension.

Direct agent calls will be first to an agent if the agent’s call handling preference is Greatest Need. If the agent’s call handling preference is Skill Level, direct agent cal ls will be sent first if the Direct Agent Ski ll h as the highest assigned skill level. If an agent’s assigned call handling preference is Percent Allocation, direct agent calls will be sent first if the Direct Agent Calls Fir st fiel d on eit her the Agen t Lo gin ID or the Change Agent Skills selected, respectively. This also applies in an over threshold situation. If any skills assigned to an agent are in an overload situation, that agent’s direct agent calls will sti ll be sent to the agent bef ore any call s in t he ov er threshold skills.

CentreVu

Supervisor form is set to yes or is

DEFINITY

form

Top Skill 2

For an agent with Skill Level call handling preference, the designated highest priority skill is known as the agent’s “top skill .” The “top skill” represents the skill for whi ch the agent is most likely to rec eive a call. Any time the agent becomes available, he/she will re ceive a call for the top

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skill. The agent will handle calls for other ski lls only if there are no calls

queued for the agent’s top s ki ll. The agent is c onsidere d a “t op agent” f or a skill if the agent has a skill level of “ 1” assigned for that skill.

For agent tracking purposes, t he t op skil l ca n al so be consider ed the fi rs tassigned, highest-level skill. This is the skill that the agent first logs into when logging in. In this case, any non-ACD call related time, such as AUX or after call work, would be recorded in this top skill . This is a key consideration in reports. Also, if an agent receives calls in two skills for which that agent has the same assigned skill level, and the cal ls queue at the same priority, the agent will receive the call in the agent’s firs tassigned skill.

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Service Level Supervisor

Thresholds 2

Service Level Supervisor is an override feature used to select skills for agents. Service Level Supervisor has Expected Wait Time (EWT)

thresholds set for skills and overrides normal agent call handling preferences to handle calls from a skill whose threshold has been exceeded. Additional reserve agents can al so be activated automatically when the skill is in the over t h reshold condition. If you want to impact the percent within service level (dependi ng on the acceptable service level), then set Threshold 1 approximately 5-10 seconds below the acceptable service level on a skill. Generally, the thresholds are set below the abandoned call profile for a skill, and this profile should be determined before thresholds are administered.

Service Level Supervisor allows you to administer two thresholds, based on the administered EWT, for each skill. When a particular skill’ s EWT exceeds the first thres hold, the skill goes into t he Overload 1 state. When the skill exceeds the second threshold, the skill goes into the Overload 2 state. As agents become availabl e for calls, if any of th e agents’ assigned skills are in an Overload 2 state, the agents’ normal call handli ng preference is ignored and they receive calls from the Overload 2 skill. If there are no skills in the Overload 2 state, agents will be connected to any calls in skills that are in the Overload 1 state. If no skills are in the Overload 1 state, then agents receive calls based on their administered call handling preference; that is, skill level, greatest need, or per cent allocation. When one or more skills are at the same overload level, the skill with the highest priority call whose call selection m easurement (current wait time or predicted wait time) is the highest percentage over threshold will be selected.

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If you want to impact the percent within service level, then set Threshold 1 approximately 5-10 seconds below the acceptable service level on a skill. Generally, the thresholds are set below the abandoned call profile for a skill, and this profile should be determined before thresholds are administered.

Reserve Agent Activation

Call Selection Override

Call Selection Override ON

Reserve agents can be activated at each overload threshold. These reserve agents will be made available to take calls from a skill only when

it is in an overload condition. Wh en the skill returns to a normal state, calls from that skill will not be sent to reserve agents.

Within Service Level Supervi sor, there is a Call Selection Override system-wide parameter. The default setting for this parameter is ON (set

to Y on the System Parameters

DEFINITY

form). For more information

on administering Call Selection Override, see Chapter 11, “Administer

CentreVu

Advocate on the

DEFINITY

ECS” in this document.

When call selection override is on, agents will receive calls based on their assigned call handling preference as long as the skills ar e in an under-

threshold state. Once a standard or reserve skill or skills goes into an over threshold state, agents who become available with this skill are diverted from their primary tasks and start receiving calls fr om the skill that is over threshold. This includes top, backup, roving, allocated, and reserve agents. All agents who become available ignore thei r normal tasks and help the skill that is in troubl e. As soon as a skil l goes over threshold, all agents who have this skill as standard or reserve are automatically reprioritized, giving this skill immediate attention until the skill returns to n o rm a l.

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Call Selection Override OFF 2

With Call Selection Overr ide off (set to N o n the keep their assigned call handling priorities in skill over threshold situations, and reserve agents are added to handle the skill after other skills. When the overload threshold is exceeded for a skill, standard agents continue with their primary tasks, but will serve a skill to which they are assigned as reserve agents if that skill is over threshold and if none of their standard skills have calls waiting i n queue. See the following table for an example of when reserve s kill calls will be answered before standard skill calls when Call Selection Override is off.

Call Handling Preference Reserve Skill Call Delivered First When:

Greatest Need A reserve skill goes over th reshold and the

call at the head of the queue f or the reserve skill has the highest priority and longest wait time (because the reserve skill is now treated as a standard skill).

Skill Level When a reserve skill goes over thresho ld, it

is treated as a level 16 skill and could be delivered before other level 16 skill calls.

DEFINITY

forms), agents

Standard and Reserve Skill Calls 2

Agent Occupancy 2

Percent Allocation When a reserve skill goes over th reshold, it

is treated as having 0% assigned. A call from the reserve skill will be delivered before a call from a standard skill in which the agent is above the assigned percentage.

Agents stay focused on the ir pr imary t asks even when t hre sholds ar e s et too low or skills are understaffed. If agents have no calls waiting in their primary skills, these agents ca n then help a ski ll that is over threshold. This option allows threshol ds to be set much lower without impacti ng the overall efficiency of the call center. This option can be used to improve the percent within service level for a skill in overload while protecting the service level of the skill in normal mode.

This option gives call centers a better l evel of agent occupancy without sacrificing the service level on skills. In the Generic 3 Release 5 version of CMS, agents were assigned backup skills to improve agent occupancy in smaller skills. If the backup skill had many calls waiting in queue, the occupancy for those agents increased significa ntly. However, since the

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agents in the smaller skil l are now busy most of the time, the service leve l for the smaller skill drops. With the Call Selection Override option off, agents in the smaller skill can be assigned another skill as a reserve skill and they will only help the reserve skill when that skill is in trouble and there are no calls waiting in queue for the smaller skill. Most of the time, the reserve skill is in normal mode and good service is pr ovided to the

smaller skill. When the reserve skill goes over threshold, the agent’s occupancy goes up. If no call is waiting in queue for a smaller skill, the agent handles a reserve skill call and the service level of the smaller skill drops during this time because the agents are more busy.

Setting Appropriate Threshold Levels 2

When call selection override is on (default setting), thresholds should be set based on the following considerations:

●

T ypically , both thresholds woul d be set above the accept able service level.

●

First threshold (consider all of the following):

—From an

agent perspective

, the first threshold is set at the point in time that you want backup agents, reserve1 agents, and so on, to be diverted from their normal tasks to help a skill that is over threshold.

—From a

caller perspective

, the first threshold is set at the point in time when callers no longer wish to wait for the “expert” agent and will be satisfied with a “capable” agent for this skill.

—From a

business perspective

, the first threshold is set at the point at which you want to impact abandoned calls based on your current abandon profile.

●

Second threshold (consider all of the following):

—From an

agent perspective

, the second threshold is set at the point in time that you want to bring in reserve2 agents to assist on the skill.

— From a caller perspective, the second threshold is set at the

point in time that callers no longer wish to wait for a “capable” agent, and will be satisfied talking to any agent.

—From a

business perspective

, the second threshold is set to the

maximum wait time you desire for any caller.

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CentreVu®

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When call selection overri de is of f, t hreshol ds should be set based on the following considerations:

●

First threshold (consider all of the following):

— From an

agent perspective

, the first thr eshold is set at the poin t in time that you want reserve1 agents to serve this skill if they are sitting idle.

—From a

caller and business perspective

, the first threshold can be set five to ten seconds below th e acceptable ser vice level to improve percent within service level of the ski ll in overload, while protecting the service level of the skills in normal mode.

●

Second threshold (consider all of the following):

— From an

agent perspective

, the first thr eshold is set at the poin t in time that you want reserve2 agents to serve this skill if they are sitting idle.

—From a

caller and business perspective

, the second threshold

is set to the maximum wait time you desire for any caller.

NOTE:

Because idle or reserve-only agents are the only agents that immediately come to help in an emergency when call selection override is off, this option may requi re more reserve- only agents ( for example, call center supervisors). However, if you do not want supervisors to be your first line of defense in this situation, make them reserve2 agents and set the threshold for overload 2 high.

Result of Call Selection Override 2

Agent Type (by CHP)

(L = assigned level)

Greatest Need Agent: Skill1 - L1, Skill3 - L2, Skill 5 - L3

The following table illustrates what would happen in the following three situations: skills under threshold, call selection override on when “skill 5” goes over threshold, and call selection overr ide off when “skill 5” goes over threshold (calls are queued for each skill in the table at top priority).

Skills Unde r

Threshold and Agent

goes Available

Take skill with highest priority, longest wait time call.

Call Selection

Override OFF, Agent

Goes Available

Take skill with highest priority, longest wait time call.

Call Selection

Override ON, Agent

Goes Available

Take Skill 5 call.

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Agent Type (by CHP)

(L = assigned level)

Skill Level Agent: Skill 1 - L1, Skill 3 - L2, Skill 5 - L3

Percent Allocation Agent: Skill 1 - 50%, Skill 3 30%, Skill 5 - 20%

Greatest Need Agent: Skill 1 - L1, Skill 3 - L2, Skill 5 - L reserve2

Skill Level Agent: Skill 1 - L1, Skill 3 - L2, Skill 5 - L reserve2

Percent Allocation Agent: Skill 1 - 50%, Skill 3 50%, Skill 5 - L reserve2

Skills Under

Threshold and Agent

goes Available

Call Selection

Override OFF, Agent

Goes Available

Call Selection

Override ON, Agent

Goes Available

Take Skill 1 call. Take Skill 1 call. Take Skill 5 call.

Select skill based on percentages, most

Select skill based on percentages.

Take Skill 5 call.

likely taki n g a Sk ill 1 call.

Take highest priority, longest wait time call from Skill 1 and Skill 3.

Take highest priority, longest wait time call from all skills.

Take Skill 5 call.

Take Skill 1 call. Take Skill 1 call. Take Skill 5 call.

Select Skill 1 or Skill 3 call based on percentages.

Take Skill 5 call.

Reserve-Only Agent: Skill 1 - L reserve1 (r1), Skill 3 - L reserve1, Skill 5 - L reserve2

Agent remains available, no call taken.

Take Skill 5 call. Take Skill 5 call.

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Planning Your Ca ll Center—

Introduction 2

This section presents the decisions that must be made at each level of call center administration before implementing customized Advocate solutions.

This section includes four tables that present and describe admini stration decisions using Expert Agent Selection (EAS):

●

System-Level Decisions: This table presents system-level administrative options and their results (Predicted Wait Time, MIA Across Skills, ACW Considered Idle, Service Level Supervisor, Service Objective).

●

Organization-Level Decisions: This table presents administrative decisions and their results for a set of agents and skills that do not cross organizations (Call Handling Prefer ence, Service Objective, Hunt Group Type, Service Level Supervisor).

●

Skill-Level Decisions: This table presents skill-level admini strative decisions and their results (Service Level Supervisor, Service Objective).

●

Agent-Level Decisions: This table presents agent-level administration decisions and their results (Skill Mix, Skill Level, Reserved Skills, Percent Allocation).

CentreVu

Advocate with EAS 2

CentreVu

(EAS) features, can be used to meet a variety of business needs; for example, building stronger relationships with some customers or improving the overall effici ency of the call center as measured by average speed of answer or maximum wait time.The solutions presented in this document so far are only a selection of the total number of call center solutions possible with solutions can be created using

Advocate, in conjunction with existing Expert Agent Selection

CentreVu

Advocate. Custom call center

Advocate.

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Separate Organizations

System Level Decisions

In a call center environment in which different organizations or departments of agents do not share work load, each organization or

department can choose and implement different solutions to achieve different objectives except for a few system-wide parameters. In this cal l center environment, all administration decisions are made on a system level for the e ntire cal l center, followed by organization-le vel decisi ons for the agent groups that reside within the separate organizations.

The system-level decisions to be made on the System Parameters Features form are:

●

Call Selection Measurement: pr edicted-wait-time or currentwait-time: Predicted-wait-time is always recommended because it

results in fewer ca lls wi th exceedingl y l ong wa it ti mes an d optimi zes critical agent skill resources. Current-wait-time will result in calls being selected based on their current wait time in queue. Predicted wait time also looks at how much longer it is predicted that the call will have to wait if it is not handled right now.

●

Most Idle Agent Across Skills? Y or N: The system default for this option on the System Parameters Features is No (N), wh ich allows the agent who is active on a call for one skill to move up the idle agent list for all other skills. Yes (Y) is always recommended with

CentreVu

Advocate, as the agent who has been idle longest since

the last call in any skill will be selected (not used with LOA).

●

After Call Work (ACW) Considered Idle? Y or N: When administering this op tion on the system Parameters Features Form, N (no) is always recommended as this choic e will not place an agent on the MIA list until after the age nt has c ompleted al l af ter cal l work. Y (yes) will place an agent on the MIA list when they have completed a call, and before after call work. Yes does not include ACW time as work time in determining agent occupancy.

●

Call Selection Override? Y or N: The default for this field, used with Service Level Supervisor, is Y, meaning that agents will be diverted from th eir primary call hand ling tasks when a sk ill goes into an over-threshold situatio n. Standard and reserve agents give this skill immediate attenti on. Call Selection Overri de may be set to N to keep agents on their primary call handling tasks, where they are most efficient in overload situations. Standard and reserve agents address this sk ill last.

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System Level Decisions Table

Option Choice

Call Se lecti on Measurement

Most Idl e Agent (MIA) Across Skills

predictedwait-time

current-waittime

Y*=longest since last call for any skill

N=longest since last call for this skill

System-level decisions for call and agent selection need to be made for the entire call center. These decisions are used when administering

agents that do not share organizations. The following table includes the decisions that should be made, the choices available, the expected results, the other call center solutions that the results will work with, against, and is not used with, and where the decision is administered.

Expected

Result Works With

managed smaller skills, improved

Better

Greatest Need, Skill Level, Service Objective

Works

Against

Not Used

With

Percent Allocation

Decided

System Parameters Features form

service.

More equal agent occupancy.

More equal

LOA System

Parameters Features

LOA

form

number of calls within each skill, BUT can

create “hot seats” for multi-skilled agents.

Where

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Option Choice

After Call Work (ACW) Considered Idle

Y=agent on MIA list when call drops, ACW not occupied time

N*=agent is not on MIA list until ACW is done, ACW is occupied time

Call Selection Override

ON*=agents are diverted from their primary tasks to assist a skill in an overload state

Expected

Result Works With

If a long ACW time, get another

MIA/LOA, Percent

Allocation call quickly, lower computed agent occupancy

More equal balance of work related time, higher computed agent occupancy.

Calls in a skill that is over

Service

Level

Supervisor threshold will be answered, reserve agents will receive calls for that skill.

Works

Against

Not Used

With

Where

Decided

System Parameters Features form

OFF=agents remain on their primary tasks, even if a skill goes over threshold

*Recommended in most cases.

Agents do not change priorities for calls in an over threshold skill. Reserve1 and 2 agents handle this skill last.

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Organization Level Decisions

The following organization-lev el decisions need to be made on the Agent Login ID form and the Hunt Group Type form. It is recommended that

these be set the same for all skills and agents within an organization:

●

Call Handling Preference (CHP): The agent call handling preference (Greatest Need, Skill Level, or Percent Allocation) must be chosen. Greatest Need will select a skill for an agent based on the highest priority call that has been waiting in queue for a skill the

longest (the call with the “greatest need”) . Ski ll Level will select a skill for an agent based on the skill queue of the call and the agent’s skill level, with the highest-level skill being selected first. Percent Allocation will select a skill for an agent based on the ski ll that best matches an agent’s administered percent for a skill.

●

Service Objective? Y or N: Yes (Y) will select a call that will help the skill best meet its administered acceptabl e service level. No (N) will not consider the service level objective.

●

Hunt Group Type: The hunt group type, EAD-MIA, EAD-LOA, UCD-MIA, or UCD-LOA must be selected. See Chapter 11, “Administer

CentreVu®

Advocate on

DEFINITY

ECS” in this

document for more information on administering hunt gr oup types.

Organiza tion Level Decisions Table

Organization-level decisions f or call and agent selection need t o be made for sets of agents that do not cross organizat ions. For example, agents

with different call handli ng preferences should not be assigned to the same skill. The following table includes the decisions that should be made, the choices available, the expected results, the other call center solutions that the results will work wit h , and is not used with, and where the decision is administered.

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Option Choice

Call Handling Preference

Greatest Need

Skill Level Calls are

Percent Allocation

Expected

Result Works With

Calls are selected from skills based on

UCD-MIA, UCD-LOA, Service Objective

wait time.

EAD-MIA, selected from skills based on

EAD-LOA,

Service

Objective skill level of agent and wait time.

Calls are selected based on best match

UCD-LOA,

UCD-MIA,

EAD-LOA,

EAD-MIA for agent skill mix.

Works

Against

EAD-MIA, EAD-LOA

UCD-MIA, UCD-LOA

Not Used

With

Where

Decided

Top Skill Agent Login

ID form,

CentreVu

Supervisor

Predicted Wai t Time, Top Skill, Service Objective

Service Objective

Acceptable Service Level

Y Skills show

closer distribution of percent in service level.

N 1-9999

seconds

Adjusts the ASA.

Greatest

Need,

Skill Level

Service

Objective

Percent Allocation

Agent Login ID form,

CentreVu

Supervisor

Hunt Group form,

CentreVu

Supervisor

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Option Choice

Hunt Group

UCD-MIA

Type

UCD-LOA

EAD-MIA Higher skill

EAD-LOA All agents at

Expected

Agents with same skill sets will have similar occupancy .

agents will answer calls.

the same skill level will have similar occupancy.

Result Works With

Greatest Need

Skill Level Percent

Works

Against

Skill Level, Percent Allocation

Allocation

Not Used

With

Where

Decided

Top Skill Hunt Group

Form

Top Skill

*Recommended in most cases.

Within an Organization

In order to receive meaningful measurements to manage a single organization, the solu tions impl emented must be consistent for all agents

and skills, and the solutions must be comparable (that is, the solutions must have the same objective or else not interact) .

Certain

CentreVu

Advocate solutions work in opposition to each other, and confusion can result from mixing solutions when agents span skills and/or organizations.

Additional decisions must be made for administering agents within an organization. Once system-level and organi zation-level decisions have been made, skill-level decisions and agent-l evel decisions must also be administered.

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Skill Level Decisions

Skill Level Decision Table

Option Choice

Service Level Supervisor

Y Lower

When administering agents within an organization, decide if Service Level Supervisor? will be Y or N. If Yes (Y) is chosen, when a skill goes

over an expected wait time threshold, addi tional reser ve agent resources will be brought in to help the skill . If No (N) is chosen, then the existing agent resources will be required to handl e the incoming call load.

Skill-level decisions for call and agent selection need to be made for individual skills within an organization. The following table includes the

decision that should be made, the choices available, the expected results, the other call center solutions that the results will work with, and is not used with, and where the decision is administered.

Expected

Result Works With

All other

maximum

solutions

Works

Against

Not Used

With

Where

Decided

Hunt Group

form oldest call waiting.

Level 1 Threshold

Level 2 Threshold

Acceptable Service Level

1-9999 seconds

Lower maximum oldest call waiting.

Lowest maximum oldest call waiting.

Different levels of service.

All other solutions

Service Objective

Percent Allocation

Hunt Group

form

Hunt Group

form

Hunt Group

form,

administered

on the

CentreVu

Supervisor

Split/Skill

Call Profile

Setup

window

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Agent Level Decisions

The following agent-level decisions must be made on the Agent Login ID form or through

CentreVu

Supervisor when administering individual

agents within an organization:

●

Skill Mix: Each agent may have u p to 2 0 skills a d m in is tered. You must decide which mix of skills an individual agent wi ll have.

●

Skill Level: Each agent may be assigned a skill level of 1 through 16 or for each administered skill (1 is the highest level, 16 is the lowest), or 1 or 2 f or reserve level skil ls. You must decide which level each agent will be assigned for each administered skill i n the mix. All standard skills have a skill level.

●

Reserve Skills: Each agent may have administered reserve skills, with reserve levels 1 or 2. Agents with reserve ski lls could be automatically brought in to service a skill if that skill is one of their assigned reserve skills and Service Level Supervisor is administered. Agents who are reserve level 1 will be acti vated when the skill reaches thre shold 1, and agents wi th a reserve level of 2 will be activated when the skill reaches its level 2 threshold.

NOTE:

Agents have a skill level or a reserve level on a particular skill, not both.

●

Percent Allocation: Agents c an be admi nister ed with a per centage for each of their standard s ki lls. The tot al of al l perc entage s must be equal to 100 percent or zero percent if all skills are reserve skills. Agents will then receive calls based on their percent allocation if their call handling preference is Percent Allocation.

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Agent Level Decisions Table

Option Choice

Skill Mix Up to 20

skills

Skill Level Level 1-16

Reserve Skills

Level R1 or R2Overload

Agent-level decisions for call and agent se lection need to be made for individual agents within an organization. The following table includes the

decisions that should be made, the choices available, the expected results, the other call center solutions that the results will work with, against, and is not used with, and where the decision is administered.

Expected

Result Works With

Works

Against

Not Used

With

Where

Decided

All solutions Agent Login

ID form

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Supervisor

EAD-MIA EAD-LOA

All solutions Pe rc e n t skills are handled automatically.

UCD-MIA UCD-LOA

Allocation, when agents are

Percent Allocation Greatest Need

Agent Login ID form

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Supervisor Agent Login

ID form

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Supervisor handling overload calls frequently

Percent Allocation

1-100%, or 0% for a reserve level skill

Call distribution is weighted according to the defined percentages.

EAD-LOA UCD-LOA

EAD-MIA UCD-MIA

Greatest Need, Skill Level, Predicted Wai t Time, Service Objective

Agent Login

ID form

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Supervisor

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Call Center Example

In general, call selection and agent selection algorithms are paired to work together: An example is administering a call center to match the

most qualified agent with the call that agent is best ab le to handle. The call selection method you would choose is the Skill Level agent call handling preference to select the call that the agent is most qualified to

handle; that is, a call from the agent’s highest-level skill. You would use the Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idle Agent (EAD-MIA)

or the Expert Agent Distribution- Least Occupied Agent (EAD-LOA) agent selection method to select the most qualified agent for the call. Either of these methods would select the most available, most qualifi ed (that is, highest level agent in that skil l) to handle the c all. EAD-LOA, in parti cular, would spread the call selection among agents at each skill level more evenly by selecting the highest- skil l level avail able agent who is t he least occupied overall, and not necessar ily the agent who was t he f irst to hang up from a previous call. The combinations that are most ef fective are:

●

EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA with Skill Level call handling preference

●

UCD-MIA or UCD-LOA with Greatest Need call handling preference

●

UCD-LOA with Percent Allocation call handling preference.

The result of administering a call center in this manner is that calls waiting in queue for certain skills are answered faster and the work is spread more evenly among agents assigned to the skills at equal skill levels.

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Combining

CentreVu

Advocate Solutions to Meet Call

Center Needs 2

Overview 2

Match Caller With Most Qualified Agent

Call center administrators may have many different objectives for matching callers with agents. In order to meet these objectives, call centers often have individua l agents assigned to many different skills.

CentreVu

The features, can be used to meet a variety of business needs by taking advantage of agents in multip le s kil ls. Some genera l call cent er busi ness needs are described in this section. For addit ional information on combining solutions to create a custom call center environment, see

Chapter 11, “Administer document.

To match a caller with the most qualified agent, assign skil l levels that identify an agent’s level of expertise. For agent selection, use EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA (EAS) to select the most qualified agent available. For call

selection, use the Skill Level Call handling preference to select the call that the agent is most qualified to handle.

Advocate features, in combination with existing EAS

CentreVu

Advocate on

DEFINITY

ECS” in this

Build Stronger Relationships with Some Customers

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measured by the average speed of answer) to important customers, relative to regular customers. For agent selection in this scenario, use EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA to select the most qualified agent for a call. For call selection, use the Service Objective

differentiat e le vels of s ervi ce b y givin g more i mport ant cust omers sh ort er service objectives and regular customers longer service objectives. The Predicted Wait T ime better service to smaller, more personalized skills. Alternately, with the Percent Allocation call handling preference, a higher percent allocation than required for some skills can be assigned (selectively over staff), which provides better service to customers in those skills.

Advocate features can be used to provide better service (as

CentreVu

Advocate feature can also be used to give

Advocate feature to

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Improve Overall Call Center Efficiency

Help Schedule Agents with Multiple Skills

Treat All Agents the Same

To improve overall call center efficiency (call handling and agent occupancy), use UCD-LOA (best option) or EAD-LOA (better option) for agent selection to make the work load more uniform among agents. For

call selection use the Greatest Need call handling pref erence, which lowers the average speed of ans wer; Servic e Level Superviso r , which wi ll lower the maximum wait time; or Predicted Wait TIme, which evens out the average speed of answer.

The Percent Allocation designed to make agent scheduling easier. With this feature, a

percentage of an agent’s time can be dedicated to each of the agent’s

skills. The Service Level Supervisor used in conjunction with the Percent Allocation call handling preference to override these allocations if the forecast on which the allocation is based is not accurate.

In order to treat all agents the same in call distribution, use UCD-MIA or UCD-LOA for agent selection to select an agent without reference to the

agent’s skill level. In a case where the agent’s skill level is not used in agent selection, use the Greatest Need call handling preference. Greatest Need selects a call without reference to the answering agent’s skill level (for a given queue priority, call selection is based on time in queue). Percent Allocation can also be used to control overall agent idle time by creating agent pools and more evenly distributing calls.

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Advocate call handling preference was

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Advocate feature can be

Treat Some Agents Differently

To select the best agents, use EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA for agent selection to keep the most qualified agents working in their higher skill level calls. For call selection, use the Skill Lev el c all handl ing pref er ence and assig n

higher skill levels to the skills that the agent is more qualified to handle. Additionally, by using the Service Level Supervisor feature, agents with only reserve skills assigned receive calls when one or more of their skills is over threshol d, and not before.

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Advocate

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Improve Agent Fairness

Automate Supervisor Actions

For agent selection, use UCD-LOA (best option) or EAD-LOA (better option) to make the work load more uniform among agents (in particular,

those agents with many skills relat ive to agents with fewer skills) . For call selection, use the Percent Allocation call handling pref erence and assign equal percentages to all agents for favored and unfavored skills.

Supervisors often move agents from one skill to another or adjust an

agent’s skill levels to try and meet call center objectives or to improve an individual agent’s wor kload. Use Service Level Supervisor to monitor the

performance of a particular skill (using the Expected Wait Time for the skill), automatically adjust the number of agents ass igned to the skill, and change the assigned agents’ call selection pr ocess to provide a higher level of service for a skill in troub le. In addition, the Predicted Wait Time

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skills while the Service Objective feature automatically minimizes the deviation between each skill’s acceptable service level and its service objective.

Advocate feature automatically gives preference to smaller

Combining

CentreVu

Advocate Solutions Table

The following table shows which EAS/ compatible with each other and which ones are not. The comments column includes information regar ding implementation and problemsolving.

In general, implementing soluti ons that combine any of the four “Agents Available” solutions or combine any of the three call handling preference solutions (Greatest Need, Ski ll Level, and Percent Allocation) is not recommended. If a solution is not listed as specifically compatible or incompatible with another neutral.

Please refer to the “Call Center Solution” chapters in this document for details on reports, feature administration, and feature descriptions.

CentreVu

Advocate solution, then the effect is

Advocate features are

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Solution Works With Works Against Comments

When Agents Are Available

UCD-MIA

UCD-LOA

EAD-MIA

●

Service Leve l Supervisor

●

Service Objective

●

Greatest Need

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Service Leve l Supervisor

●

Service Objective

●

Greatest Need

●

Percent Allocation

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Service Leve l Supervisor

●

Service Objective

●

Skill Level

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Top Skill

●

UCD-LOA

●

EAD-MIA

●

EAD-LOA

●

Percent Allocation

●

UCD-MIA

●

EAD-MIA

●

EAD-LOA

●

UCD-MIA

●

UCD-LOA

●

EAD-LOA

●

Percent Allocation

●

Greatest Need

UCD-MIA is only used when agents are available for a call. It is compatible with other call selection methods, but not with the percent allocation call handling preference.

UCD-LOA will distribute calls to the least occupied agent available. It can be used in conjunction with other call center solutions. It should not be combined with other solutions in the

“agents available” categor y , and works best with greatest need call handling preference.

EAD-MIA is an EAS solution that works best with skill-level solutions. EAD-MIA selects the most idle agent in a skill by skill level.

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Solution Works With Works Against Comm ents

EAD-LOA

Skill Level (call handling preference)

●

Service Level Supervisor

●

Service Objective

●

Skill Level

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Top Skill

●

UCD-MIA

●

EAD-MIA

●

UCD-LOA

●

Percent Allocation

EAD-LOA will make agent work load more uniform by selecting the least occupied agent in a skill for a call. Therefore, EAD-LOA works best with skill level solutions.

When Calls Are in Queue for One or More of an Agent’s Skills

●

EAD-MIA

●

EAD-LOA

●

Service Level Supervisor

●

Predicted Wa it

●

Greatest Need

●

Percent Allocation

Skill Level is one type of agent call handling preference. It works best with the EAS solutions, EAD-MIA and EAD-LOA.

Time

●

Service Objective

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Top Skill

Greatest Need (call handling preference)

●

UCD-MIA

●

UCD-LOA

●

Service Level Supervisor

●

Predicted Wa it Time

●

Service Objective

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

Skill Level

●

Percent Allocation

●

Top Skill

●

EAD-MIA

●

EAD-LOA

Greatest need is a call handling preference that is based on the oldest call waiting in queue. Therefore, it works well wit h othe r callbased solu tions (particularly UCD solutions).

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Solution Works With Works Against Comments

Percent Allocation (call handling preference)

Service Level Supervisor

Predicted Wait Time

●

UCD-LOA

●

Service Leve l Supervisor

●

Direct Agent Calls

●

All other

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Advocate solutions

●

All other

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Advocate solutions EXCEPT Percent Allocation

●

EAD-MIA

●

Skill Level

Percent Allocation is a skillbased agent call handling preference. It works well

●

Greatest Need

●

Predicted Wait Time

●

Service

with UCD-LOA. It does not work well with EAD and MIA solutions.

Objective

●

Top Skill

Service Level Supervisor can be used to enhance any other call center solution.

●

Percent Allocation

Predicted W ait T i me can be used to enhance any other call center solution with the exception of the Percent Allocation agent call handling preference. Because Percent Allocation is based solely on assigned skills, the value of using Predicted Wait Time is nulled.

Service Objective

Direct Agent Calls

●

All other

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Advocate solutions EXCEPT Percent Allocation

●

All other

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Advocate solutions

●

Percent Allocation

Service Objective can be used to enhance any other call center solution with the exception of the Percent Allocation agent call handling preference. Because Percent Allocation is based solely on assigned skills, the value of using Service Objective is nulled.

Direct Agent Calls can be used to enhance all other call center solutions.

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Solution Works With Works Against Comm ents

Top Skill

●

EAD-MIA

●

EAD-LOA

●

Service Level Supervisor

●

Skill Level

●

Predicted Wa it Time

●

Service Objective

●

Greatest Need

●

Percent Allocation

Top skill is only used with Skill Level call handling preference to track agents that skills can count or to provide service. Top Skill is used to provide a dedicated agent pool for a particular skill.

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Getting the Most from Your Call Center 2

For Best Performance

Least Occupied Agent vs. Most Idle Agent

For optimal effectiveness and fairness in most situations, Lucent recommends that you use the following features and settings.

NOTE:

These are general recommendations. Every call center is unique, so if you implement these recommendations, track system perfor man ce closely for the first two weeks to ensure our recommenda tions work in

your specific system.

Lucent recommends that you use t he Least Occupied Agent (LOA) agen t selection method. LOA gives the fairest distr ibut ion of the work load, optimizes agent productivity, and reduces Average Speed of Answer. T o

get the greatest benefit from EAD-LOA, we recommend that you minimize the number of skill levels assigned to agents. EAD-LOA works best with 2-4 skill levels.

EAD-LOA selects the least occupied agent within a skill level; therefore, an agent with higher skill levels will st ill have a higher overall occupancy.

If you do use the Most Idle Agent (MIA) agent selection method, Lucent Technologies recommends that you measure MIA across splits or skills. (LOA is always applied across skills.) To do this, set the MIA Across Splits or Skills? field to Y on page 8 of the System-Parameters Features form.

Predicted Wait Time vs. Current Wait Time

Lucent recommends that you use the Predicted Wait Time (PWT) call selection method.

Current Wait T ime (CWT) selects c alls based on the rec ent past. Thi s call

selection method tracks how long a call has waited in queue. When an agent becomes available, CWT delivers the oldest call already waiting

from one of that agent’s skills. Predicted Wait Time (PWT) selects calls based on the past and future.

This method also tracks how long a call has waited in queue; but, in addition, it analyzes current system performance and predicts how long the call would wait if the currently availabl e agent does not answer it. Predicted Wait Time attempts to eliminate long wait times, thereby reducing abandonments. PWT is particularly useful when you need to balance wait times between specialized skills staffed with a few agents and one or more skills with large staffs.

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ACW Considered Idle?

Service Objective and Predicted Wait Time

Matching Features to Goals

If your goal is:

In most call centers, ACW time is associated wit h a ca ll and therefore is considered work time. If this is the case in your center, set ACW

Considered Idle? to No (N).

Lucent Technologies recommends that Service Objective be used with Predicted Wait Time.

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designed to help you achieve the goals that are most important to you. The following table lists goals that are impor tant in most call centers and

identifies the call and agent selection me thods that can hel p you achieve the goals you need to reach.

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Advocate features are extremely flexible, and they were

Consider the following:

Maximizing revenues

Increasing agent productivity

Achieving business objectives

Service Objective

Minimize lost revenue due to abandoned calls by setting lower acceptable service levels for the highest revenue generating skill s. As the number of calls in queue increases for these critical skills,

DEFINITY

select calls in these skills to keep maximum wait times low.

Skill Levels

Skill Levels can be assigned to indicate the highest revenuegenerating calls; for example, if a skill has the highest potential revenue, it is assigned level 1.

ECS will preferentially

EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA

Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) selects the most highly skill ed age nt available to answer each cal l. Define skills to represent different levels of sales performance; for example, and assign agents to skills based on their performance: now more calls will go to your best salespeople.

UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA

For any given call volume and staff level, Least Occupied Agent (LOA) reduces Average Speed of Answer and makes overall agent work time more uniform.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Increasing operating flexibility

Increasing customer satisfaction

Service Level Supervisor

Service Level Supervisor (SLS) automatically manages agents during periods of peak load. Using criteria you supply, SLS adds predefined reserve agents to the busiest skills when Expected Wait Time exceeds preset thr e sholds. When the reserve agents are no longer needed, SLS removes them from the skills. Your call center automatically adapts to changes in call volume without supervisor intervention.

Predicted Wait Time

Predicted Wait Time (PWT) reduces abandonments by equalizing wait times. With this feature,

DEFINITY

ECS looks at how long calls are likely to wait in queue and selects calls in the order to equalize wait times across skills.

Service Level Supervisor

Service Level Supervisor (SLS) automatically manages agents during periods of peak load. Using criteria you supply, SLS adds predefined backup or reserve agents to the busiest skill s to keep Expe cted Wait Ti mes low. The maximum wait times are minimized, and abandoned calls are reduced.

EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA

By selecting the most highly skilled agent available to answer each call, Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) allows you to give customers the best possible service.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Increasing customer satisfaction (Contd)

Increasing agent satisfaction

Service Objective

Service Objective allows you to preferentially select call s for your

most important skills first—even if those skills don’t have the oldest calls. Set a lower Acceptable Ser vice Level (ASL) for crucial skills and enable Service Objective for some or all of the agents in that skill.

DEFINITY

ECS will select calls from the skills that are closest to exceeding their ASL.

Percent Allocation

Percent Allocation allows you to evenly distribute calls t o a sk ill an d to all the agents assigned to that skill. To do this, assign equal percentages for the skill to all agents assigned to that skill. (For example, if all agents assigned to skill 1 have a percent allocation of 25% for the skill,

DEFINITY

ECS will select call s fo r each agent so that they spend approximately 25% of their staffed time on calls in skill 1.) Percent Allocation also gives agents a greater variety of calls.

EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA

By selecting the most highly skilled agent available to answer each call, Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) allows you to give customers the best possible service.

UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA

Least Occupied Agent (LOA) distributes the work load more fairly among agents than the Most Idle Agent (MIA) method does. LOA eliminates “hot seat” age nts—agents who spend more time on calls because they have more assigned skills or higher skill levels.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Controlling Aver age Speed of Answer (ASA)

Lowering ASA for selected customers

Percent Allocation

Allocate more of your agents’ time to important skills so that they will take more calls from those skills than from less important skills.

Predicted Wait Time

If you have important but small skills with just a few agents, use Predi cted Wait Time to balance wait times between these specialized skills and your larger skills. Predicted Wait Time will lower ASA for the smaller skills.

Service Level Supervisor

By automatically adding agents to your most important skills during periods of peak load, Service Level Supervisor (SLS) will reduce Expected Wait Time and Average Speed of Answer for these skills.

Service Objective

Service Objective allows you to preferentially select calls for your most important skills first—even if those skills don’t have the oldest calls. Set a lower Acceptable Servi ce Level (ASL) for crucial skills and enable Service Objective for the agents in that skill.

DEFINITY

ECS will select calls from the skills tha t are closest to exceeding their ASL.

UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA

Least Occupied Agent (LOA) distributes the work load more equally to agents across all skills, thus giving all callers better levels of service.

Equalizing ASA across skills

Predicted Wait Time

If you have important but small skills with just a few agents, use Predi cted Wait Time to balance average speed of answer between these specialized skills and your larger skills. Predicted Wait Time will lower ASA for the smaller ski lls .

UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA

Least Occupied Agent (LOA) distributes the work load more equally to agents across all skills, thus giving all callers better levels of service.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Controlling Abandonments

Minimizing abandonments by controlling maximum wait time

Equalizing Percent in Service Level across skills

Service Level Supervisor

By automatically adding agents to your most important skills during periods of peak load, Service Level Supervisor (SLS) will reduce Expected Wait Time and Average Speed of Answer for these skills, reducing the likelihood that callers will abandon.

Controlling Percent in Service Level

Service Objective

By using Service Objective,

DEFINITY

ECS will select call s based on how long they have waited in comparison to the acceptable service level. This feature works to keep all your skills at approximately the same percent in service level and relatively close to their acceptable service level.

UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA

Least Occupied Agent (LOA) lowers the ASA across skills, thus giving all callers better levels of service.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Handling any media with different levels of service

Service Objective

If you are using your

DEFINITY

ECS to handle, faxes, e-mails, and video calls as well as voice calls, there may be large differences between the Acceptable Service Level (ASL) for different media. Use Service Objective to ensure that skills with higher volume and shorter ASLs (voice calls, for example) do not negatively affect service for skills with longer ASLs (A skill for e-mail requests might have an ASL of two and a half hours.) For a detailed example of this type of application, see Chapter 4.

Service Level Supervisor

In the above example, if there are a few agents administered with the email skill, the reserve agents who normally handle voice calls could back up the e-mail agents.

Giving better service to smaller skills

Predicted Wait Time

If you have important but small skills with just a few agents, use Predi cted Wait T ime to equalize wait t ime for all skills. Predicted Wait Time will lower ASA for the smaller skills. (There may be a slight increase in the wait times for larger skills.)

Service Objective

Set a lower Acceptable Serv ice Level (ASL) for small skills and enable Service Objective for some or all of the agents in that skill.

DEFINITY

ECS will select calls from the skills that are closest to exceeding their

ASL—even if those aren’t the oldest calls waiting.

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Managing Agents

Automatically move agents to respond to changes in call volume

Control the amount of time agents spend in each of their skills

Service Level Supervisor

Service Level Supervisor (SLS) automatically manages agents during periods of peak load. Using criteria you supply, SLS adds predefined reserve and backup agents to the busiest skills when Expected Wait Time exceeds preset thresholds. When the reserve agents are no longer needed, SLS removes them from the skills. Your call center automatically adapts to changes in call volume without supervisor intervention.

Percent Allocation

The Percent Allocation feature is designed to make agent scheduling easier. With this feature, you can

allocate a percentage of an agent’s work time to each o f the ir skills and

DEFINITY

ECS will select a mix of calls that keeps the agent as close as possible to the percentage you have specified. (You can use Service Level Supervisor with Percent Allocation. If the forecasts on which you base your allocations turn out not to be accurate, Service Level Supervisor will override these allocations during periods of peak call volume.)

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Consider the following:

If your goal is:

Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods

Evenly distribute the workload among all agents

Evenly distribute the workload among the most skilled agents

Percent Allocation

Percent Allocation allows you to evenly distribute calls to a skill to all the agents assigned to that skill. To do this, assign equal percentages for the skill to all agents assigned to that skill. (For example, if all agents assigned to skill 1 have a percent allocation of 25% for the skill,

DEFINITY

ECS will select calls for each agent so that they spend approximately 25% of their staffed time on calls in skill 1.) Percent Allocation also gives agents a greater variety of calls.

UCD-LOA

Least Occupied Agent (LOA) distributes the work load more evenly among agents than the Most Idle Agent (MIA) method does. LOA

eliminates “hot seat” agents —agents who spend more time on calls because they have more assigned skills or higher skill levels.

EAD-LOA

Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) selects the most highly skilled agent available to answer each call. Using EAD with the LOA agent selection method allows you to distribute the workload among agents with the same skill levels.

Connect callers to the most skilled agents for the callers need

EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA

By selecting the most highly skilled agent available to answer each call, Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) allows you to give customers the best possible service.

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Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Overview 3-1

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Advocate Release 8 User Guide

3 Call Center Solution : Maximize Revenues

Overview 3

Maximizing revenue through efficient use of the call center is an important component of overall business strategy. One way to address this need is to reduce the average speed of answer and abandon rate for preferred call types by improving the service level for certain, high-revenue generating skills and by assigning agents to specific skil ls based on their ability to generate revenue.

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Advocate Features

Customer Example

This chapter discusses the following

●

Greatest Need call handling preference with Service Object ive

●

Expert Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (EAD-LOA).

Use the

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A company that handles orders for many catalogs wants to give better service to an exclusive catalog and also to the 10 percent of their overall catalog customers who spend the most money per order. This goal will be accomplished by giving better service to those potential high revenue calls by improving the service level for those skills and by selecting agents who are best at generating revenue for a certain call type.

CentreVu

Advocate is working.

Supervisor reports presented in this chapter t o verify that

CentreVu

Advocate features:

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Implementation 3-2

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Implementation 3

Callers wanting items from the exclusive catalog are identified by the

“800” number dialed using Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). These calls are directed to a special ve ctor that queues to the “ Exclusive” skill. The top 10 percent spending customers are identified by an Automatic Number Identification (ANI) lookup table and queued to the “Top Ten” skill. All other customers are queued to the “Orders” skill.

Agent Selection 3

Call Selection 3

Switch Administration

Agents are assigned skill level s based on their revenue gener ation with in each skill. To choose the highest revenue-g enerating agent available in a skill, the selection method assigned to the ski ll is Exper t Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent. All agents are assigned to the Top Ten and Orders skills. A subset of agents with special training are assigned to the Exclusive skill.

Agents are assigned a call handling preference of Greatest Need with Service Objective. (Since Skill Level is used to identify an agent’s ability to generate revenue within a skill and does not indicate a preference among skills, Greatest Need call handling preference can be used instead.) The Service Objectiv e for th e Exclusive ski ll and for the Top Ten skill is set to 15 seconds. The Orders skill has a Service Objective of 30 seconds.

Several items must be administered on the switch administration forms for this business solution to work. See Chapter 11, “Administer

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administration.

Advocate on

DEFINITY

ECS” for more information on switch

Customer Options 3

Hunt Group 3

On the System Parameters Customer Options form, set the following fields:

●

CentreVu Advocate? must be set to Y

●

Expert Agent Selection (EAS)? must be set to Y.

On the Hunt Group form, set the following parameters:

●

Enter the skill number on the command line.

●

On page 1, enter EAD-LOA in the Group Type: field.

●

On page 2, set the Acceptable Service Level: to 15 seconds.

Set these parameters for the Top Ten skill. Repeat these steps for the Orders skill, setting the Acceptable Service Level: to 30 seconds.

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Implementation 3-3

To determine the acceptable ser vice l evel in general, r eview the a bandon call profiles for each skill and target a service time that will minimize abandons. For example, set the acceptable service level at five seconds below the average time to abandon for a particular skill.

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box

Agents need to have their ca ll handli ng preferenc es set to Grea test Need with Service Objective, and the appropriate agent s then need to be assigned to the skills Exclusive, Top Ten, and Orders with a skill level

based on their ability to generate revenue (1 is the highest level of revenue generation). New Agents must have this administere d on the

DEFINITY

administered using the following procedure.

On the Change Agent Skills form, set agents’ call handling preference to Greatest Need with Service Objective.

To administer an agent’s call handling preference, use the f ollowing steps.

1. Select Com

2. Select Agent Administration.

3. Select the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) by entering the ACD in

4. Select Change Agent Skills on the Operations tab.

ECS forms (see Chapter 11, “Administer

ECS” for more information). Existing agents can have this

mands from the

the text box or selecting an ACD from the drop-down history list.

CentreVu

Supervisor Controller.

Centre V u

Advocate

5. Select OK. The Select Agent/Template dialog box will display.

6. Select an agent by entering the agent’s name in the text box, using the drop-down history list or using the history button.

7. Select OK. The following Change Agent Skills dialog box will display with the selected agent’s information shown in the title bar. The Assigned Skills grid will display on the dialog box.

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Implementation 3-4

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

8. Select Call Handling Preference: Greatest Need.

9. Select the Service Objective check box.

10. Select Add Skills.

11. Add the Exclusive, Top Ten, and Orders skills for the agent if appropriate.

12. Set the agent’s skill level for each assigned skill based on the

agent’s ability to generate revenue.

13. Select OK to accept the assignment.

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Implementation 3-5

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box

Use the Split/Skill Call Profile Setup dialog box, shown bel ow, to specify an acceptable service level for calls to wait in queue before being answered and to define the service level increments for splits/skills. The

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup window is accessed fr om the Com controller item, under C

all Center Administration.

mands

Field Descriptions 3

Field Use

Split(s)/Skill(s): Enter the split or skill number(s) or name(s) (must be previously

Acceptable service level: (Required entry)

Use the following table for existing split/skill acceptable service level administration. New splits/ skills mus t be initia lly administe red on the Hunt Group form.

NOTE:

If the information on the Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box is changed through

DEFINITY DEFINITY

forms. See Chapter 11, “Administer

assigned in the Dictionary subsystem) you are searching for or modifying.

Enter the number of seconds that i t is ac ceptable f or an ACD call to wait before connecting to an agent.

CentreVu

ECS” for more information.

Supervisor, it must also be changed on the

CentreVu

Advocate on

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Implementation 3-6

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Field Use

Service level increments (seconds): (Required entry)

Enter a progressively greater number of seconds in each “to” field. The seconds before and after each word “to” define an inc rement in seconds of wait time. For example,”0 to 5 to 10 to 25...” means 0-5 , 6-10, and 11-25, and so on. Each of the nine inc rements can va ry in length (for example, 0 to 15, 16 to 20, 21 to 26, 27 to 38, 39 to 43, and so on). Each increment represents a progressively longer wait time for the call and is used for both answered and abandoned calls.

To get finer detail regarding when most callers abandon from the skill, use smaller time increments in the Service Level Increments fields around the average time to abandon. For example, if the average time to abandon is 40 seconds for a particular skil l, the Service Level Increments field setting might be (in seconds): 0, 5,15, 25, 35, 38, 40, 42, 45, 55, and so on.

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-7

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3

The average speed of answer for the Top Ten skill will be lower than the Orders skills. If the Exclusive skill has an appropriate amount of staff, it will also have a lower average spee d of an swer tha n the Orders skill . The percentage of abandoned calls should also be lower for the Exclusive and Top Ten skills, unless these callers have a much lower tolerance for waiting in queue. The Percent in Service Level should be close for all three skills, since Service Objective has been implemented in this solution. The Percent of Answered Calls will probably be higher for the Exclusive and Top Ten skills, while th e Percent Abandoned Calls may be higher for the Orders skill.

Reports 3

The results of implementing this solution can be seen in any of the RealTime Split/Skill reports or the Historical Split/Skill Reports. The most relevant reports to this solution are listed below:

●

Real-Time Spli t/Skill Call Profile Report

●

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report

●

Historical Split/Skill Call Profile Report

●

Historical Split/Skill Graphical Average Speed of Answer (ASA) Report

●

Historical VDN Report

●

Historical Agent Summary Report

●

Historical Agent Group Summary Report.

You may also use the Real-Time Queue/Agent Summary Report to display a summary of agent activity for the administered skills.

NOTE:

None of the

CentreVu

Supervisor reports will show actual revenue

generated. Refer to your host data for this information.

Additional Information

These reports are fully documented in the

8 Reports

CentreVu

document (585-210-929). T hey are summari zed as they r elate

Advocate in this chapter. See the

CentreVu® Supervisor V ersion

more information on Real-Time and Historical reports.

Reports

document for

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-8

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Database Items and Calculations

Real-Time Split/Skill Call Profile Report

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate3

New database items and calculations for modified, existing database items, ar e described in Chapter 13,

CentreVu

“ database items and calculations are described in the

Advocate Database Items and Calculations.” Exis ting

R3V8 Database Items and Calculations

This report shows the wai t ti mes of i ncoming cal ls t hat are answered and abandoned in a split or skill during the curr ent interval. Calls are displayed in ten columns, with each col umn represent ing a pr ogressiv ely

longer wait time (increment). You must have administered service level and wait time increments for this report to be meaning ful. See the

CentreVu

report input fields, report generation, and a full description of all report fields.

The following items are specific infor m ation you will need to run this report for

●

Version 8 Reports

CentreVu

Split/Skill: Fill in the Split/Skill inpu t field wi th a name or number f or which you want to run the report. You can enter a split/skill name only if the name has been defined in the Dictionary subsystem. Based on the call center example in this chapter, you can run the report for the Exclusive, Top Ten, or Orders skills.

When generating this report, select a day or inter val when there were a large number of abandoned calls and view the resulting profiles for each skill. Set the Servi ce Level Supervisor thresholds about ten seconds below the point in the skill profile at which the calls should be answered.

Compare profiles for all VDNs that are served by a skill . If one VDN has a substantially dif ferent profile, use a separate skill to minimize abandons.

Advocate:

document (585-210-929) for infor mation on

CentreVu

Advocate, along with

CentreVu CMS

(585-210-939) document.

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-9

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Example 3

Report De scription 3

The following figure is an example of a Split/Skill Call Profile report.

The following table describes the report fi elds that are most meaningful for the Maximizing Revenues implementation of report will show, for answered for the selected split/skill within the predefined service level, the number of calls that abandoned, and the average speed of answer for each skill. The database items used for the Split/Skill Call Profile Report are stored in the csplit table.

CentreVu

Advocate, the number of calls that were

CentreVu

Advocate. This

Report Heading Description

% Within Service Level

The percentage of split/ skil l ACD call s that were answered by an agent within the predefined time. Calls offered to the split/skill include calls that were abandoned and calls that were not answered, but do not include direct agent calls. Calls that were not answered may include forced busy calls, forced disconnect calls, calls redirected to another destination, an d call s queued to more than one split/skill and answered in another split/skill.

Database Item, Calculation or

100*(ACCEPTABLE/ CALLSOFFERED) <PERCENT_SERV_LVL_SPL>

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-10

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Database Item, Calculation or

Report Heading Description

ACD Calls This is the number of calls that were sent to the

split/skill that were answered by an agent within each increment. This includes outbound ACD calls placed by an adjunct (also cal led outbound predictive dialing), for the Generic 2.2 switches with ASAI Gateway or the Generic 3 with ASAI only. For the Generic 3 switches it does not include direct agent calls.

Aban Calls The number of calls to the split/skill that were

abandoned within each increment. If calls are queued to multiple splits/skills, only the first split/skill queued to records an abandon. This includes outbound ACD calls placed by an adjunct (also called outbound predictive dialing), for the Generic 2.2 switches with ASAI Gat eway or the Generic 3 with ASAI only. It does not include direct agent calls.

(T otal) ACD Calls The total number of ACD calls that were sent to

the split/skill that were answered by an agent in the split/skill. This includes outbound ACD calls placed by an adjunct (also called outbound predictive dialing), for the Generic 2.2 switches with ASAI Gateway or the Generic 3 with ASAI only. For the Generic 3 switches, it does not include direct agent calls.

ACDCALLS1-10

ABNCALLS

ACDCALLS

Avg Speed Ans The average time calls waited in queue and

ringing before an agent answered. This does not include direct agent calls, but it does include outbound ACD calls placed by an adjunct (also called outbound predictive dialing), for the Generic 2.2 switches with ASAI Gateway or the Generic 3 with ASAI only.

ANSTIME/ACDCALLS <AVG_ANSWER_SPEED>

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-11

Report Heading Description

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Database Item, Calculation or

% Ans Calls The percentage of calls queued to the split/skill

that were answered by an agent. Calls to the split/skill include abandoned cal ls and calls not answered. Calls not answered may include forced busy calls, forced disconnect calls, calls redirected to another destination, an d call s queued to more than one split/skill and answered in another split/ski ll. For the Generic 3 switches, it does not include direct agent calls.

(Total) Aban Calls

Avg Aban Time The average time calls waited in split/ skill before

% Aban Calls The percentage of queued calls to the split/skill

The total number of calls queued for each split/skill that abandoned befor e an agent answered. This includes calls that abandon from ringing at a voice terminal. Dir ect agent calls are not included. For Generic 2.2 switches with the ASAI Gateway, and for Generic 3 switches with ASAI, this includes outbound calls where the far end abandoned as well.

hanging up.

that were abandoned before being answered by an agent. For the Generic 2.2 switch with ASAI Gateway Interface feature or Generic 3 switch with the ASAI feature only, calls to the split/skill include outbound ACD calls placed by an adjunct (outbound predicti ve dialing). For the Generic 3 switches, it does not include direct agent calls.

100*(ACDCALLS/ CALLSOFFERED) <PERCENT_CALL_ANS>

ABNCALLS

ABNTIME/ABNCALLS <A VG_ABANDON_TIME>

100*(ABNCALLS/ CALLSOFFERED) <PERCENT_CALL_ABAN>

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report

This report is a combination of the Agent report and the Queue/Agent Summary report. It displays overall spl it/skill information such as the number of calls waiting, oldest call waiting, and percent answered within

service level. It also shows the number of agents available, on ACD call s, staffed, with calls ringing, and on after call work . It also shows what each agent in the split/skill is curren tly doing. See the

Reports

report generation, and a full description of all report fields.

document (585-210-929) for information on report input fields,

CentreVu® Version 8

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-12

For

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate3

CentreVu

want to view in this report in the input window. Any name(s) you want to appear on the report must have been previously defined and entered in the Dictionary subsystem. Using the call center example in this chapter, this report may be run for the Exclusive, Top Ten, or Orders skill.

Advocate, enter the split or skill name or number that you

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Example 3

The following report is an example of a Queue/Agent Status repor t, with the fields that are most meaningful for boxes.

CentreVu

Advocate shown in

Report Description 3

Report Heading Description

Skill State Current state of this skill, compared to the

administered thresholds . Requires ECS R6 or later with Advocate.

The following table describes the report fields that are most meaningful for the Maximizing Revenues implementation of

CentreVu

comparison to the adminis tered t hresholds, the number of calls waiting i n queue, the number of abandoned calls, and the number of both agents staffed for the skil l and agent s available to take a call. The database items used for the Queue/Agent Status report are stored in csplit and cagent tables.

Advocate, this report will show the current state of the skill in

CentreVu

Database It e m , Ca lc u lation,

or <Calculation Name>

syn(SKSTATE)

Advocate. For

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-13

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Heading Description

Calls Waiting The total number of split or skill ACD calls

waiting to be answered for each split/skill in the report. This includes calls that are in

queue and are ringing at an agent’s voice terminal. It also includes outbound ACD cal ls placed by an adjunct (also called outbound predictive dialing), for the Gene ric 2.2 switches with ASAI Gateway or the Generic 3 with ASAI only. For the Generic 3 switches, it does not include direct agent calls.

Oldest Call Waiting

The length of time (in seconds) the oldest call has waited in queue or ringing (at an agent voice terminal for each split/ skill in the report ) before being answered. This does not include direct agent calls.

Direct Agent Calls Waiting

The current number of direct agent calls (Generic 3 switches only) that are waiting in this split’s/skill’s queue or ringing at agent positions.

Database Item, Calculation,

or <Calculation Name>

INQUEUE+INRING

OLDESTCALL

DA_INQUEUE+DA_INRING

% Within Service Level

The percentage of split/skill ACD calls that were answered by an agent within the predetermined time. With Service Objective, this result should be similar for all three skills in this solution.

ACD Calls The number of calls that were queued to this

split/skill and answered by an agent in this split/skill (includes O_ACDCALLS).

100*(ACCEPTABLE/ CALLSOFFERED)

<PERCENT_SERV_LVL_SPL>

ACDCALLS

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-14

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Heading Description

Aban Calls The number of calls that are abandoned by

the caller when calls are in queue or when calls are ringing for this split/skill. This includes calls with talk times less than the phantom abandoned call timer value, if it is set. For Generic 2.1 and Generic 3 Version 1 switches with vectoring, thi s also includes calls that were queued to the split/skill and abandoned while listening to a forced disconnect announcement. NOTE: When a call is queued to multiple splits/skills and abandons f rom the queue, only the primary split/skill increments ABNCALLS. (Calls that are ringing at an

agent’s voice terminal and then abandon count as abandons for the split/ski ll for whic h they were ringing.)

Database It e m , Ca lc u lation,

or <Calculation Name>

ABNCALLS

Agents Staffed The total number of agents logged into each

split/skill.

Agents Avail The current number of agents that are

available to receive ACD calls in each split/skill.

Role The Agent’s service role for this SKILL,

based on call handling preference and skill level. Requires

CentreVu

DEFINITY

Advocate.

ECS R6 or later with

Percent The Agent’s percent allocation for this SPLIT.

Requires

CentreVu

DEFINITY

Advocate.

ECS R6 or later with

ST AFFED

AVAILABLE

syn(ROLE)

PERCENT

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-15

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Historical Split/Skill Call Profile Report

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Advocate3

The Split/Skill Call Profile report shows the number of calls answered and abandoned in time increments that you administer. This report also displays your acceptable service level. See Chapter 7, “Call Center

Administration,” in the

(585-210-910) document for both the time increments and acceptable service levels. Since this report shows you how long it takes for calls to be answered or abandoned, you can determine how long a caller is willing to wait for an agent before hanging up. With this information, you can determine the appropriate answering speed required to reduce abandoned calls.

Calls are displayed in ten columns, with each column representing a progressively longer wait time. The Split /Ski ll Call Profile report is available in daily, weekly , and monthly versions. See the

Version 8 Reports

input fields, report generation, and a full description of all report fields.

For

CentreVu

that you want to view in this report in the input window. Any name(s) you want to appear on the report must have been previously defined and entered in the Dictionary subsystem. Using the call center example in thi s chapter, you may run this report for the Exclusive, Top Ten, or Orders skill.

Advocate, enter the appropriate split /skill name or number

CentreVu® CMS R3V8 Administration

document (585-210-929) for information on report

document

CentreVu®

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-16

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Example 3

Report Description 3

The following report is an example of a Split/Skil l Call Profile report with the fields that are most meaningful for boxes.

The following table describes the report fi elds for the t ime period covered by the report. For calls that were both inside and outside the administered service level for the skill, the number of call s that were ans wered and abandoned wi th the time to abandon. The database items for the Split/ Skill Call Profil e Report are stored in the dsplit (daily), wsplit (weekly), and msplit (monthly) tables.

CentreVu

Advocate, this report shows the percent of

CentreVu

Advocate shown in

Report Heading Description

% Within Service Level

ACD Calls The number of split/skill ACD calls answered

Aban Calls The number of split/skill ACD calls that

ACD Calls The number of split/skill ACD calls that were

The percentage of split/skill ACD calls that were queued to this split/skill and answered within your administered service level.

within each service level increment.

abandoned within each service level increment.

queued to this split/skill and answered by an agent for this split/skill. This total also includes O_ACDCALLS if you have the Outgoing Call Management (OCM) application of ASAI. The O_ACDCALLS is the number of ACDCALLS that were placed by an adjunct; this is also referr ed to as predictive dialing.

Database Item, Calculation, or

100*(ACCEPTABLE/ CALLSOFFERED) <PERCENT_SERV_LVL_SPL>

ACDCALLS1-10

ABNCALLS1-10

ACDCALLS

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-17

Report Heading Description

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Database Item, Calculation, or

Avg Speed Ans The average time the split/skill ACD calls were

waiting in queue and ringing before being answered by an agent.

Aban Calls The number of ACD calls to the split/skill that

disconnected while either waiting in queue (if this was the first split/skill the call was queued to), or while ringing. This tot al i ncludes call s with talk time less than the phantom abandoned call timer value, if it is set. This total also includes O_ABNCALLS if you have OCM. The O_ABNCALLS is the number of outbound ACD calls that were abandoned by the far end.

Avg Aban Time The average time the split/skill ACD calls were

waiting in queue or ringing before abandoning.

% Ans Calls The percentage of calls queued to the split/skill

that abandoned before being answered by an agent.

ANSTIME/ACDCALLS <A VG_ANSWER_SPEED>

ABNCALLS

ABNTIME/ABNCALLS <AVG_ABANDON_TIME>

100*(ABNCALLS/ (CALLSOFFERED)) <PERCENT_CALL_ABAN>

Historical Split/Skill Graphical ASA Report

Things to Know for

CentreVu

Report Example 3

Advocate3

The Split/Skill Graphical Average Speed of Answer (ASA) report shows the average speed of answer for ACD calls answered in each selected split/skill for each selected inter val. See the

Version 8 Reports

input fields, report generation, and a full description of all report fields.

The chart type can be changed. See Chapter 2, “Using Reports” in the

CentreVu® Supervisor Version 8 Reports

more information.

For

CentreVu

split(s)/skill(s) you want included in the report in the input window. You can enter a name only if it has been previously defined in the Dictionar y subsystem. Using the call center example in this chapter, you may run this report for the Exclusive, Top Ten, or Orders skill.

The following report is an example of a Split/Skill Graphical ASA report with the fields that are most meaningful for boxes.

document (585-210-929) for information on report

Advocate, enter the name(s) or number(s) of the

CentreVu® Supervisor

document (585-210-929) for

CentreVu

Advocate shown in

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-18

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Report Description 3

Report Heading Description

Split/Skill The name or number of the split/skill you are

currently viewing.

Average Speed

of Ans— Seconds

The value in seconds of the average speed of answer for the split/skill during the time period covered in the report. The relationship of the ASA to the acceptable service level should be similar for all skills (e.g., all slightly below). During busy intervals, ASA will increase for all skills relative to their acceptable service levels.

The following table describes the report fi elds for the t ime period covered by the report. For speed of answer for the skil l in the r eport. You can use this informat ion to compare average speed of answer in specific skills; for example, Exclusive, Top Ten, or Orders, and take the appropriate action. The database items for the Split/Skill Graphical ASA report are stored in the cagent (current interval) and hsplit (intrahour interval) tables.

CentreVu

Advocate, this report will show the average

Database Item, Calculation

or <Calculation Name>

syn(SPLIT)

<AVG_ANSWER_SPEED>

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-19

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

VDN Report 3

Report Heading Description

% Aban The percentage of calls to the

VDN that abandoned.

% Busy The percentage of calls to the

VDN that are busy.

% Flow Out The percentage of inbound calls

on the VDN that are directed (flowed out) to other VDNs.

Historical Agent Summary and Agent Group Summary Reports

The Historical VDN Report has been modified for include the following fields:

The Historical Agent Summary and Historical Agent Group Summary reports have been modified for following fields:

CentreVu

Database Item, Calculation, or

100 * ABNCALLS/INCALLS

100 * BUSYCALLS/INCALLS

100 * OUTFLOWCALLS/INCALLS

CentreVu

Advocate to include the

Advocate to

Report Heading Description

% Agent Occup w/ACW

% Agent Occup w/o ACW

Agent occupancy, displayed as a percentage, including agent ACW time as work time.

Agent occupancy, displayed as a percentage, not including agent ACW time as work time.

Database Item, Calculation, or

100 * (sum(I_RINGTIME + I_ACDTIME + I_ACDOTHERTIME + I_ACDAUX_OUTTIME + I_ACDAUXINTIME + I_ACWTIME)/sum (TI_STAFFTIME - TI_AUXTIME + I_ACDAUX_OUTTIME + I_ACDAUXINTIME))

100 * (sum(I_RINGTIME + I_ACDTIME + I_ACDOTHERTIME + I_ACDAUX_OUTTIME + I_ACDAUXINTIME)/sum (TI_STAFFTIME

- TI_AUXTIME + I_ACDAUX_OUTTIME + I_ACDAUXINTIME))

Call Center Solution: Maximize Revenues

Things to Note 3-20

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Things to Note 3

The following list includes some things to be aware of when implementing the maximizing revenues solution:

●

If the speed of answer for the Exclusive skill is too slow, additional agents should be trained for this specialty catalog.

●

The configuration describ ed in thi s se ction wi ll gi ve the most calls to agents who have the highest revenue-generating potential, which could lead to agent burnout. To avoid this, consider givin g more breaks to these agents.

●

If the number of agents in any skill is small, using many revenuegenerating skill levels will tend to emulate hot-seat distributi on. For example, if one agent is assigned to each skill level, the call

distribution will be “hot-seat” (always looks first to the level 1 agent, then the level 2 agent, and so on). To avoid hot-seat call distributi on, define fewer levels of revenue generation (perhaps three to five levels).

●

Ensure that you have administered the same value for the acceptable service level on the switch and through Supervisor.

CentreVu

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Overview 4-1

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

4 Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Overview 4

Many call centers are moving to an any media environment. Calls can be received through conventional telephones, e-mail, faxes, and video calls.

CentreVu

Advocate can be used to equalize service between these media.

CentreVu

Advocate Features

Customer Example

This chapter discusses the following

●

Greatest Need and Skill Level call handling preferences with Service

Objective

●

Uniform Call Distribution-Least Occupi ed Agent (UCD-LOA)

●

Reserve agents with Service Level Supervisor.

Use the

CentreVu

An outsourcing company has added the ability to handle e-mail requests, fax requests, voice calls, and video call s to its call center. T o control costs and obtain contracts, the company wants to guarantee the following levels of service for these different media:

●

CentreVu

Advocate is working.

E-mail: 2.75 hours Fax: 2 hours Voice calls: 60 seconds Video calls: 20 seconds.

Supervisor reports presented in this chapter t o verify that

CentreVu

Advocate features:

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-2

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Implementation 4

Requests from each media come into vectors that queue the request to separate skills based on the media used by the caller.

Agent Selection 4

Uniform Call Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (UCD-LOA) is used to select agent for ca lls. Reser ve agents are also st aff ed to help e nsure tha t service levels for each skill are met. Thresholds for each skill are set above the acceptable service level to bri ng additional agents in automatically, prior to the committed wait time limit. The following thresholds are set:

●

E-mail: 2.77 hours

●

Fax: 2.2 hours

●

Voice calls: 65 seconds

●

Video calls: 25 seconds.

A few agents are dedicated to the e-mail and fax skills. Many more reserve agents are assigned to these two skills and only assist on the skill when the service times approach the pre-defined acceptable servi ce levels.

NOTE:

Although two thresholds can be administered per skill through

CentreVu

Advocate, this example only uses one threshold per skill. Greatest Need agents will give reserve skill calls over threshold equal precedence with standard skills; that is, they will be given the call with the highest priority and longest wait time in queue. Since Call Selection Override is off for this solution, skill level agents will remain on their primary call handling tasks, and standard and res erve agents will be given a cal l if t here are no calls waiting in their standard skills.

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-3

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Call Selection 4

Switch Administration

Agents are assigned a call handling preference of Greatest Need or Skill Level with Service Objective. Use Service Objective to ensure that skills with higher volume and shorter acceptable service levels (voice calls, for example) do not negatively af fect service for skills wi th longer accept able service levels (the E- mail skil l request s might have an acceptabl e service level of 2.5 hours). Service Objective will select those calls that are the highest percentage of their administered thr esholds. Greatest Need will select the call whose wait time for a skill is the hi ghest percentage of the acceptable service level, while Skill Level wil l sel ect the call with the highest skill level and whose wait time is the highest percentage of the acceptable service level. The following acceptable service levels are administered:

●

E-mail skill: 2.75 hours

●

Fax skill: 2 hours

●

Voice Calls skill: 60 seconds

●

Video Calls skill: 20 seconds.

Several items must be administered on the switch administration forms

for the any media business soluti on to work. See Cha pter 11, “Administer

CentreVu

Advocate on

DEFINITY

ECS” for more information on switch

administration.

Customer Options 4

Features 4

Hunt Group 4

On the System Parameters Customer Options form, set the following fields:

●

CentreVu Advocate? must be set to Y

●

Expert Agent Selection (EAS)? must be set to Y.

On the System Parameters Features form, set the Call Selection Override? field to N (off).

On the Hunt Group form, set the following parameters:

●

Enter the skill number on the command line.

●

On page 1, enter UCD-LOA in the Group Type: field.

●

On page 2, set the Acceptable Service Level:

●

On page 2, enter Y in the Service Level Supervisor field.

●

On page 2, set the Level 1 threshold (secs):

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-4

NOTE:

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

You may administer thresholds and acceptable service levels to a maximum value of 9999 seconds (about 2.77 hours).

Administer these parameters for the Fax skill:

●

Acceptable Service Level:7200 seconds (2 hours)

●

Level 1 threshold (secs): 7920 seconds (2.2 hours).

Administer these parameters for the Voice Calls skill:

●

Acceptable Service Level: 60 seconds

●

Level 1 threshold (secs): 65 seconds.

Administer these parameters for the V ideo Calls skill:

●

Acceptable Service Level: 20 seconds

●

Level 1 threshold (secs): 25 seconds.

CentreVu

Supervisor Administration

Change Agent Skills Dialog Box

These values are determined by external commitments made to customers or clients. The thre shold values are set slightly above the administered acceptable service levels to give agents time to respond before the average time to abandon is reached.

Agents need to have their cal l handli ng preferences set to Great est Need or Skill Level with Service Objecti ve, and then need to be assi gned to the skills E-mail, Fax, Voice Calls, and Video Calls based on their level of

expertise with each media (skill level). Ne w Agent login IDs mus t have this administered on the

DEFINITY

(ECS) forms (see Chapter 11, “Administer

DEFINITY

ECS” for more information). Existing agents can have this

Enterprise Communications Server

CentreVu

Advocate on

administered using the following procedure. To create an agent pool, agents must be assigned the same skill level for each skill.

On the Change Agent Skills dialog box, set an agent’s call handling preference to Greatest Need or Skill Level with Service Objective.

To administer an agent’s call handling preference, use the following steps:

1. Select Com

2. Select A

gent Administration.

mands from the

CentreVu

Supervisor Controller.

3. Select t he Automatic Call Distribution (A CD) by entering the ACD in the text box or selecting an ACD from the drop-down history list.

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-5

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

4. Select Change Agent Skills on the Operations tab.

5. Select OK. The Select Agent/Template dialog box will display.

6. Select an agent by entering the agent’s name in the text box, using

the drop-down history list or using the history button.

7. Select OK. The following Change Agent Skills dialog box will display with the selected agent’s information shown in the title bar. The Assigned Skills grid will display on the dialog box.

Assigning Reserve Agents

8. Select Call Handling Preference: Greatest Need or Call Handling Preference: Skill Level.

9. Select the Service Objective check box.

10. Select Add Skills. The Add Agent Skills dialog box will display. 1 1. Add the E-mail, Fax, Voice Calls, and Video Calls skills for the agent

based on the agent’s expertise.

12. Set the agent’s skill level for each assigned skill.

13. Select OK to accept the assignment in the Add Agent Skill dialog

box and OK in the Change Agent Skill dialog box.

Reserve agents in this solution are agents assigned a skill level of reserve1 (R1) for the skills that they are backing up (not set as their Top

Skill). An agent may have a reserve1 skill level set f or mor e than one

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-6

skill, in addition to their top skill and other skill(s) that may have skill levels of 2-16. Some agents are assigned only reserve skills. These agents do not take calls unless one of their skills are over threshold. To assign reserve agents to each of the four skills used in this solution, use the following steps on the Change Agent Skills form:

1. Select Call Handling Preference: Greatest Need or Call Handling Preference: Skill Level.

2. Select the Service Objective check box.

3. Select Add Skills. The Add Agent Skills dialog box will display.

4. Add the E-mail, Fax, Voice calls, and Video Calls skills for t he agent

based on the agent’s expertise.

5. Set the res erve agent’ s skill lev el to reser ve1 (R1) for each assi gned skill that the agent will receive calls for only after that skill has exceeded its administered threshold.

6. Select OK to accept the assignment in both the Add Agent Skills and Change Agent Skills dialog boxes.

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Options 4

If you have several agents that need to have the same assigned skills and skill levels, use the Agent Template options on the Change Agent Skills form to use the information for another agent.

1. Using procedur es in the Chapter 6, “Agent Administration,” of the

CentreVu® CMS R3V8 Administration

define an agent template with the skill profiles you wish to apply to a group of agents.

2. Select the agent template in t he Select Agent/Template dialog box. The Change Agent Skills dialog box wil l display with the sk ill profil es for that template displayed.

3. Select the Agent Name(s)/Login ID(s) check box and enter up to 50 agents in the agent field or select up to 50 agents using the dropdown list or Browse dialog box.

4. Select OK.

CentreVu

send them to the switch one at a time. A status dialog box will display with the status of each agent request.

Supervisor will buf fer the change agent sk ills requests and

document (585-210-910),

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-7

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box

Field Descriptions 4

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup dialog box is acces sible from the

mands controller item, under Call Center Administ ration.

Com

Use the following table for existing split/skill Acceptable Service Level administration. New splits/ skills mus t be initia lly administe red on the Hunt Group form.

NOTE:

If the information on the Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box is changed through

DEFINITY DEFINITY

forms. See Chapter 11, “Administer

ECS” for more information.

CentreVu

Supervisor, it must also be changed on the

CentreVu

Advocate on

Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Implementation 4-8

CentreVu®

Advocate Release 8 User Guide

Field Use

Split(s)/Skill(s): Enter the split or skill number(s) or name(s) (must be

previously assigned in the Dictiona ry subsystem) you ar e searching for or modifying.

Acceptable service level: (Required entry)

Service level increments (seconds): (Required entry)

Enter the number of seconds that it is acceptable for an ACD call to wait before connecting t o an agent. This must be the same as the setting on the

DEFINITY

forms.

Enter a progressively g reater number of seconds in each

“to” field. The seconds before and after each word “to” define an increment in seconds of wait time. For example,”0 to 5 to 10 to 25...” means 0-5, 6-10, and 1125, and so on. Each of the nine increments can vary in length (for example, 0 to 15, 16 to 20, 21 to 26, 27 to 38, 39 to 43, and so on). Each increment represents a progressively longer wait time f or the call and is used for both answered and abandoned calls.

Lucent Technologies CentreVu Advocate Release 8, CentreVu Advocate User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Preface

Audience 0

Overview 0

Advocate Benefits

Organization and Use of This Document P-2

Organization of Document

Conventions Used in This Document P-5

Report Examples0

Related Documents P-6

Introduction: CentreVu® Advocate

Overview 1-1

Terminology 1

Agent and Call Selection

Call Selection Methods 1-2

Overview 1

Greatest Need 1

Skill Level 1

Percent Allocation

Service Objective

Predicted Wait Time

Service Level Supervisor

Agent Selection Methods 1-10

Overview 1

Least Occupied Agent

Most Idle Agent 1

UCD-MIA 1

Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions

Overview 2-1

Call and Agent Selection 2-2

Introduction 2

Understanding Call Selection

Understanding Agent Selection

Service Level Supervisor

Planning Your Call Center—CentreVu Advocate with EAS 2-13

Introduction 2

Separate Organizations

Organization Level Decisions

Within an Organization

Call Center Example

Combining CentreVu Advocate Solutions to Meet Call Center Needs 2-24

Overview 2

Match Caller With Most Qualified Agent

Build Stronger Relationships with Some Customers

Improve Overall Call Center Efficiency

Help Schedule Agents with Multiple Skills

Treat All Agents the Same

Treat Some Agents Differently

Improve Agent Fairness

Automate Supervisor Actions

Getting the Most from Your Call Center 2-31

For Best Performance

Matching Features to Goals

Overview 3-1

3 Call Center Solution : Maximize Revenues

Customer Example

Implementation 3-2

Switch Administration

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box

Verifying the Solution Through Reports 3-7

Reports

Real-Time Split/Skill Call Profile Report

Real-Time Queue/Agent Status Report

Historical Split/Skill Call Profile Report

Historical Split/Skill Graphical ASA Report

Things to Note 3-20

Overview 4-1

4 Call Center Solution: Handle Any Media

Customer Example

Implementation 4-2

Switch Administration

Split/Skill Call Profile Setup Dialog Box