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How do I make an outbound call?
Making an outbound call using ContactPad occurs in two stages:
- Vonage Contact Center dials your phone, and your state changes to Busy Outbound. You must answer this call.
- When you answer the call, Vonage Contact Center dials the number you provide.
To make an outbound call, perform the following steps:
- In ContactPad, click Make Call. Your state changes automatically to Ready for Outbound. In this state you are temporarily removed from any of the inbound queues you serve, giving you time to look up the contact number you wish to dial or read through your notes to prepare for your outbound call.
A new dialog box with the address book appears. For information about the address book and what it contains, see ContactPad address book.
Insert excerpt _ExcerptConsultListNavigation _ExcerptConsultListNavigation nopanel true Press Return or click Dial.
Your telephone rings, and when you answer you hear ringing until you are connected to the target number.
Outbound call failures
When you make an outbound call, you might see receive error messages in the ContactPad message panel. These messages help you understand why calls have failed, so you can try another number, or arrange a later callback.
You can receive one of these three error messages:
Unable to place call to agent. Please try again This error occurs if your line is already in use, your line has a fault, or your telephone number is incorrect.
Info title Important Your supervisor should be able to identify any causes. If the above error messages persist you may have a problem with your phone and you should contact your supervisor to diagnose.
- Unable to place call to dialled number. Please try again This error occurs if you have provided an invalid number. Check the number you want to dial, ensuring that you provide the correct national or international code.
- Unable to place call - dialled number did not answer This error occurs if no one answers the phone after a configurable length of time—between 15 seconds and 3 minutes.
If messages persist, report a fault on your phone line to your Supervisor.
How do I answer an inbound call?
When you receive a call through the ContactPad you can make use of Vonage Contact Center's call control features; you can put the call on hold, consult with someone else, transfer the caller elsewhere or even control the call recordings.
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- end the call. For information about ending a call, see How do I end an inbound call? later in this page.
- put the caller on hold. Click Hold to put the caller on hold. The caller hears on-hold music or beeps and the Hold button changes to a Retrieve button. Click Retrieve to speak with the caller again.
- consult with a third party—another agent, number, short code, queue or service—about interaction plan—about this call, and, optionally, transfer the call to that third party. For information about consulting with a third party, see How do I consult with and, optionally, transfer to a third party? later in this page.
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inbound call?
Before you are connected to a call, you can reject it. To reject a call when you receive an inbound call, click Release in ContactPad. The inbound call is then returned to the queue and routed to the next available agent.
After rejecting an inbound call your state automatically goes into No Answer.
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While on a call, you can consult with another agent or someone on another number about the call. If you have the Consult to Queue feature enabled for your account, you can also consult with a queue or serviceinteraction plan. More specifically, you consult with an available agent servicing the queue or serviceinteraction plan. For information about the Consult to Queue feature, see Consult to Queue. During consultation you can choose to transfer the call to the consulted agent, number, short code, queue, or serviceinteraction plan.
To consult with a third party about your current call, perform the following steps:
Click Consult. A new dialog box appears displaying all agents, queue names, service names, and agent groups in alphabetical orderwith the address book appears. For information about the address book and what it contains, see ContactPad address book.
Insert excerpt _ExcerptConsultListNavigation _ExcerptConsultListNavigation nopanel true - Press Return or click Dial to connect to the selected agent or the telephone number provided, or wait in the queue or service for an available agent to consult:
If you selected an agent or another number you will hear ringing until you are connected or until the consult times out.
Note The timeout for consulting with another agent or telephone number is configurable in System Settings. For information about configuring the timeout, see Editing System Configuration (Account Settings).
Your caller hears on-hold music until you return to or transfer the call.
If you selected a queue or service interaction plan and have the Consult to Queue feature enabled, the original caller is put on hold and hears on-hold music. You—the agent—enter and wait in the queue or serviceagent—wait for another agent to answer your call. For more information, see Consult to Queue. While waiting, you can click Alternate to switch between the queue and the original caller.
- If you selected a queue or service interaction plan and do not have the Consult to Queue feature enabled for your account then the original call is transferred immediately to the selected queue or serviceinteraction plan.
Column width 60% When you are connected to the target agent or telephone number, or agent servicing the queue or serviceinteraction plan, the active call control buttons change.
Section Release, Alternate, and Transfer—become active.
- To end the consult connection, click Release. The active call control buttons change again. Retrieve and Consult—become active.
- To reconnect with the caller, click Retrieve. You are connected to the caller.
- To consult another agent or number, or to transfer the call to a queue or
- interaction plan, click Consult. Go to step 1.
- To transfer the caller to the consulted agent or number, click Transfer or hang up your telephone. The call is transferred and your state changes to Call Transferred for 5 seconds.
Insert excerpt _ExcerptTransferringCalls _ExcerptTransferringCalls nopanel true To alternate between the caller and the consulted agent or number, click Alternate. You can alternate as many times as you require.
Info If you hang up your telephone without releasing the consult connection, your caller is transferred to the consulted number.
Column width 40%- To end the consult connection, click Release. The active call control buttons change again. Retrieve and Consult—become active.
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call (
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conference call)?
While on an inbound a call, if enabled for your account, you can add another participant to the call, for example another agent.
To add a third party to an existing inbound call, perform the following steps:
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When you are in a conference call, DTMF call control is unavailable. If enabled for your account, you and your customer can, however, use DTMF tones while in a conference call. The tones will play to all parties on the call. If you need to use DTMF tones in conference calls, contact your account manager. |
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a call?
At the end of an inbound a call, you can end the call in one of three ways:
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The amount of time you have in the Wrap Up (Auto) state is automatically set by your supervisor, and , but, for inbound calls, the wrap time can be different for each call type you receive. If you set yourself to Wrap Up (Manual) you will remain in this state until you manually change your state again. |
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