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- In ContactPad, click Make Call
. Your state changes automatically to Ready for Outbound(Offline). 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. An interaction card appears in ContactPad. The interaction card represents and contains information about the interaction and all channels (or parties) involved in the interaction.
Your telephone rings, and when you answer you hear ringing until you are connected to the target number.
In the following example, an agent made an outbound call to +441234567890 and was connected to the target number 49 seconds ago.
For more information about interaction cards and the information they contain, see Interaction cards in Overview of ContactPad.
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.
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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 time — between 15 seconds and 3 minutes.
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- Your state automatically changes to Busy Inbound
- The call control buttons—Release, Hold, and Consult—become active
- The Pause button becomes available (if this feature is enabled for your account)
Details of the inbound call appear in the information panelAn interaction card appears in ContactPad. The interaction card represents and contains information about the interaction and all channels (or parties) involved in the interaction.
In the following example, an agent received an inbound call from +441234567890 1 minute 22 seconds ago.
Info title Internal call By default, if the inbound call is an internal call from another agent in your account, the agent's name will appear in the related interaction card in the information panel.
For more information about interaction cards and the information they contain, see Interaction cards in Overview of ContactPad.
- The call control buttons — End interaction
- Your phone starts to ring
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If you answer your phone, you are connected to the caller and the Consult button becomes active. If you cannot accept the call right now, you can reject it. For information about rejecting a call, see the the How do I reject an incoming call? section later in this page.
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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
- Consult with a third party—another party — another agent, number, short code, queue or interaction plan—about plan — about this call, and, optionally, transfer the call to that third party. For information about consulting with a third party, see see How do I consult with and, optionally, transfer to a third party? later in this page.
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Before you are connected to a call, you can reject it. To reject a call when you receive an inbound call, click Release End interaction 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 Ready (Blocked). You remain in the Ready (Blocked) state for the time configured in Agent No Answer Timeout (Unexpected) in User Admin. For more information, see Configuring individual users.
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Warm and cold transfersA transfer can be one of two types:
The type of a transfer used depends on which features are enabled for your account. For more information, see Warm and cold transfers. |
To consult with a third party about your current call, start by clicking Consult . A new dialog box with the address book appears. For information about the address book and what it contains, see ContactPad address book.
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If warm transfers are enabled for your account, consulting with any third party will initially connect you to that third party. You can then warm transfer to them if desired. You cannot cold transfer the call. To continue, press Return, click Dial, or click Dial Consult
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If a choice of warm or cold transfers are enabled for your account, you can choose to consult with and optionally warm transfer, or cold transfer, to a third party.
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If you are connected to the third party, the active call control buttons change.
Release channel , End interaction
, Alternate
, and Transfer—become
— become active.
- To end the consult connection, click Release channel
- To reconnect with the caller, click Retrieve
- To consult another agent or number, or to transfer the call to a queue or interaction plan, click Consult.
- To reconnect with the caller, click Retrieve
To alternate between the caller and the consulted agent or number, click Alternate
Info If you hang up your telephone without releasing the consult connection, your caller is transferred to the consulted number.
- To transfer the caller to the consulted agent or number, click Transfer
Insert excerpt _ExcerptTransferringCalls _ExcerptTransferringCalls nopanel true
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To add a third party to an existing call, perform the following steps:
Click Consult Consult
Section Column width 55% For information about consulting with a third party, see How do I consult with and, optionally, transfer to a third party? earlier in this page. When you are connected to the target number or agent, in addition to the usual buttons, the Conference button appears in ContactPadyou will have an additional party in the interaction card. The original party will be on hold.
Column width 45% - Click ConferenceTo add the original party back into the call to make the call a conference call, click Retrieve
- You can now perform one of the following tasks:
Disconnect the consulted agent party and return to a two-way call with your customer. Click Releasethe original party. Click Release channel
Info The same occurs if the consulted agent clicks Release in clicks End interaction Connect the consulted agent and the customeroriginal parties, and leave the call. Click Transfer Click Transfer
Info If the customer hangs up, you and the consulted agent remain in a two-way call.
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- You, the agent, can click Release End interaction
- You, the agent, can hang up
- The caller can hang up
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| Best practice is to click Releaseclick End interaction |
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Following Wrap up (Auto) — when the timer has counted down to 0 seconds — your state changes to Ready, Ready for Outbound,or the state configured in State after wrap in an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) applet, automatically. Whether you change to Ready or Ready for Outbound is determined by your supervisor. If your call center generally receives more inbound calls than makes outbound calls, the default ready state is likely to be Ready. If your call center makes more outbound calls than receives inbound calls, the default ready state is likely to be Ready for Outbound.
Click Ready Ready at any time while in the Wrap Up state, ideally as soon as you are ready to take another call. Changing your state back to Ready as soon as possible helps your call center to answer more calls, and helps you to reduce your overall wrap up statistics.
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If you are using ContactPad for single interactions, click Extend Wrap near the top of ContactPad.
If you are using ContactPad for multiple interactioninteractions, click the icon that Extend wrap appears alongside the interaction you want to extend wrap time for.
Each time you click to extend wrap time, the remaining time is extended to the maximum wrap time. This time may vary between interactions.
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Occasionally, when you end a call, ContactPad becomes unresponsive. You might not be able to use the call control buttons or change your state—you state — you might remain in a Busy state. You cannot receive any new calls.
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To abandon a call, click the no entry icon on the information tab. A message appears to inform you that you must only abandon the call if releasing it has not worked. To proceed, click Abandon which appears within the Info section in the related interaction card.
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After abandoning a call in ContactPad, sometimes the call will continue at a telephony level. This is to ensure that you are not suddenly disconnected from the customer even if your intention was to end the call. You can continue to communicate with your customer, but, because the call will be disconnected from ContactPad so you can no longer use it to control the call. You, the caller, or both, must hang up to end the call at a telephony level. |
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