When an inbound call arrives in the Vonage Contact Center, Vonage Contact Center routes the call through applets as configured in the interaction plan. Using your configuration settings, Vonage Contact Center determines which agent or agents can handle the call and estimates when such an agent will be available.
If the queued callbacks feature is enabled for your account, you can configure your interaction plan to set up a callback to the caller.
Setting up a callback enables the caller to hang up their phone rather than waiting for an agent to answer their existing call. When the caller hangs up their phone, NewVoiceMedia does not count the call as abandoned. When an appropriate agent becomes available to handle the call, NewVoiceMedia initiates an outbound call from that agent to the caller. NewVoiceMedia changes the agent's state to Busy Callback.
By default, NewVoiceMedia makes the callback to the original CLID.
Alternatively, you can configure your interaction plan to overwrite the callback number. For example, you might request that the caller provides an alternative number and use that for the callback. For information about overwriting the callback number, see Setting up queued callbacks.
By default, NewVoiceMedia maintains both the caller's original waiting time and all skills, agreements, and data sources associated with the call. NewVoiceMedia initiates the callback, therefore, at approximately the same time that the original call would have been answered. NewVoiceMedia routes the call to the same queue as the original call.
Alternatively, you can also configure your interaction plan such that NewVoiceMedia routes the original call or the callback call through applets that change information associated with the call—skills, data sources, and so on. In such an interaction plan, NewVoiceMedia takes these changes into account when routing the callback. Such changes may result in NewVoiceMedia initiating the callback earlier or later than the original call would have been answered. For information about using a callback initial applet to change associated skills, and so on, see Setting up queued callbacks.
Re-queuing callback calls
If the agent doesn't answer the callback, the callback automatically returns to the queue.
If the agent does answer the callback, but the callback doesn't reach the provided callback number (the number is engaged or the call connects to voicemail, for example), the callback is not re-queued. This behavior avoids the callback being retried infinitely—if the callback number provided is incorrect, for example.
For information about configuring queued callbacks, see Setting up queued callbacks.
Limitations of queued callbacks
To report on queued callbacks, you can use Dashboards; the latest Advanced Reporting and Statistics package in Salesforce, which uses the new Stats API; or the Stats API.
Queued callbacks are not supported in Real Time, Stats and Reports, or Work Force Management (WFM) integrations with the Stats API.
Queued callbacks and Dashboards
If you are using both Real-Time Analytics and queued callbacks, you can configure widgets to show information about queued callbacks. Information relevant to queued callbacks includes the following metrics:
- The number of queueing callbacks
- Shortest, longest and average wait times of the queueing callbacks
- The numbers of offered and answered queued callbacks
The initial inbound call is of media type Phone. Vonage Contact Center counts this call as Offered but not Answered. To set up a callback, Vonage Contact Center creates a second call. This call is of media type Phone Callback and Vonage Contact Center counts it as Currently Waiting until answered. When an agent answers the callback, Vonage Contact Center creates an outbound call to the original caller. This third call is of media type Phone.
Filter or group the data in your widget by media type to differentiate between live calls and queued callbacks.
For information about filtering or grouping data by media type in your widget to show queued callbacks, see Configuring a widget for queued callbacks.
Queued callbacks and Advanced Reporting and Statistics
If you use the latest Advanced Reporting and Statistics package in Salesforce, which uses the new Stats API, you can search and view queued callback activity. You can connect the callback with the original inbound call, and the subsequent outbound call. For information about using Advanced Reporting and Statistics in Salesforce, see Advanced Reporting and Statistics in Salesforce.
Queued callbacks and Stats API
If you use the Stats API to track NewVoiceMedia activity, you can use an interaction's conversationGuid parameter to connect the original inbound call, the callback, and the outbound call. For information about using the Stats API, see NewVoiceMedia Developer Portal.