Handling Outbound Calls

Outbound calls are supported in the softphone via integration with Campaign Manager. Outbound campaigns contact a list of people in a structured manner based on the contact strategies set in Campaign Manager. Every campaign has a dialing Mode setting that determines when and how the campaign places calls - this is configured in Campaign Manager. The dialing mode lets the Agent see the end user information before dialing or matches an agent to a call after the call connects to a live party.

You can handle the outbound calls only after a tethered connection is established. When you change the agent state to Available, the state change request is sent to Campaign Manager. This initiates the tethered connection. The tethered call is auto answered in the softphone. After the tethered call connection is established, the agent’s state automatically changes to Busy and only then can an agent handle outbound calls. The status of the tethered call connection is indicated by an icon with different color; each color defines a different status as defined in the Call routing section.

Outbound Dialing Modes

The softphone supports the following outbound dialing modes.

• Preview Dialing

• Progressive Dialing and Predictive Dialing

Preview Dialing

Campaigns typically use Preview mode to reach high-value contacts. The campaign presents information about the contact fetched from Campaign Manager to the agent before dialing. The agent reviews the end user record before deciding whether to accept or skip to the next record or close. If the agent does not answer or reject or close (within a specified duration, in seconds as configured in Admin), the call is accepted automatically and initiated to the end user.

Progressive and Predictive dialing

In the Progressive and Predictive modes, Acqueon Dialer connects agents only to calls that are answered by people. Agents do not listen to unanswered calls, busy signals, disconnected lines. One or multiple calls are placed for each agent before they become available. It also helps in predicting agent availability and number of calls to keep each agent busy.

Handling Preview Calls

When you are in an Available State, and receive a tethered call, the softphone rings and the Accept, Reject, Close, and Delay buttons appear.

When you accept the call, the Acqueon Dialer initiates a call to end user and patches the call between the agent and end user. Preview call settings are configured in Campaign Manager.

From Acqueon Workspace admin, you can disable Skip / Close / Delay buttons for Preview campaigns.

These options are available in Preview Configuration in Campaign Manager Configuration. By default, all the Preview / Call Configuration controls are in the enabled state. Disable Skip / Close / Delay checkboxes are displayed under Preview Call Configuration. As per the selection of Skip, Close, and Delay options, the respective button is disabled in the agent’s screen.

Refresh the agent screen in the Acqueon Workspace application. Skip, Close, and Delay buttons are disabled as shown in the below screenshot.

During a call, an agent can perform the following actions:

• Put calls on hold

• Put calls on mute

• Transfer the call

• Conference the call

• Disconnect the call

Handling Progressive and Predictive Calls

Acqueon Dialer connects agents only to calls that are answered by people. Agents do not listen to unanswered calls, busy signals, disconnected lines. When call is answered by end user, call controls are visible on softphone. When an agent attends a progressive or a predictive call, the following screen is displayed.