Inbound after ringing calls to ensure 0% drop

[mav2287]

I am running in ratio mode and I am trying to keep a perfect 0% drop ratio. We have a high answer rate and most calls go to agents. We also only have a few agents in each campaign. I am having Vicidial do a 1:1 dial ratio based of available agents, however if I make it a blended group sometimes an inbound call will come in while an outbound call is still ringing. If the person answers the outbound then the call ends up being a drop. I know there is a feature to stop dialing while an inbound is in the queue, but is there a way to tell it to only connect the inbound once the number of agents is less than the number of calls ringing? For example if I have 2 agents and 2 calls ringing the inbound would only be connected once 1 of those lines is handled. Not sure if Vicidial can currently do this but as I stated before I am trying to run a TRUE 0% drop ratio.

Also is there a way to have a pause button where when pressed it wouldn't actually go into pause until the ratio of lines that agent uses have been either connect or time out. This way if an agent hit pause and the line that was being dialed for them answered it would still connect then pause. I know there is a pause after next call but if there is a string of calls that timeout the agent may have to wait a couple minutes for it.

[mflorell]

Have you tried the campaign "Inbound Queue No Dial" feature? This allows your system to not place any outbound phone calls until the inbound queue is cleared. It doesn't sound like that is exactly what you are looking for, but it might be helpful.

As for leaving an inbound call on hold as outbound calls dial, I'm sure that could be possible to add as a feature, but it wouldn't be very simple to do with how complex the agent routing is already. Also, in small call centers that could pose a big problem, and it would have to have a lot of settings and exceptions built in to handle conditions where for example one agent is set to take calls from an in-group that the other agent is not.

[mav2287]

We are using the "Inbound Queue No Dial" feature the only issues is that it doesn't complete the calls that are in progress. Because of that the inbound messes up the ratio and if someone happens to answer it results in a dropped outbound call since that agent is now taking the inbound. What I am trying to figure out is how to make it so that the inbound will wait till there is an open agent with no lines dialing and then push that inbound to that agent. That way even if every single person you call answers the phone you have a guaranteed 0% drop ratio even taking the inbound

The reason I am looking for this is that I actually have a very small call center and since we just don't have enough agents turning on inbounds results in dropped calls. Most of our inbounds are willing to wait to talk to someone but without something like this we are unable to maintain a 0% drop ratio.

Depending on how much code and how it would be done I may be able to help submit/write code as I have submitted some code to the bug tracker and am getting to know VICIDIAL. I had a bit of a feeling though that if this wasn't already there it may be a bit more involved than the code I have submitted. I also am still a bit admittedly a bit green with VICIDIAL and am still getting my feet wet.

[williamconley]

I am running in ratio mode and I am trying to keep a perfect 0% drop ratio. We have a high answer rate and most calls go to agents. We also only have a few agents in each campaign. I am having Vicidial do a 1:1 dial ratio based of available agents, however if I make it a blended group sometimes an inbound call will come in while an outbound call is still ringing. If the person answers the outbound then the call ends up being a drop. I know there is a feature to stop dialing while an inbound is in the queue, but is there a way to tell it to only connect the inbound once the number of agents is less than the number of calls ringing? For example if I have 2 agents and 2 calls ringing the inbound would only be connected once 1 of those lines is handled. Not sure if Vicidial can currently do this but as I stated before I am trying to run a TRUE 0% drop ratio.

Also is there a way to have a pause button where when pressed it wouldn't actually go into pause until the ratio of lines that agent uses have been either connect or time out. This way if an agent hit pause and the line that was being dialed for them answered it would still connect then pause. I know there is a pause after next call but if there is a string of calls that timeout the agent may have to wait a couple minutes for it.

There is a function/feature to "unbalance" the ratio and keep ONE agent available for inbound calls.

Dial Level Difference Target - This field is used to define whether you want to target having a specific number of agents waiting for calls or calls waiting for agents. For example if you would always like to have on average one agent free to take calls immediately you would set this to -1, if you would like to target always having one call on hold waiting for an agent you would set this to 1. Default is 0. This field is not used by the MANUAL or INBOUND_MAN dial methods.

[mav2287]

I did see that option, but from what I understood reading the "?" it looked like if you had it set to -1 and you only had one agent in that campaign it wouldn't dial until the second agent logged in if the ratio was set to 1:1. I was a bit worried because it is not uncommon to have some periods pass when we only have 1 person in any given campaign.

[williamconley]

in which case you're correct. you should consider combining the agents into a single campaign. better dialing rates that way. why multiple campaigns?