Dialogue Cloud

Planning your UCC

Before you start we strongly advise to create a clear inventory of how your UCC A Unified Contact Center, or UCC, is a queue of interactions (voice, email, IM, etc.) that are handled by Agents. Each UCC has its own settings, IVR menus and Agents. Agents can belong to one or several UCCs and can have multiple skills (competencies). A UCC can be visualized as a contact center “micro service”. Customers can utilize one UCC (e.g. a global helpdesk), a few UCC’s (e.g. for each department or regional office) or hundreds of UCC’s (e.g. for each bed at a hospital). They are interconnected and can all be managed from one central location. should react on an incoming call. Preferable by creating a diagram on paper. There are quite a number of elements to consider.

Hunting method

The UCC uses different methods to select the best available agent for each request (chat or call). Which method(s) apply for your UCC:

Presence based routing:

Only available agents will receive requests (can be overruled)

Device based routing:

Only Agents with specific devices will receive requests of that type (chats, calls, both).

Skill based routing Agents are hunted based on their Skill scores. The Agent with the highest score on the required Skill will be selected first.:

Agents with a specific skill will receive requests, in order of the highest skill score. When the score is equal choose:

Longest idle:

Anywhere365 selects the Agent that is idle for the longest time.

Longest available:

Anywhere365 selects the Agent who is available for the longest time.

Round Robin:

Anywhere365 automatically selects the next available member in a predefined list, this setting will omit the skill score.

Serial:

Anywhere365 always selects the first available member in a predefined list. The hunt always starts at the same Agent position.

Least calls:

Anywhere365 always selects the Agent with the least requests handled today.

Least occupied:

Anywhere365 always selects the Agent who was least occupied (talk time + discharge time) during that day.

Parallel:

Anywhere365 always contacts all Agents at the same time, the first one to answer gets the call (audio only). Nowadays only seen in Security/Emergency/FirstAid routing.

Global settings

There is a multitude of general settings, for purpose of this exercise the most important should be considered before you start.

More information: UCC General Settings

HuntTimeout:

The time (in seconds) that Anywhere365 waits for an Agent to accept the request. If the time is elapsed and the Agent has not accepted, the next Agent in line will be hunted.

QueueBusyTimeOut:

The time (in seconds) after which the Queue Escape will be offered.

DischargeDuration:

The time (in seconds) before a new Call will be forwarded to an Agent after the previous Call is finished (Wrap-up time).

EnableMusicOnHold:

TRUE = Play music on hold when customer is put on hold.

FALSE = Silence when customer is put on hold

UseAudioRecording

TRUE = All Calls will be recorded and an additional welcomes message (Welcome Recording) will be played.

FALSE = Call will not be recorded.

Agents

Which Microsoft Teams users will become Agents for this UCC and what are they allowed to do?

More information: Agents

Agents:

The list of Agent SIP The Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, is a protocol for multimedia communication (audio, video and data communication). SIP is also used for Voice over IP (VoIP). SIP has interactions with other Internet protocols such as HTTP and SMTP. addresses

Device:

When device based routing is used which Agent will be able to handle calls, chats or both?

Order:

Order represents the position of the Agent in an ordered list, which is used for the hunt methods "Round Robin" and "Serial".

Manual check in (formal):

Which Agents are able to sign in and -out manually from the respective UCCs. This can vary for each UCC.

Note

Additionally, the Wallboard and Snapper have different reporting mechanisms for formal and informal - take this into consideration when deciding which assignment a UCC agent requires, see: Agent statistics

Custom hours enabled:

Which Agents have a working schedule that differs from the UCC opening hours?

Supervisors

Which Microsoft Teams users will become Supervisors for this UCC and what are they allowed to do?

More information: Supervisor Role

Supervisors:

The list of Supervisor SIP addresses

Skills

Anywhere365 uses Skills to find the right Agent at the right time for a request. These Skills will be linked to Agents based on their skill score, the higher the score the more likely they receive the request.

More information: Skills per Agent

Skills:

Provide a list of skills e.g. Sales, Support, Outside business hours

Skill type:

There are four skill types, determine for each skill if they are a:

  1. Regular Skill: a customer waits for an available Agent until the customer gets answered by the Agent or drops the call

  2. CountDown Skill: a customer waits for an available Agent and if the call is not picked up within X seconds, the customer will be moved to another Skill

  3. Availability Skill: when a customer enters the Skill, Anywhere365 will check if there is an Agent available, if this is not the case the customer will be moved to another Skill

  4. CountDown Availability Skill: A combination of the Countdown Skill and Availability Skill, Anywhere365 will check if there is an Agent available, if this is not the case the customer will be moved to another Skill. If this is the case and if the call is not picked up within X seconds, the customer will be moved to another Skill

  5. Forward Skill

When option 2, 3 or 4 are selected also determine what skill they should be routed to next.

Agents per skill

Which Agents receive what skill?

Agent skill score

Determine for each Agent and each skill their score, from 1% hardly any skill to 100%, the expert. Good practice: when all Agents are equal provide all with a skill score of 100%

Call classifications

Call classifications can be used to tag conversations by using the Extension window (this functionality not available in the Reception, Workgroup or Small-Business License).

More information: Call Classifications

Title:

The name of the classification e.g. Support request, Private call etc.

Level:

To create multilevel classifications, for instance when you want to log support request for different products. e.g. Support (level 1), Software support (level 2) Hardware support (level 2) etc.

Reason codes

Agents that are able to set their availability can provide a reason why they are not available during opening hours. Supervisors can overrule the status change when the UCC is unexpectedly busy. For that reason they should know if the Agent is busy with other work, or away from their desk and unable to participate all together.

More information: Reason Codes

Title:

The name of the reason code e.g. Meeting, Lunch, Coffee break etc.

Code:

The two digit code Agents use to change their status

Status:

The status related to that code, either "Busy" or "Away".

Continue with Basic Configuration of your UCC