In the babelforce manager, you can create and manage as many queues as you like.
The link shows where you can find and add queues.
You have full control of the settings for a queue. Click on the queue to open the settings. After clicking on "queue settings" you see the following:
Queue capacity shows the maximum number of concurrent calls that can be handled by the queue. The total active calls (shown in the screenshot above) is the number of calls still waiting plus the number of calls being handled by agents. This value allows you to ensure to offer an alternative call routing to a caller if too many calls come in at the same time - there is not much point adding the calls to the queue if you have no hope of serving them.
Max. Agents to call is the number of agents the babelforce platform attempts to call simultaneously.
The Dial Order determines the selection mechanism for the agents.
In the screenshot, we use "Random", which means that the queue will select 1 agent from the pool of available agents. You can choose from a number of different Dial Orders. The appropriate Dial Order and the settings will depend on your processes and call center setup.
Note that once an agent ends a call, they will have 20 seconds of wrap-up time to wrap up their call case. Hence, they will not be available in that time to be selected by the babelforce platform.
Wrap up time defines the time that the agent remains unavailable after they finish the previous call. You can set the value to prevent the agent phone from instantly starting to ring when they hang up the previous call. It is also used in situations where the agents have a wrap-up process to go through after each call, e.g. to ensure that all customer data from the call is correct, double-check any new data entries added in the call, etc.
Agent Ring Timeout is the time that the queue will attempt to ring agents at each round.
Some important common "gotchas" with the Queues:
Setting Agent Ring Timeout too low:
Setting a low value for Agent Ring Timeout can cause issues and there are a lot of things to consider when setting it. For example, if some agents are on normal landlines, then the call establish time might be 3 seconds, i.e. before it really begins ringing. So a setting of 6 seconds would only give the agent 3 seconds to take the call. This will result in an increase in the number of times that an agent takes the call but is not connected, i.e. because the agent just misses the timeout.
If some agents are on mobiles or have long call establish times for other reasons, it is even more important to set the value higher.
We suggest starting with a value of 15 seconds and then optimizing from there.
No one gets called:
If you think you have everything set up correctly, but your test calls to the queue don't connect to the agents, one of the following issues might be present:
1. Your agent selections have Triggers or selection values that do not match any agents when the queue tries to find the agents to call.
2. The agents that are added to the pool of agents by the platform (due to the queue settings) are not available (i.e. on calls, in wrap-up time, or status is unavailable/busy).
The best way to troubleshoot this, is to turn off all complex selections and simplify your settings. Then make a selection that calls 2 agents at a time from the group "_all" (i.e. every agent). Then ensure that some of your agents are actually available. Once some of the agents receive calls, you can reactivate your selections and optimize the settings again.
If you want to learn more about prioritizing call routing, feel free to read this article.
Have fun creating your own queueing and call distribution mechanisms!
