Consultative checkbox when doing transfer to preset

[dspaan]

I have been trying to figure out the easiest way for agents to do these two things:

1.Transfer a call to another agent
I'm doing this via the agents link, select the agent, check the CONSULTATIVE checkbox and then PARK CUSTOMER DIAL or LOCAL CLOSER.

2.Transter a call to a cell phone using presets
I'm doing this via the presets menu, i choose person from the list and i have to uncheck the CONSULTATIVE checkbox and then PARK CUSTOMER DIAL or BLIND TRANSFER.

Why do i need to disable the CONSULTATIVE checkbox in scenario 2? When it is enabled i can't ring the cell phone. This will be very confusing for agents to have to check/uncheck it for each different call.

[MJCoate]

The consultative box is for telling VICIdial what the second leg of a 3-way is going to be. For LOCAL CLOSER, you don't need to have it checked because it's just a blind transfer to an in-group. For any other transfer where you could either be sending to an in-group OR sending to an outside number, the consultative box is what differentiates the two options. For example, if you leave it unchecked and click DIAL WITH CUSTOMER, VICIdial is going to try and place a 3-way call to whatever is in the NUMBER TO CALL box. But if it's checked then it does a 3-way to the in-group selected in the transfer group dropdown box. Same thing with PARK CUSTOMER DIAL. Leave it checked and it's a 3-way to an in-group; unchecked and it's a 3-way to an outside line.

I don't know what your dialing needs are but based on the two options each scenarios has used, you could always do blind transfers and so leave the box unchecked. This is the 'easiest' in terms of the agents having to click less buttons. But if you're going to do a mixture of blind transfers and 3-ways, you're going to have to have them learn the proper steps for the various transfers.

[dspaan]

Hi MJCoate,

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for your answer.

I don't know about other users of vicidial but these i think are very typical scenarios for a callcenter agent:

1.Transferring to other logged in agents
2.Transferring to outside lines

And in both cases most of the time they are 'warm' transfers. So you first speak to the person you are trying to call and then you transfer.

If the transfer screen needs such a long explanation and forum discussion how are simple agents supposed to understand all these options and checkboxes and when to use them?

This needs to be simplified.

[williamconley]

If the transfer screen needs such a long explanation and forum discussion how are simple agents supposed to understand all these options and checkboxes and when to use them?

This needs to be simplified.

Agreed. Are you planning to sponsor this "simplification"? Obviously Vicidial is (at some level) aware of whether the transfer in progress is internal or external. Obviously pushing the "Dial With Customer" on an internal call should therefore invoke (auto-check?) the "consultative" feature (box). But I'm guessing that (to date) nobody has paid for this to happen.

Based on the visible code, these two features were developed independently. But they should definitely now "merge" in the view of the agent even if the code can't be merged under the hood.

[dspaan]

Maybe i can get it funded but first we need to answer the question what would be an ideal solution. I'm thinking of a campaign setting that allows you to configure an alternative transfer panel that completely replaces this one.

[mflorell]

The agent manual has step-by-step instructions with screenshots to show how to do each type of transfer. Once agents learn how to do the specific type of transfer their manager wants them to do, it's usually not a problem from then on.

As for why these work the way they do, each of these transfer functions was developed years apart, as clients sponsored development of them, and since we are usually very strict about backward compatibility of functions, that's how we ended up with the transfer panel looking the way it looks now.

As for changes, the different transfer functions are pretty complicated in the code and on the back-end, mostly because of the hoops we have to jump through to get Asterisk to handle them each in different ways. Making a new transfer panel could certainly be possible, but it would probably take quite a lot of development to make it work with new options and still allowing the default option in the code for the current transfer panel. Before I could quote it, I would need some kind of mock-up of what the new one should look like and exactly what kind of functionality should be allowed.

[dspaan]

Thanks for explaining Matt. I will post back on this once i have a better idea on what to change, it might just be minor stuff like allowing to check the consultative transfer checkbox by default.

[williamconley]

It might also be interesting to experiment with combining the features. It may be possible to use "dial with customer" to set the "consultative" checkbox and blind transfer to UNSET it. After all, this value is ignored during an external transfer anyway.

[kimberly1]

Is there a way to enable the "Consultative" checkbox as a default automatically across all calls/campaigns?
Currently, the agents need to check "Consultative" once after each login. However, they tend to forget and get stuck with the connected line until the call is over.
Thanks for the help!

[williamconley]

Is there a way to enable the "Consultative" checkbox as a default automatically across all calls/campaigns?
Currently, the agents need to check "Consultative" once after each login. However, they tend to forget and get stuck with the connected line until the call is over.
Thanks for the help!

1) Don't think there's a preference for this. But it sounds like a Great Opportunity for someone (hint) to sponsor that feature with The Vicidial Group (or a 3rd party, such as PoundTeam) to get it coded (and have a DIFF submitted for inclusion if 3rd party).

2) Your description makes me nervous: Without Consultative checked when sending the call to a local transfer group, the call would essentially blind transfer and the agent would NOT be "stuck" in the call at all: They should be OFF the call entirely. Please describe in a bit more detail what is happening and verify that these are transfers to other Vicidial users and not transfers to external numbers outside the Vicidial system (for which the "dial with cust" button is used and not the Consultative checkbox).

[kimberly1]

Hi williamconley! Thanks for the feedback; much appreciated!

1. I was informed by another Vicidial user that this feature is already available. Unfortunately, I am unsure where to enable this.

2. To clarify, (in our company) an Opener must have Consultative checked and then Dial with Customer, to successfully 3-way a call to their Closer. Once they are connected, the Opener can leave the 3-way call. However, if the Opener forgets (which happens frequently) to check Consultative, they can not leave the 3-way call after "Dial with Customer" with their selected Closer to take over without ending the entire call altogether. As a result, I have to place them on a different station to make new calls while their Closer completes their call with the client first. The calls are transferred to agents within the agent transfer list(internal to our company).

[williamconley]

Very well explained. I don't know if there's a preference for this yet, but I don't think there is. It would not be an overly complex process to check the consultative box by default, or to auto-check consultative if "dial with customer" is pressed when transferring to a local closer. Perhaps pre-check the box if a local closer is auto-selected when the pane comes up, and auto-check the box if a local closer group is selected from the dropdown. In theory.

None would be "cheap", but all are doable.

To ensure full backwards compatibility, it should probably be a preference on the campaign and set to "No" for existing campaigns. I'm not sure if there's ever a reason to have the consultative box NOT checked to gain any functionality (other than blocking the final transfer? can't accidentally hit leave-3-way call?).

[mflorell]

We could add a "3-way Consultative Checkbox" setting to Campaign Detail screen, with options similar to how "Manual Dial Search Checkbox" currently works, for 2 hours of programming time. That would also include it as a feature in the svn/trunk codebase of VICIdial. If you're interested in that, send an email to sales@vicidial.com

[kimberly1]

Thank you for the feedback everyone! Much appreciated! I will send a request if we decide to move forward with this.