How calls are being pushed through to an agent

[jessiekidfernando]

Hello Everyone,

Just wondering how and what scripts are being executed for the dialer to push an outbound call to available agent? We want to know how vicidial is pushing a call to an agent. What involved scripts or table is being used that allows the system to decide when to forward a call. We are having random high wait time so we want to investigate why it is happening.


Thanks in advance.

[mflorell]

The "agi-VDAD_ALL_outbound.agi" script routes outbound auto-dial calls, and the "agi-VDAD_ALL_inbound.agi" script routes inbound calls. Each of these use quite a few database tables to figure out how to route calls and log everything they need to log.

A common reason for delays in routing of calls is database load issues which could be caused by either too many log records or some other kind of slow query issues which can be identified if you have slow query logging enabled on your database.

[williamconley]

You would honestly do well to have a Vicidial Professional spend two 30 minute sessions in your system.

Understand this: The Vicidial System is not a PBX or a program. It's a massive collection of scripts written in php/perl/bash/agi and javascript which control a PBX and use MySQL to accomplish the task. The ENTIRE system is built around the Vicidial "Campaign" module. If you have a look at the Campaign Detail Screen you will note that there are ... a lot of decisions. Each of which could improve or screw up your agent "talk time" vs "wait time". Some make sense, others have the opposite effect compared to what you expect, and yet others have no discernable logic until you change or check something OUTSIDE Vicidial itself.

But someone who has been managing a Vicidial server for a decade can spend 30 minutes looking, 15 minutes talking to you about what they learned, and another 15 minutes making changes. That won't get you a Top Fuel vehicle, but it ought to get you into the running comfortably for your next daily race.

By this I mean The Vicidial Group or anyone else with years of experience (like PoundTeam, of course, where I work).

PoundTeam also has a three hour training course, most of which is spent going over the settings in the Campaign but can include all the basic knowledge required for outbound OR inbound calling. If scheduled long enough in advance (ranges from ten days to two weeks, depending on the season), it's only $35/hour ... $105. Small price for comfortable dialing.

That being said: (Some often overlooked settings ...)

Every setting in the Campaign can have an effect. Dialing harder may not result in more talk time, just more DROP calls between dead air because all your calls land at once and the agents are limited. Tweaking dialers for reduced wait time is mostly science once you've done it a while, but at the beginning it feels like an art form.

Admin Server Settings:

Max Trunks: Should be set to a number just below overload.
Max Calls Per Second: If you are dialing 3-5 lines per agent, should be set to "1 per 10 agents" (eg: 25 agents = 3 Max CPS). This can smooth out the dialing (reduce bunching if you're having a lot of drops) but requires maintenance if your agent count varies widely. Remember: This is per server.

Campaign Settings:

Drop Call Seconds: ZERO (oddly enough, this causes the outbound calls to generate randomly instead of when "harvested" by a process ... reducing bunching and spreading out answers to reduce drops)
Dial Level Difference Target: If your system routinely doesn't drop calls but has XX agents waiting for calls almost constantly AND still has Zeros in the "Short/Fill" values of the real time screen AND has no congestion from exceeding your carrier's trunk limits: Setting this value to XX may decrease your waiting time successfully.

And then there's predictive dialing, which is a whole different discussion, but has two main settings:
* Dial Method: Any that have "Adapt"
* Available only tall: N

Together, these two settings can allow the system to calculate your dial level for you. However, it can also overload your system or drop to 1:1 dialing if you don't understand how it works. Don't go to lunch with this set for the first week, or you may get a call. LOL