Transfers using 3 way - Report?

[llombardi]

Hi Friends,
I have an inbound campaign. Agents must make transfers. when doing so, they enter the external number and transfer using the 3 way. The problem is that I do not have the report of that transfer (time) and the calls remain in meetme.
Your support

VERSION: 2.14-685a
BUILD: 180825-2100
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[williamconley]

have the transfers sent to remote agents instead of "extensions". remote agents are also users, and then you ahve your report.

PS: Moving this support request to the support board where it belongs. Shame on you. lol

[ambiorixg12]

have the transfers sent to remote agents instead of "extensions". remote agents are also users, and then you ahve your report.

Very clever

[llombardi]

I do not want to send extensions, I want to transfer to external numbers, consult and transfer

[williamconley]

external numbers = 'extensions', this is an asterisk PBX which uses a "dialplan" consisting of tiny programs called extensions. So when you "call a number" you are actually "dialing an extension" and activating the "dialplan extension" for that number.

And "external" means "outside vicidial". Vicidial cannot report on things that are "outside" as a rule. (Although ... There are logs which have no reporting against them which may be useful. These are primarily used for diagnostics and troubleshooting.)

Most importantly: When you "transfer" a call from your prospect to a 3rd party, you're not actually creating a call between them. You are creating a new leg of the existing call to the 3rd party, then removing your agent from the existing call. But that leaves the original call in the Meeetme room in your Vicidial server, now with two people in it with neither one being tracked by your server! Just two essentially random parties in a conference call which is now passing through your server ... without any overview or visibility.

The solution to that is to transfer the call to a "remote agent" (which CAN BE an external number!) which is also a user in the system. That user is not logged in, has no access, and is merely an identifier for ... Reporting purposes. This allows the call to remain on your Real Time screen AND show up in reports as if the call were with one of your agents. Creating a different User Group for External users allows reporting on these users independently of the logged in (real?) users.

Of course, we have some older systems in which we've built reporting systems (including a Real Time report) for external calls (calls that have been transferred to 3rd parties). I just prefer this method because it doesn't require any custom code (ie: upgrade proof!)

[llombardi]

if there are variable numbers for each inbound call, how would the remote agent function?

[llombardi]

Im Sorry for the insistence, but I'm at a crossroads

[williamconley]

if there are variable numbers for each inbound call, how would the remote agent function?

How do you determine which "external number" to send the call to now?

[llombardi]

A customer calls and asks for example to communicate with an X clinic. The client is in an X state, the agent looks for all the clinics close to that state, finds the number (s) and makes the call and then makes the transfer. As this type of calls, there are different numbers to transfer: taxis, night club, hotels, schools, etc. in different states and areas

Please, help me

[williamconley]

In this situation, where an agent is using some sort of reference and then manually choosing the destination to which the call should be transferred, you have some ... concerns. For instance, your agents all know the numbers to which you transfer calls. This is often a dangerous situation as these agents may decide they can do this job without need for ... YOU. lol.

Create an Ingroup for each destination, named accordingly as agents will SEE this name and choose it instead of the extension number they chose previously.

Create a special "transfers" campaign. You can create one for each destination, or a single catch-all. Set the campaign to accept "inbound and blended". In the lower section, just above the black line for Lists, be sure to check all the inbound groups appropriate for this campaign (ie: all of them if this is a catch-all).

Then go to the Agent's campaign and check those same groups in "Allowed Transfer Groups". This allows the agents to send calls TO these groups.

So you set up a remote agent for each "destination" number. You set the "lines" to the number of simultaneous live calls they can accept from you (overflow can be sent elsewhere or kept in HOLD music locally until a line opens up in the Ingroup controls). For each Remote Agent you select the appropriate campaign (eg: the Catch all one) and the Ingroup for the destination. This is how the phone number is linked to the Ingroup, through the remote agent. Each of these Remote Agents needs a User for EACH line (so if you assign user 3001 with 10 lines, you'll want to create users 3001-3010). This allows all calls to that Remote Agent to be viewed for the duration of the call in the realtime screen. You also get "monitor" capability, which is very freakin' handy. And of course, reporting.

When you "activate" that remote agent, it should show as ready in the real time screen, just like a logged in agent, except it'll have r/????? instead of "sip/????". Note that while activate happens immediately, deactivate can take up to a minute to actually happen.

When agents want to transfer, they will choose transfer-conf and then choose the ingroup from the dropdown and click on "local closer". From this point, you should be looking at the Vicidial Manager's Manual for any info you think you don't get. This is all in the manual, so this is just a summary of the steps.