Scheduled Calls tab

Managing scheduled callbacks for unavailable agents

Options on the Scheduled Calls tab manage scheduled callbacks for an agent who is unavailable (sick, on vacation, left the company, and so on). Agents who are sick, on vacation, or who have left the company are unavailable to process callbacks. When this happens, administrators can use the Scheduled Calls tab to:

• Reschedule callbacks for a specific date and time

• Assign agent callbacks to another agent

• Assign agent callbacks to any available agent in the campaign

• Postpone callbacks until an agent will be available

• Delete callbacks

Agents schedule callbacks at the request of a contact (e.g. "call me back next Saturday.").  A callback is a scheduled outbound call that connects an agent to a particular contact at a particular time.  Scheduled callbacks are sometimes called agent-owned callbacks, since the callback is assigned to be processed by a particular agent.

NOTE: An agent-owned callback is a contact record that has an associated entry in the CallRecordSchedule table that schedules an outbound call to the contact. When the call is connected, it is routed to the agent who "owns" the scheduled call. Typically this is the agent who flagged the contact for callback in a previous conversation.

Search panel

Settings on the Search panel allow you to define a query that returns a list of callback records. The controls are:

Campaign

Set to Any by default, this drop down allows you to select callbacks for a specific campaign.

Site

Set to Any by default, this drop down allows you to restrict the search for callback records to an ODS server.

Agent

Set to Any by default, this drop down allows you to select callbacks for a specific agent.

Phone Number

This text box allows you to select callbacks to a specific contact number.

Any Date

This check box allows you to determine the date range that you want to search. When selected, scopes callback criteria to all days of the week. When unselected, you can limit criteria to a range of days, by setting start and end dates/times using the Start and End calendar controls.

Start

If you do not select the Any Date check box, you can use this calendar/time control to select a date and a time when the callback criteria will start.

End

If you do not select the Any Date check box, you can use this calendar/time control to select a date and a time when the callback criteria will end.

Reset Field

To reset the settings to the default values before entering new search criterion, use this button.

Search

To run your query and populate the Search Results list with matching records, use this button.

Actions panel

When search results are displayed in the grid, you can select any number of rows in the grid, select and configure an action, and then apply that action to the row or rows containing the scheduled callback records that you have selected.

Delete

This check box allows you to delete scheduled callback records. When selected, all other actions are unavailable.

Assign to agent

This check box allows you to select a specific agent from the drop-down and assign the selected callback records to that agent. By default, this setting is set to Any Agent.

Specify Date/Time

This check box allows you to use the calendar/time control to select a date and a time when the selected callback records will be dialed.

Postpone

This check box allows you to use the Days, Hours, and Minutes boxes to specify how long you want to postpone the selected scheduled callback.

Run Action

Once you have selected the rows you want to apply an action to, use this button to execute the action.

Search Results

When you run a query, the results showing each matching scheduled callback record are displayed in a grid under the column headings listed here. You can then select rows and apply changes those records using the controls in the Actions panel. You can also apply changes to all the records by using the drop-down column controls.

For example, you could select a site from the Site drop-down list and change the Site value for every record in the list of results. This change takes place immediately. For this reason you should narrow down the selections appropriately using criterion on the Search panel.

I3IDENTITY

An integer value that uniquely identifies each row in the contact list.

Campaign Name

Name of the campaign associated with the scheduled callback record. The drop-down in this column header allows you to select a campaign name and assign that campaign to every record in the list of results.

Agent

If the callback is agent-owned, this column displays the name of the agent who is to receive the call when the callback is placed. The drop-down in this column header allows you to select an agent and assign that agent to every record in the list of results.

Site

Name of the Outbound Dialer Server associated with the scheduled callback record. The drop-down in this column header allows you to select a site and assign that site to every record in the list of results.

Phone Number

Telephone number to be called.

Contact Column

The name of the column that contains the scheduled callback number. The drop-down in this column header allows you to select a contact column and assign that column to every record in the list of results.

Date

The date when the contact will be called.