Inbound Calls Preventing Outbound Dials in ContactNow
Outbound dialer may pause once inbound calls start to queue in ContactNow. There are several reasons for this problem. Learn how to fix it here.
Symptom
When Inbound Calls begin queuing, Outbound dialing is paused.
Applies To
ContactNow
Resolution
Configure queues to avoid this issue.
- Avoid using a Welcome Message. While it is playing, all outbound dialing will stop. If you wish to mix dial modes, all welcome messages should be played on other queues if the agents on the other queues are inbound dialing + outbound dialing.
- An Easycallback call being set will stop outbound dialing. This is for all agents assigned to the Inbound Queue where the Easycallback is being placed for the duration of the Easycallback messages and number collection process.
- If you have a large number of agents, you should have a large threshold - perhaps around 4-5 - on EasyCallBack (do not leave at 0). If you do not have this, the time it takes for the Easycallback to placed will prevent your agents from working. This could be up to a minute, which for a busy contact center this can be very disruptive.
- "Intro Skip" and "Repeat" audio messages should be short to prevent dialing from being slowed down for long amounts of time.
- If its possible to have dedicated Outbound Teams and dedicated Inbound Agents, you can make fuller use of these Inbound options.
Cause
There are several causes for this problem:
- ContactNow prioritizes Outbound Calls that have already been placed over inbound calls to ensure that they are not abandoned.
- Outbound queues will not initiate a new call for an agent while an inbound call is queuing on an Inbound queue the agent is assigned to.
- Outbound calls will take precedence over an inbound call to be routed to an agent.
- Until there are more agents available than outbound calls being dialed the inbound call will not be connected to an agent.
- Any message (Welcome, Intro, Intro Skip, Repeat, Easycallback, etc) played on the inbound queue will prevent the call from being routed to agents until the message is complete. By extension, this will also disable outbound dialing for those times.