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Agent Allocation and Call Volume Adjustment

This page describes how to allocate agents efficiently and how to adjust call volume at the agent group level.

Agent Allocation

When not using Agent Voice Portal, just-in-time agent allocation provides control over the ways in which agents in the same agent group are allocated to interactive voice sub-campaigns assigned to that agent group.

There are two types of agent allocation:

Agent Distribution - Basic Allocation

Assuming all passes of the sub-campaign are actively running with equal priority and at the default call volume, agents are offered in equal proportion to each pass. For example, if the agent group has 24 agents and the sub-campaign has three active passes, each pass will be allocated eight agents (24 / 3 = 8).

If, in this same scenario, one pass completes while the other two continue to run, the eight agents freed up from the completed pass will be distributed evenly to the second and third passes (24 / 2 = 12).

If a sub-campaign has three passes that do not run concurrently, each pass is allocated all the available agents while it is running. For example, if Pass 1 runs from 9 AM to 11 AM, Pass 2 runs from 1 PM to 3 PM and Pass 3 runs from 6 PM to 8 PM, all 24 agents will be assigned first to Pass 1 and then, later in the day, to Pass 2 and eventually Pass 3.

Agent Distribution - Priority Allocation

Priority allows you to place a relative weight, or level of importance, on any or all passes in a sub-campaign. The weight is used to calculate the number of agents offered to each pass. You can set the priority for any pass to cause the system to increase or decrease the number of agents allocated to that pass using the Set Priority dialog.

Access the Set Agents / Priority dialog in one of the following ways:

  • From either the Campaigns tabbed page or the Agent Groups tabbed page, select Pacing > Set Agents / Priority.
  • Select the value in the sub-campaign or pass Priority column.
  • Right-click the agent group, sub-campaign, or pass row and select Set Agents / Priority.

Changing the Priority will increase or decrease the number of agents allocated to the sub-campaign or pass, and the percent distribution value adjusts to reflect the change. The priorities and associated weights used in the calculations are as follows:

  • High - Weight = 4
  • Medium - Weight = 2
  • Low - Weight = 1
  • Background - Weight = 0

The percent distribution of agents across all passes in the sub-campaign is calculated by dividing the weight of the pass by the sum of the weights of all running passes multiplied by 100:

  • (Weight of pass / sum of weight of all passes) x 100

Assuming all passes of the sub-campaign are actively running at the default call volume but with differing priorities, agents are offered to each pass based on its priority.

Using our example of 24 agents and three passes, all running concurrently, assume that Pass 1 has been assigned a priority of High, where passes 2 and 3 have a priority of Medium (the default). Agent allocation to the three passes is calculated as follows:

  • Pass 1 = (4 / (4 + 2 + 2)) x 100 = 50% (12 agents)
  • Pass 2 = (2 / (4 + 2 + 2)) x 100 = 25% (6 agents)
  • Pass 3 = (2 / (4 + 2 + 2)) x 100 = 25% (6 agents)

Call Volume Adjustment

You can adjust the rate of calling higher or lower at the agent group level. Adjustments at either level are limited to a range of -75% to +75%, in increments of 15%.

Access the Sub-Campaign Speed Adjustment dialog by selecting Pacing > Speedup/Slowdown.

If multiple sub-campaigns are using the same agent group, and you want to adjust the rate of calling for all sub-campaigns simultaneously, use the Agent Group Speed Adjustment dialog by selecting the Rate Adj (%) value on the agent group row. Changing the Rate Adjustment % will increase or decrease the rate of calling of all sub-campaigns at the agent group level.

Warning
If you use Rate Adjustment % (Rate Adj %) with Auto Pacing, there could be an undesirable change to the system-defined constant rate-per-minute of outbound messages. For example, if you have 6,000 calls to make in one hour, the system will calculate a rate of 100 calls per minute and send the calls at that rate for one hour. If you manually adjust the rate at which calls are made, the system will re-calculate and either speed up or slow down the calling rate per the percent indicated. This will likely result in the calls being completed early and possibly flooding the call center, or the list will not be completed, resulting in numbers left uncalled.
This page was last edited on January 8, 2018, at 15:16.
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