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Ofcom Requirements

In 2010, the Office of Communications (known as Ofcom) in the United Kingdom published a statement concerning the treatment of abandoned and silent calls. The intent of the statement was to clarify and strengthen current policy and to reduce the consumer harm resulting from such calls.

To increase compliance with Ofcom, OCS 8.1.1 implements the following new functionality:

  • Provide the outbound campaigns administrator with an automated way to reasonably estimate the AMD false positive rate.
  • Ability to automatically include the AMD false positive rate in the Abandoned and Overdial rate calculations for Predictive campaigns.
  • Ability to calculate the Abandoned rate over a fixed period of time (24 hours).
  • Ability to dial outbound calls in automated dialing modes with guaranteed connection to an agent.

Estimating the AMD False Positive Rate

AMD false positive calls are calls that are answered by live individuals, but are mistakenly identified by Call Progress Detection (CPD) functionality as being answered by answering machines, and are disconnected (not connected to agents). AMD false negative calls are calls that are answered by answering machines, but are mistakenly identified by CPD functionality as being answered by live individuals. Both of these types of calls affect dialing of the campaign group. The rate at which these calls occur cannot be predicted by OCS, because it depends on a number of different factors and varies from one call center to another.

OCS has the capability to account for the AMD false positive rate when running Predictive (or Predictive with Seizing) campaigns. OCS is also capable of using the AMD false positive rate when running Progressive (or Progressive with Seizing) campaigns for reporting purposes.

If the false positive rate is determined, and the campaign administrator wants to account for it, the rate should be set using the option pa-amd-false-positive-rate and the predictive algorithm will account for it in dialing pace calculations for Predictive campaigns.

You can determine the actual value of AMD false positives and AMD false negatives in your call center using one of the following methods:

  • The AMD false positive and AMD false negative rates for the campaigns are already known.
  • Using percentage of calls nominated by the predictive algorithm to determine the AMD false positive and false negative rates.
  • Using your own methodology to determine the AMD false positive and false negative rates.
Note: The last two methods used for AMD false positive rate calculations can also be used in the call center to verify and fine-tune the AM detection facilities.

OCS can account for the AMD false positive rate when running Predictive (or Predictive with Seizing) campaigns in a VoIP environment. OCS can also use the AMD false positive rate when running Progressive (or Progressive with Seizing) campaigns for reporting purposes.

Note: This feature is not available for deployments using CPD Server.

When AMD False Positive and False Negatives Rates are Known

If the AMD false positive rate for your campaigns are known at the beginning, OCS does not limit you to using its own method of determination. Just specify the rate using the pa-amd-false-positive-rate option and the predictive algorithm will account for it.

Using Percentage of Calls Nominated by Predictive Algorithm

You can use the predictive algorithm to nominate a percentage of calls for AMD false positive and false negative rate determination. To do this, configure the option pa-amd-test-percentage to the desired non-zero value in either:

  • Each Campaign Group that you want to use for AMD false positive and false negative rate determination, or.
  • The OCS application if you want to apply this configuration option for all campaign groups.

Once the value of this option is set to a non-zero value, the following occurs:

  1. OCS randomly selects a portion of paced outbound calls to be nominated for AMD false positive and false negative rate determination. Because the calls are selected randomly, call results distribution in the nominated portion of calls will statistically be the same as between all outbound calls placed.
  2. Each nominated outbound call dialed by OCS has a special key-value pair (GSW_CALL_RESULT_FEEDBACK = 1) attached to it.
  3. OCS makes specific efforts to place each nominated call so that this call is delivered to an agent after (and if) an answering machine is detected for this call. This occurs regardless of treatments for AM calls by setting the AttributeExtensions in the request sent to the outbound dialer. You can turn AMD on by setting a required value of the call_answer_type_recognition option.
  4. After a nominated call reaches an agent, it is the responsibility of the agent to detect actual call result (answered by a live individual or by an answering machine), and provide the actual result to OCS using a RecordProcessed or UpdateCallCompletionStats desktop protocol request. The call result should be delivered in the GSW_CALL_RESULT pair in accordance with desktop protocol. OCS can process either of these requests and will account for the first one that contains the call result.
  5. After receiving the agent’s call result, OCS compares it to the call result received earlier from the dialer for this call.
  6. OCS periodically reports the statistics for the campaign group for false positives and false negatives in 12-50145 and 12-50146 log messages, based on the input received from the agent desktops. Refer to the Framework 8.1 Combined Log Events Help for information about these log messages.
  7. The campaign administrator should allow a campaign containing nominated calls to run for a period of time, then collect the accumulated data from OCS log messages and use it as a base for the calculation of the value of AMD false positives. This calculated value should then be used for pa-amd-false-positive-rate settings for this or other campaigns, as required.

This method allows you to determine the actual AMD false positive rate without interfering with the campaign run. You can set the value of the option pa-amd-test-percentage as required in your environment.

Note: You can set this option to as high as 100% so that all AMD calls are delivered to agents for re-verification. However, the more AMD calls are passed to agents, the more performance of the outbound campaign is affected.

An agent’s desktop software can use the special key-value pair GSW_CALL_RESULT_FEEDBACK=1 to ensure the agent provides the call result that was verified manually to OCS in the desktop protocol request. It is recommended that you set the OCS option record_processed to true for these campaigns. The key-value pair GSW_CALL_RESULT_FEEDBACK=1 can also be used by other Genesys applications (such as Universal Routing Server) to ensure that a nominated call is delivered to an agent for call result verification if the dialer detected an answering machine for the call.

Note: OCS provides the raw data for AMD false positive rate calculations. It is the responsibility of the campaign administrator to do the actual calculations and then set the rate for campaign groups using the pa-amd-false-positive-rate option. OCS does not calculate this percentage itself, nor does it account for it automatically for the campaign unless the rate is defined in the specified option.

Using Your Own Methodology

You are not required to use the predictive algorithm to nominate some outbound calls for AM call result verification. Instead, you can nominate your own portion of outbound calls (for example, using a Universal Routing Server strategy) to be delivered to agents for call result detection verifications. In that case, the option pa-amd-test-percentage should be set to 0 (zero) and the agent desktop must provide actual call result using RecordProcessed or UpdateCallCompletionStats desktop protocol requests. OCS will process these desktop requests for AMD false positive and AMD false negative statistics collection and report the resulting statistics via 12-50145 and 12-50146 log messages. These statistics can then be used for actual AMD false positive rate calculations as described earlier in this chapter.

Logging by OCS

To aid in monitoring and testing AM detection, log events 12-50145 and 12-50146 contain counts of answered and AMD calls since the last reset of the Abandoned Rate calculation using the pa-odr-period-start-time option. Refer to Framework Combined Log Events Help for the description of these log events.

Target Value of the Overdial Rate

If the goal is to optimize the Overdial Rate, and if the AMD false positive rate is configured, OCS can predict the dialing rate so that the Abandoned Rate, including AMD false positives, meets the Target Value of the Overdial Rate. OCS then calculates this reduced actual Target Value in comparison with the Target Value as defined by the Optimization parameter for the Campaign Group.

Note: If the AMD false positive rate is not configured, OCS does not reduce the Target Value.

The reduced Target Value is calculated using the following formula:

TR = (T - FR) / (1 - FR/100)

where:

TR = Reduced Target Value

T = Target Value specified for the Campaign Group

FR = AMD false positive rate as a proportion of total calls answered by live individuals, expressed as a percentage

If the reduced Target Value (TR) is less than 0.5%, OCS uses 0.5% as the Target Value and periodically reports the situation.

Abandoned Rate Calculation

OCS calculates the Abandoned Rate as follows:

AR = (A + F) / (A + C)

where:

AR = Abandoned Rate

A = Total number of abandoned outbound calls. That is, the calls identified by CPA functionality as being answered by live individuals and not connected to agents (dropped by the dialer or abandoned by the customer), including AMD false negatives.

C = Total number of outbound calls connected to agents, including AMD false negatives.

F = Used to include AMD false positives in the Abandoned Rate in accordance with the DMA approach referenced by Ofcom, and is calculated as follows:

F = C * FR / 100

with the following restriction:

F = D if (C * FR / 100) is greater than D

where:

FR = AMD false positive rate as a proportion of total calls answered by live individuals, expressed as a percentage, and is set by the pa-amd-false-positive-rate option.

D = Total number of disconnected calls, identified by CPD functionality as being answered by answering machines, including AMD false positives.

OCS uses this Abandoned Rate for all types of reporting and logging, and for comparison with the predictive_max_overdial_rate and the predictive_min_overdial_rate (if configured) options to switch between Progressive and Predictive modes.

Time Interval for Abandoned Rate Calculation

As directed by Ofcom, OCS calculates the Abandoned Rate for each Campaign Group over a 24-hour period, starting from the time specified by the pa-odr-period-start-time option. At the end of the period, OCS reinitializes the calculation by setting the number of abandoned calls, calls connected to agents, and disconnected AMD calls to zero (0). If the option is absent, set to -1, or set to an invalid value, the calculation is not reinitialized and the Abandoned Rate remains unchanged.

Assured Connection

OCS is capable of dialing an outbound call in an automated dialing mode that is guaranteed to be connected to an agent. This may be desirable for calling some numbers as required by government regulations.

Outbound provides the ability to engage agents by using skills-based routing techniques with skill requirements that are defined by data in the mandatory and customer fields of a calling list record when using Progressive dialing mode and the Assured Connect functionality.

See Assured Connection for details about these functionalities.

Safe Dialing

The Safe Dialing feature protects outbound dialing from abnormal over-dialing which can be caused by incorrect configuration or routing. OCS automatically stops the outbound dialing (stops requesting new outbound calls) if abnormal over-dialing occurs.The Safe Dialing feature applies to the following dialing modes:

  • Progressive
  • Progressive with seizing
  • Predictive
  • Predictive with seizing
  • Predictive GVP

Use the pa-safe-dialing configuration option to enable or disable this feature.

Note: OCS does not support Safe Dialing for IVR groups when the value of the ivr_group option is set to true, or when one or more Places that are associated with the Campaign Group contain Voice Treatment Port DNs.

This page was last edited on July 18, 2018, at 00:31.
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