URS VCB - White Paper

Preface

Universal Routing Server (URS) allows for two types of Voice Callback (VCB) solutions.

Preemptive Agent Reservation

In this process, an agent is reserved in advance before a VCB call is made to reach the customer. This call flow is not that different from inbound interaction routing. An agent is selected for a call, this could be a VCB call, and the customer and the agent are subsequently connected. The connecting phase could be more complex for VCB calls, as the connection entails dialling the customer first as compared to regular routing.

• Pro: An advantage of this approach is that the customer need not wait for an agent after answering the VCB call, as the associated agent is already allocated.

• Con: Agents can lose time. In this scenario, agents are made to wait for the interaction to arrive during the time the customer is being contacted. If the customer does not answer, the agent wait time is lost. This in turn will affect Agent Productivity Statistics.

Dialing Notifications

The second type of VCB solution is when an agent is not assigned to the call until the customer answers the VCB call. In this case, the customer is contacted in advance, before an agent is allocated to the VCB call. Agent allocation will only be done after the customer answers the call.

• Pro: Agents do not lose time as they don't have to wait for the call to be answered.

• Con: In an under staffed environment, there could be situations where it might not be possible to route the call to an agent right away and the customer may need to wait in queue.

It is generally assumed that URS uses this second type of VCB solution, the dialing notifications approach where URS can generate VCB notifications under certain conditions.

Important

This white paper focuses mainly on URS Dialing Notifications.

The purpose of VCB notifications is to facilitate:

• The maximum possible rate of the dialing of outbound calls.
• The minimum possible customer waiting time after answering the call (ideally the customer will be connected with the first agent who becomes available).
• Beginning with version 8.1.400.40, reduce cases as much as possible, where lower priority calls seep through the not yet dialed/answered VCB calls queue.

The Dialing Notifications VCB solution intends to achieve the following rate of dialing outbound calls: rate agents become available minus rate of inbound calls + (from version 8.1.400.40) rate of customers not answering their outbound calls. All references to the optimal or ideal rate in this white paper are based on this.

Another way to look at these 2 types of VCB might be the following:

Consider that for a VCB call the entire process starting from initiation of dialing of outbound call to the customer, waiting for the call to be answered, and then connecting him with the agent, is one routing step. Compare this with a regular call's routing process, which is just connecting the call with an available agent. Routing regular calls is just a small portion of the routing process followed for VCB calls.

In the first type of VCB solution mentioned above, when routing step is started the agent is locked and assigned to this call. When and if the customer answers, he will be connected with this waiting agent. No other calls will be distributed to the agent while he is waiting.

In the second type of VCB solution mentioned above, when the routing step is started the agent is not locked after the VCB call is initiated and can answer any other inbound calls routed to him or other VCB calls (already answered by customers). When and if this current VCB call's customer answers the call, he will be connected with another available agent who happens to be ready on or after the customer answers this VCB call.