Avaya Communication Manager is a mature contact centre solution and so gives you full controls over those first crucial seconds when an agent answers a call - does the handset ring or is the call automatically delivered to the agent's headset? Is a message played to the agent? If the agent fails to answer where does the call go and how long should we wait to reroute that call?
The options are almost endless.
If you're an Avaya Communication Manager user using H.323 rather than SIP you may have noticed, however, that that benefit can be demolished by something as simple as an agent using a headset nudging or lifting their phone handset.
For an action so innocuous, the effect can be devastating - the agent has been logged out and there's no real feedback to let the agent know anything has gone wrong. So, now you've got:
One less agent answering calls
A confused agent wondering why colleagues are receiving calls and they aren’t – chances are they won’t flag this for a while either
An agent that's no longer reported on – either in your contact centre or WFM reports
An agent with all sorts of issues with schedule adherence and daily stats
What Can I Do About It?
For all the trouble this has caused in various contact centres, it turns out the solution is quite simple. Using whatever tool you, or your IT/Telecoms team, use to administer Avaya Communication Manager the answer lies in the “feature-related system parameters” form and a setting called “Block Hang-up by Logged-in Auto Answer Agents”.
By default, the setting is “n” (meaning it’s disabled). All you need to do is change it to “y” and save the form.
That's it, I'm not kidding. Agents are no longer logged out by a single, seemingly harmless action. The great thing about the setting is that you don’t need to restart anything. It’s entirely non-service affecting, your agents don’t need to log out and back in for it to take effect, and doesn’t require any specialist knowledge to enable.
There is Always a Downside
If your phones already have a “release” soft key or button configured, your agents probably won’t notice a difference. If you don’t, it may the case that they’ll be lifting and replacing the handset or pressing the headset button to end their calls.
Now that we have changed the behaviour around lifting the handset, that will no longer terminate the call and you'll need to add a "release" softkey to your handsets and gently nudge your agents to use it.
This is an open and shut case but if you do have any questions then don't hesitate to get in touch.
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