Short Calls & Outbound Calls

[steel451]

Hi all,

We have been getting comments from agents that short calls are being caused by making outbound calls using the DN key when an agent is in Ready.

What is being said is that hitting the DN key just before a call is presented disconnects the call and this therefore creates a short call.

Am planning to do some testing on this with a "trusted" agent but does this sound correct?

Steel

 

[captaingadget]

Doesn't sound likely to me. How would an agent know that they are about to receive a call? If the phone is ringing then rejecting a call by pressing a key would put the call back in the queue. If, however, the call had actually been answered, then pressing a key would disconnect it. I'm not sure if the DN key would do this though. Run the short call report to see if there is a patten.

 

[Milesprower]

Short calls are calls that are answered and then disconnected (by the agent or caller) before the short call interval expires. Every agent will get some short calls. The intent of the report is to spot those who are intentionally hanging up on callers. Their numbers will be higher than most.

 

[sandyml]

Are you using call force? If so, it's possible that the call has been presented to the agent and they hit their DN key, disconnecting the caller. But why would this be happening? They should be getting a beep to let them know they have just been connected to a inbound call.

 

[steel451]

We are using call force. What agents are saying is that they only register the tone as they hit the DN key and by that time it's too late and the caller has been cut-off.

 

[telebub]

Maybe instruct the agents to press their Not Ready key before accessing their DN to make a call out.

War Eagle!
Lions Baseball '09!

 

[captaingadget]

I think there is a bit of agent skulduggery going on here.

 

[Milesprower]

The zip tone when the call is presented is ~1/2 second long. The only time I have had customers complain about "hanging up" on callers was when agents were purposely trying to do so. You really need to have your hand ready to hit the button when the tone comes to your ear.

 

[sandyml]

Steel451, based on what you've said, this should be an infrequent occurrence. Yes, it can happen, but as Milesprower said, for it to happen more often usually requires intent. Is it possible that you have some agents who are not paying attention, or who are not used to call force -- then, when they realize they have a caller (and probably have had for a few seconds, maybe listening to them chat with coworkers), they hit their DN key to dump the call?

 

[bajangsa]

How about programming AHA - Automatic Hold on the agent phones, in that case, hitting the DN will not disconnect the caller, but put him on hold - if you still get many short calls, you will have proved that the agents does it intentionally.

 

[sandyml]

Good one, bajangsa.