Edit hotline

You can access this dialog box via the following path: TeamDesk > Groups > Edit TeamDesk group > Edit hotline

Hint

  • Team members who are in the TeamDesk hotline override the hotline if you have set call forwarding (e.g. to voicemail). For this reason, call forwarding (except to the XCC) should not be set while team members are available in TeamDesk.

  • Callers to the hotline with a suppressed phone number are not displayed as unknown (e.g. in the toast or also in the journal) - unlike direct calls - but with the name of the TeamDesk group.

General

  • Name

    The name of the hotline corresponds to that of the TeamDesk group and cannot be changed.

  • Description

    Add a Description, e.g. to record important information for the administrator.

  • Distribution strategy

    In the Distribution strategy drop-down menu, you define the scheme according to which calls are distributed to the team members. The following options are available to you:

    1. Ring all

      • Description: All TeamDesk members are called simultaneously.

      • Use case: Suitable when calls need to be answered as quickly as possible.

      • Behavior: The call is signalled to all TeamDesk members at the same time. The caller is transferred to the TeamDesk member who picks up first.

      • Advantages: Maximizes the likelihood of a quick response, but can lead to an imbalance in the answering of calls (one agent always answer first, another responds more slowly).

    2. Longest idle team member

      • Description: The TeamDesk member who has not received a hotline call for the longest time will receive the next call.

      • Use case: Ideal for distributing the workload evenly.

      • Behavior: The XCC tracks how long each agent has been inactive. The agent who has not handled a call for the longest time is prioritized.

      • Advantages: Promotes fairness and prevents individual agents from being overloaded.

    3. Round robin

      • Description: TeamDesk members are called in a :ref:` definable order <td-hotline-sort>`, whereby the last TeamDesk member contacted is taken into account.

      • Use case: Ideal for distributing calls evenly among the agents.

      • Behavior: The calls are distributed in a cyclical order. The next round begins with the TeamDesk member whose turn it is after the last successful call.

      • Advantages: This distribution strategy ensures that all TeamDesk members are equally employed.

    4. Linear

      • Description: TeamDesk members are called in the :ref:` definable order <td-hotline-sort>`, starting at position 1 for each new call.

      • Use case: Suitable if certain TeamDesk members are to be prioritized.

      • Behavior: Always starting with the first TeamDesk member in the list. The system only switches to the next TeamDesk member if the priority TeamDesk member is not available.

      • Advantages: Leads to uneven workload when higher priority TeamDesk members are prioritized.

    5. Team member with the shortest call time:

      • Description: The call is signaled to the team member with the shortest call time.

      • Use case: Helpful to distribute the total call time evenly.

      • Behavior: Tracks the total call time of each TeamDesk member. Prioritizes the TeamDesk member who had the shortest call time within a certain period of time [1].

      • Advantages: Effective when call duration is a decisive factor.

    6. Team member with the lowest number of calls:

      • Description: The caller is signaled for the team member with the fewest answered calls.

      • Use case: Suitable for ensuring that all TeamDesk members handle a similar number of calls.

      • Behavior: Counts the number of calls answered per team member within a certain period of time [1].

      • Advantages: Prioritizes TeamDesk members with fewer calls. Promotes equality, especially for teams with varying call volumes.

    7. Random:

      • Description: For TeamDesk members, callers are signaled in random order.

      • Use case: Suitable for teams without fixed priorities or preferences for call distribution.

      • Behavior: Randomly selects a TeamDesk member for each call.

      • Advantages: Prevents predictable patterns in call distribution. Promotes equality in flexible teams.

  • Follow-up time

    No further calls are transferred to the team member during the Follow-up time. The TeamDesk status of the client is Follow up. You have the following options:

    • None

      The TeamDesk status of the team member IFollow up is neither automatically activated nor deactivated. The team member must do this manually themselves.

    • Manually

      The TeamDesk status of the team member Follow up is automatically activated after a hotline call. The team member must manually set the TeamDesk status to Ready.

    • Time

      The TeamDesk status of the team member Follow up is automatically activated after a hotline call. After the time set here, the TeamDesk status is automatically reset to Ready.

  • Do not list missed hotline calls

    By default, all TeamDesk members, even if they are in follow-up or logged off, receive a journal entry about missed calls if the caller could not be connected to any member (e.g. because the call was not answered or the caller hung up before the call could be distributed). This setting can be adjusted in the hotline settings of a TeamDesk group with the option Do not list missed hotline calls as missed calls in the journal so that the journal entries are not displayed.

Greetings & music files

A hotline call goes through a process in which announcements are played at several points.

You can use the predefined general audio announcements or add your own announcements. Click on the drop-down menu of an announcement and select Add announcement. A dialog box opens in which you can upload an audio file. If -none is set, this greeting is skipped.

The audio files must meet the following requirements: - Wave file - no larger than 2 MB file size - 8000Hz. Mono channel

Here is the procedure for playing the announcements:

  1. Greeting before transfer

    • Callers to the hotline first receive the Greeting before transfer. This announcement is always played first. It is used to greet the caller. E.g. Welcome to C4B.

  2. Evaluate business hours

    1. The system checks whether the call is within or outside business hours. Depending on the result, a corresponding announcement is played:

      • During business hours: The caller is placed in a queue and hears Music on hold. The caller is then transferred to the TeamDesk members based on the configurable Distribution strategy.

        • If a transfer is not possible, for example because the caller remains in the queue for too long, depending on the configuration…

          • either the Final message is played and the call is ended,

          • or the Forwarding greeting is played and the caller is forwarded to any number(s) .

            • If forwarding fails, the Finmal message is played and the call is disconnected.

    2. Outside business hours: Depending on the configuration…

      • either the Final message is played and the call is ended,

      • or the Forwarding greeting is played and the caller is forwarded to any number(s) .

        • If forwarding fails, the Finmal message is played and the call is disconnected.

Hint

The dwell time of callers in the queue of a hotline is configured under Threshold values for the queue. The time of the transfer attempts and the behavior after a failed transfer attempt are configured in the Global settings.

Office hours

Here you can define the business hours during which the hotline is available. If you want the hotline to be available 24/7, do not enter any business hours. If the hotline should only be available around the clock on certain weekdays, enter the time from 00:00 to 24:00 for these weekdays.

Different business hours

Attention

The Different office hours are global. The settings made here therefore affect all TeamDesk groups.

Here you define business hours that differ from the above (e.g. public holiday or company vacation). Thus, the hotline is not available for these days set here If you define both date and time for a single day, for example 02/29/2023 between 08:00 and 12:00, the hotline is only available on this day in the morning between 08:00 and 12:00. You thus overwrite the business hours specified above for this day. Note that for periods of several days, the time cannot be configured.

Example

out-of-service-one-day

  • In this example, the selected announcement is played throughout October 18.

out-of-service-one-week

  • In this example, the selected announcement is played from October 18 to October 25.

changed-times

  • In this example, the business hours are changed to 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on October 18. Normal hotline call handling is carried out during this time. After 10 a.m., the selected announcement is played.

Threshold values for visual display in the client

Availability of the TeamDesk group’s hotline is shown in the XPhone Connect Client via various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

  • Number of members available (ready)

    When this threshold value is fallen short of, the available Key Performance Indicator (KPI) icon in the XPhone Connect Client goes red in order to signal to the team member that only a few or no callers can be routed.

  • Number of callers in the queue (waiting)

    When this threshold value is exceeded, the waiting Key Performance Indicator (KPI) icon in the XPhone Connect Client goes red in order to signal to the team member that callers cannot be routed.

  • Waiting time of longest waiting caller (waiting time)

    When this threshold value is exceeded, the waiting time Key Performance Indicator (KPI) icon in the XPhone Connect Client goes red in order to signal to the team member that the caller has been waiting for a long time.

Threshold values for the queue

Here you can define how long an external caller should be in the hotline queue if the call is not answered by any team member. The default value has been set to 300 seconds (5 minutes). In this case, the external caller is either disconnected after 5 minutes or optionally transferred to other forwarding destinations or dropped (see Forwarding destinations).

  • Maximum time of the caller in the queue if no team member answers the call
    • If no team member answers the external caller, the external caller will be disconnected after this set time, but will hear the goodbye greeting beforehand (optional: forwarding to forwarding destinations)

  • Maximum time of the caller in the queue when no team member is ready
    • If no team member has the “Ready” status to take phone calls, the external caller will be disconnected after this set time, but will hear the goodbye greeting beforehand (optional: forwarding to forwarding destinations).

  • Maximum number of calls not answered
    • Here you set a threshold for the number of consecutive calls that a team member does not answer or rejects via the XPhone Connect Toast. If this value is exceeded, the team member is automatically logged off. (Maximum value 30, 0=infinite). This setting cannot be made for Group call.

Forwarding destinations

If an external caller cannot be transferred to team members of this hotline, forwarding destinations can be defined. This means that the caller is not disconnected after the waiting time in the queue has elapsed, but an attempt is made to transfer this caller to other destinations. For example, an external caller can leave a message on a voicemail so that they can at least be called back (drop to voicemail).

A distinction is made between transfer attempts and drop. Attempts to transfer a call can form a series. If the first transfer attempt fails (destination subscriber does not accept the call), the next destination in the list is used, and so on. A drop is a final destination because this destination always answers the call (e.g. voicemail), therefore a drop can only occur once per list and is always the last destination in this list.

If an external caller is transferred to forwarding destinations, he hears the “greeting before forwarding” beforehand.

Forwarding destinations can be configured separately for callers “within business hours” and “outside business hours”. These must be activated in each case (as must the destinations) for the function to be executed.

  • Attempt to transfer to phone number:
    • Call number field: Any internal or external call number can be entered here.

    • Gateway: A working (active) SIP gateway must be set here, via which the entered phone number can be reached.

    • Attempt duration: This time defines how long the transfer attempt is performed. If the call is not answered by the destination subscriber after this time, the transfer attempt is aborted and transferred to the next destination in this list.

  • Drop to voicemail:
    • Phone number field: The phone number (internal/external) of the voicemail to be used for this TeamDesk group is entered here.

    • Gateway: A working (active) SIP gateway must be set here, via which the entered voicemail can be reached.

  • Drop to other TeamDesk hotline:
    • Listbox: This list box displays all available TeamDesk hotlines for selection.

    • Gateway: A working (active) SIP gateway must be set here, via which the set TeamDesk hotline can be reached.

Assign team members

Team members can be assigned to a hotline either automatically or manually. However, automatic assignment is not possible for the Distribution strategies Linear and Round robin. The following options are available for all other distribution strategies:

  • Automatically assign all members of the TeamDesk group to this hotline.

  • Only assign certain members of the TeamDesk group to this queue.

With automatic assignment, all team members are assigned. Automatic assignment is available for the following Distribution strategies:

  • Ring all

  • Longest idle team member

  • Team member with the shortest call time

  • Team member with the lowest number of calls

  • Random

The manual assignment of team members is available for all Distribution strategies. Only manual assignment is available for the Distribution strategies Linear and Round robin.

Team leader can make an assignment in the XPhone Client and administrators directly in this configuration section. The Team leader can also switch between automatic assignment and manual assignment of team members in the XPhone Client (except for the Linear and round robin distribution strategy).

In addition to assigning the members, the order for the distribution strategies round robin and linear can be changed using the arrow keys. The call sequence is from top to bottom.

The following buttons are available to control the assignment and change the order:

TD-assign-right Assign a selected team member to the hotline.

TD-assign-left Remove selected team member from the hotline.

TD-assign-all-right Assign all selected team members (multiple selection with CTRL or SHIFT is possible) to the hotline.

TD-assign-all-left Remove all selected team members (multiple selections with CTRL or SHIFT are possible) from the hotline.

TD-assign-up Move the assigned and selected team member up.

TD-assign-down Move the assigned and selected team member down.

Have you found a mistake on this page?

Or is something not formulated well or too vague? Then we look forward to receiving an e-mail, preferably with a suggestion for improvement, to doku@c4b.de. Thank you very much!