04.3.01. Queue Settings

Queue Settings

The 'Settings' tab has two views, 'Simple' and 'Advanced'. The toggle button 'Show/ Hide Advanced' switches between the two views. In the simple view, only the fields Name, Strategy, Leave when empty, Join when empty and Timeout are displayed. The advanced view displays all fields.

Figure 12– Queue New/Edit Page:Settings – Simple View

Figure 13– Queue New/Edit Page:Settings – Advanced View

Fields

Queue Settings	Description
Name	The name of the queue, alphanumeric only.
Strategy	How asterisk will decide which of the available agents will receive the next call. Available strategies are: ringall: ring all available queue members until one answers roundrobin: take turns ringing each available queue member leastrecent: ring queue member which was least recently called by this queue fewestcalls: ring the one with fewest completed calls from this queue random: ring random queue member rrmemory: round robin with memory, remember where we left off last ring pass wrandom: do note use, not currrently implemented Fewestcalls is the most usefull strategy as it provides the fairest distribution of calls amoungst agents. For small call centres (less than 5 agents) consider using ringall.
Leave When Empty	If set to yes, if there are still callers in the queue when the last agent logs off, the callers will be ejected from the queue. If set to strict, callers in the queue will leave the queue if there are no available agents in the queue.
Join When Empty	If set to no, callers can not enter queue if there are no agents available to take calls. If set to strict, callers will not enter the the queue if there are no available agents to take calls.
Wrap up time	The amount of time an agent gets to finalize details about the last call between calls.
Context	The context the caller will exit the queue into if they press a key - for example, press "1" to leave a message. Leave blank if you want to disable the 'exit key' option.
Timeout	How long an agents phone is allowed to ring before considering them to have not answered. The Auto Pause configuration uses this setting as the threshold after which the Agent will be paused for this queue. Note: this field will be renamed 'Ring Timeout'.
Service Level	The desired amount of time that every call should be answered within.
Music On Hold	The name of the music on hold class.
Announce	The name of a wave file to play to the agent before they are connected to the caller.
Monitor Join
Announce Frequency	How often (in seconds) to announce queue position and/or estimated hold time to caller (0=off).
Announce Round Seconds	Waiting time announcements will be rounded to this value.
Announce Holdtime	Should the estimated waiting time be announced.
Retry	How log to wait to try all members again after timeout.
Max Length	Maximum number of waiting callers allowed, 0 = unlimited. If the value is exceeded calls will be rejected.
Event Member Status	Generates manager api events.
Event when called	Generates manager api events. Set to yes for multi-leg recording.
Report Holdtime	If set to yes the Agent will hear the callers hold time before they are connected.
Member Delay	Delay before the Agent is connected to the caller
Weight	Priority of this queue over other queues containing the same agents. When the system considers what queued calls to allocate to an agent, it will first look at the queue with the highest weight with calls waiting e.g. a queue with a weight of 100 will be considered before a queue with a weight of 20. So the queue with highest weight that has one or more calls waiting will be considered first. Each of the calls in that queue will then be allocated to an agent before any other queues are considered. When a queue is selected for consideration, the calls within THAT queue will be considered based on each call's priority. The higher priority calls will be allocated to an agent first. Once all calls from the queue with the highest weight are allocated to agents, the system will then look for the queue with the next highest weight that contains waiting calls and repeat the above process.
timeout restart	If set to yes, then the timeout for an agent to answer is reset if a BUSY or CONGESTION is received.
you are next	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
there are	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
calls waiting	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
hold time	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
minutes	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
seconds	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
less than	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
thank you	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
report hold	Leave blank to use the default sound file.
Asterisk Server	The Server this queue is to be on.
Auto Pause	Pauses an Agent if they don't answer a call. Set to “yes” for queue thresholds to work correctly.
Unpause	If enabled an agents phone will automatically be 'unpaused' after being auto paused. This feature is still considered experimental and is only appropriate for small call centres which do not have a supervisor monitoring staff activity. Larger call centres should use the Inbound Agent Live data tile.
Short Unpause Delay	Used when the 'Unpause' feature is enabled. This is the time after which an agent has been paused that they system will automatically unpause the agent.
Long Unpause Delay	Used when the 'Unpause' feature is enabled. This is the time after which an agent has been paused that they system will automatically unpause the agent.
Ring in use	Should a phone that is on a call be called by the queue? Default is no.
Auto Fill	Should the queues try to call as many phones as possible to distribute calls? Default is yes.
Periodic Announce	Sets a sound file to be played at callers while waiting in the queue.
Periodic Announce Frequency	How often the sound file listed above should be played to callers waiting in the queue
Use extended wrap	The Extended wrap feature allows for variable wrap periods. The standard wrap period provides a fixed amount of time after each call during which the agent is not considered available. When the 'Use extended wrap' option is enabled the agent is placed into wrap at the end of each call, however there is no defined wrap period. Instead the agent MUST use Noojee Vision to terminate the wrap period via the04.3.07 Extended Wrap Feature dialog which is displayed at the end of the call.
Default pause reason for extended wrap	Used to set a default extended wrap reason
Activity set for pause reason	Selects a set of pause codes for the queue
Activity set for stop reason	Selects a set of stop codes for the queue
Global Priorities	If enable then a calls priority is considered in relation to calls in all queues that also have Global Priorities enabled. The Route screen allows you to set a calls priority as it enters a Queue. Normally calls within the queue are dispatched to agents based on their priority within the queue. If you are running multiple queues without Global Priorities then this process breaks down as whilst the priorities within each queue will ensure that the highest priority call in that queue is dispatched first, which of the queues will be selected to have a call taken from it is essentially random. Enabling Global Priorities forces the system to take take the call with the highest priority from across all queues. If you have Global Priorities enabled you should consider enabling Priority Escalation.
Priority Escalation	If enabled the priority of each call within this queue is gradually increased over time. Priority Escalation can be important if you are setting a calls priority from the Routes. If all calls are entering the queue with the same priority the priority escalation is meaningless. Priority Escalation is designed to stop low priority calls from starving (never being answered). In a busy call centre that has a mix of low and high priority phone calls it is possible that a steady stream of high priority calls will result in calls never being answered. Priority Escalation allows low priority calls that have been waiting an excess amount of time to have their priority escalated until they have the same priority as the highest priority calls. When two calls with the same priority are being considered for dispatch to an agent, the call that has been waiting the longest will be dispatch first. Hence if a low priority call is escalated to the highest priority level even if there are other calls at that priority level it will be dispatch first as it has been waiting the longest.
Escalation Interval	When Priority Escalation is enable this is the time in seconds between each action to increase a calls priority. e.g. if this is 30 seconds then a calls priority will be escalated every 30 seconds.
Escalation Delta	The no. of priority levels to increase the calls priority by each Escalation Interval. e.g. every 30 seconds increase the calls priority by 5.
Escalation Limit	When performing Priority Escalation you must have an upper limit otherwise escalation becomes meaningless. To explain, if all calls have their priority escalated evey 30 seconds by 5 then low priority calls will never catch up to high priority calls as the high priority calls are also be escallated at the same rate. The escalation limit therefore sets a maximum priority. If high priority calls come in at the Escalation Limit priority then their priority can't increase and therefore low priority calls will catchup to the high prority calls. You can also use the Escalation Limit to ensure that certain classes of calls are always treated as the highest priority. Using the Routes you cans set a calls priority to a value higher than the Escalation Limit. Calls that come into the system above the Escalation limit will always have a priority higher than any other call. Normally The Escalation Limit is set to a value of 10 or 100 but it can be any value up to 30,0000. Just remember to size you Escalation Delta relative to the Escalation Limit. e.g. if you have a limit of 30,000 a delta of 5 and an interval of 30 then it will take a call that enters the queue with a priority 1 36,000 seconds (10 hours) to reach the limit of 30,000.