ACD Automatic Call Distribution

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to ACD Software and products. Automatic call distribution systems are the heart of inbound call centers. ACD systems are call routing utilities for incoming calls and can be even used to route calls originated by our predictive dialer to the next available agent. Our PACER and Wizard phone systems comes with a complete automatic call distribution system for call routing.

The PACER and Wizard ACD system and automatic call distributor can route calls based on the dialed phone number (DNIS) and the time of day. Additionally, the PACER IVR system can intelligently route calls using complex conditional logic.

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Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) allow incoming calls to connect automatically to specific splits. An ACD split is simply a hunt group that is designed to receive a high volume of similar calls. Calls to a specific split are automatically distributed among the agents, or hunt group members, assigned to that split. Calls queue to the split until an agent is available.

You can assign a supervisor to each split. The split supervisor can listen in on agent calls, monitor the split queue status, and assist agents on ACD calls. Although split supervisors can assist agents on ACD calls, the supervisors do not normally receive ACD calls unless they are also members of the split. Both supervisors and agents can have a Queue-Status Display function button on their set which provides ACD agents equipped with digital telephones a periodic update of the number of calls in queue, and the amount of time the oldest queued call has waited.

Three methods for an ACD to select an available agent:

• Direct Department Calling: If you administer a split for DDC, an incoming call is routed to the first available agent extension in the administered sequence. If the agent is not available, the call routes to the next available agent, and so on. Incoming calls are always routed to the first agent in the sequence, so calls are not evenly distributed among agents.
  
  
• Uniform Call Distribution: UCD uses the Most-Idle Agent system to route calls. Which ever agent has been available the longest will receive the next call and distributes calls evenly among the agents.
  
  
• Expert Agent Distribution: EAD is like the Most Idle Agent except that each agent is assigned a skill level code. The lower the skill level code, the higher the level of expertise, so an agent with skill level 1 is the most qualified to answer a call at this skill. This is most often used in a Technical Support ACD.

Queuing and announcements:

When all agents are active on calls or in After-Call Work mode (they are on pause to finish paperwork before going to the next client), the queue allows incoming calls to wait for an idle agent. The next available agent is automatically connected to the call in the split queue.

There are three cases where calls do not queue:

• No agents are logged in (An agent must complete a full login to each split in order to receive and handle calls)
  
  
• All logged-in agents are in Auxiliary Work mode
  
  
• No queue slots are available (there are a maximum number of callers in queue already)

• Assign Priority Queuing to a calling party's Class of Restriction.
  
  
• Assign Priority on Intraflow to an ACD split. This allows calls from the split, when intraflowed into another split, to be queued ahead of non-priority calls.

Considerations:

Maximum number of agents: If an agent is assigned to more than one split, each assignment applies to the maximum number of agents. So one agent logged into three different splits would count on the system as three agents. An agent must complete a full login to each split in order to receive and handle calls.

Maximum number of callers in queue: Given the number of agents in a given split and the time for each call to be handled, and consider how long each caller may have to wait in queue. For a small ACD with 3 or 4 agents who handle calls at an average of 1 minute per call, the maximum number of callers in queue might be 12. You do not want to leave them in queue too long and offering them the choice of a voice mail message with call back may release some stress for both callers and agents.

Most Idle Agent feature: distributes calls more equally to agents with multiple splits or skills.

Storing and retrieving messages: Leave Word Calling messages can be stored for an ACD split and retrieved by a split member, a covering user of the split or a system-wide message retriever. You can also assign a remote Automatic Message Waiting lamp to a split agent's terminal to indicate when a message has been stored for the split.

Agent considerations:

• Agents should not be used for hunt group calls and ACD split calls simultaneously. Otherwise all calls for one split (either ACD or hunt group) are answered first.
  
  
• Agents with multi-appearance voice terminals can receive only one ACD call at a time unless Multiple Call Handling is active. The agent may receive non-ACD calls while active on an ACD call or have their "personal" calls forwarding to Voice Mail.

ACD Interactions with Switch Features

Call Waiting: Does not work with ACDS.

Automatic Callback: can not be activated towards an ACD split.

Call Coverage: Calls can redirect to or from an ACD split, but a vector-controlled split can not be assigned a coverage path.

For a call to an ACD split to be redirected to a call coverage Busy, one of the following conditions must exist:

All agents in the split are active on at least one call appearance and the queue, if there is one, is full.

• No agents are logged in.
  
  
• All Agents are in Auxiliary Work mode.
  
  
• If the queue is not full, a call enters the queue when at least one agent is on an ACD call or in Auxiliary Work mode. Queued calls remain in queue until the Coverage Don't Answer Interval expires before redirecting to coverage. If any split agent become available, the call is directed to the agent.