AT&T 555-230-520 manual Providing Call Treatments, Announcements

Functions and Examples

The following sections explain these functions.

Providing Call Treatments

In this guide, the term treatment is used to indicate the type of feedback the caller receives if the caller is not immediately connected to an agent, or if the call center is too busy or not in operation. Basic Call Vectoring provides several types of treatment, as follows:

■Announcements

■Delays with audible feedback

■Busy tone

■Disconnect

■Voice Response Scripts

The sections that follow explain these treatments.

Announcements

If a caller is not able to connect to an agent immediately, it is logical to provide the caller with a recorded message in order to accomplish one of the following, depending upon the circumstances:

■Encourage the caller to continue to hold the line.

■Provide the caller with information that will satisfy his or her needs, thereby keeping him or her from waiting a long time for service and also allowing him or her to hang up as soon as possible.

Such a recorded message is referred to as an announcement, and it is provided via the announcement command.

Whenever a call is connected to an announcement, any previous treatment is discontinued, and answer supervision is sent (unless it has already been provided). If, during an announcement, the call is moved from waiting in a split’s queue to alerting or connecting to an agent’s station, the announcement is disconnected, and the caller hears ringback. When the announcement completes and is disconnected, the caller hears silence until either a vector step with alternate treatment is processed or the call reaches an agent’s station.

Announcements can be classified into three groups, as follows:

■Delay announcements

■Forced announcements

■Information announcements

Issue 4 September 1995 4-3