AT&T 555-230-520 manual EWT for a Call, Passing EWT to a VRU

Expected Wait Time (EWT)

EWT is infinite if:

■There are no logged-in agents

■All logged-in agents are in AUX work mode

■The split queue is full

■There is no split queue and all agents are busy

■The split queue is locked

EWT for a Call

EWT for a call is the remaining time a caller can expect to wait before his or her call is serviced from queue. If the call is queued to multiple splits, the remaining queue time for each of the splits is calculated, and the shortest of these is taken as the call’s EWT.

For a call to have an expected wait time it must be queued to at least one split. If it is not queued, or if it is queued to splits that are not staffed, the EWT value is infinite.

The following example uses EWT for a call to determine the treatment the call will receive.

1.queue-to main split 1 pri m

2.check-backup split 2 pri m if expected-wait < 30

3.goto step 5 if expected-wait for call < 9999

4.busy

5.announcement 3001

6.wait-time 998 secs hearing music

Figure 6-2. EWT for a Call

Passing EWT to a VRU

As stated, the Expected Wait Time for a call can be passed to a VRU so that a caller can be notified of his or her expected time in queue. EWT is passed to the VRU with the converse-oncommand as “wait” data. The value outpulsed to the VRU is the expected wait time of the call in seconds. The VRU can then convert the seconds to a spoken message probably rounding up to minutes or converting to minutes and seconds. The expected wait is calculated after the VRU port answers the call, so queuing to a converse split does not adversely impact the EWT value passed to the VRU.

The wait time passed to the VRU is the most accurate prediction possible. On the average 50% of the time the actual wait time will be shorter and 50% of the time it will be longer. It is recommended that VRU applications make an upwards adjustment of the prediction so that the majority of callers receive a predicted wait time that is equal to or greater than their actual wait time.

Issue 4 September 1995 6-3