Selecting calls
Avaya Business Advocate User Guide February 2006 23

Predicted Wait Time

Predicted Wait Time (PWT) calculates how long a call waits if the currently available agent does
not take the call. This method is recommended because it results in fewer calls with exceedingly
long wait times and it can optimize critical agent resources. For example:
A call is queued for a specialized skill for which only a few agents are staffed. Although this call
has been waiting in queue for only 10 seconds, PWT estimates that the call will wait an
additional 40 seconds because of the small number of agents who are assigned to the skill.
Another call is queued for a general skill that is staffed by many agents. This call has been
waiting for 20 seconds, but PWT estimates that it will wait in queue for only 5 more seconds.
The agent who becomes available is able to serve both the specialized and the general skill.
PWT selects the call for the specialized skill first, because its overall predicted wait time is 50
seconds. The other call continues to wait in queue because its total PWT is only 25 seconds.
Call selection methods
This section includes the following topics:
●Greatest Need on page 23
●Skill Level on page 23
●Percent Allocation on page 24

Greatest Need

Greatest Need is a call selection method that selects a skill for an agent to serve based on the
call at the highest priority whose Predicted Wait Time (PWT) or Current Wait Time (CWT) for a
skill is the longest or whose PWT or CWT is the highest relative to the administered service
objective. This method allows you to improve efficiency by lowering the average speed of
answer for calls and lowering the maximum delay. See Administering Greatest Needon
page 93 for procedures on setting up Greatest Need as a call selection method.

Skill Level

Skill Level is a call selection method that selects calls according to the expertise of an agent in
one or more skills. Skill Level selects a call for an agent based first on highest skill level, then
highest priority, and finally on CWT or PWT. You assign a preference level of 1 to 16 to each of
an agent’s skills to determine how you want each agent’s time to be spent serving your
customers. Level 1 is the highest preference. You may determine, for example, that an agent
who is especially good at generating sales should be at a level 1 for the Sales skill, but at a level
4 for handling calls on the Complaints skill. This method can help you to improve your customer
service by delivering calls to the most qualified agents.
See Administering Skill Level on page 94 for procedures on setting up Skill Level as a call
selection method.