Manage your calls in Agent Desktop

Excessive background noise when answering a call can make it difficult for you to understand the conversation. Webex Contact Center offers background noise removal feature that separates and removes background noise from human speech. This feature is enabled by default for your organization.

However, if a customer wants you to listen to the background noise (for example, noise issues in faulty machines), you cannot disable it from your desktop. In such scenarios, contact your administrator to disable this feature at your organization level.

Access popover to answer a call

If the Task List pane is collapsed, you can see the popover at the bottom-right of the Desktop. The popover is the pop-up dialog box that is displayed when a call, chat, email, or social messaging conversation request is routed to you.

The Desktop displays the following popovers:

Connecting popover: The connecting popover informs you that a new contact request is in the process of being assigned.
Contact request popover: The contact request popover appears after the connecting popover. You must take action on the contact request popover before your state changes to RONA. The popover displays variables, action buttons, or links based on the configuration that is defined for each channel.

You can’t sign out when a connecting popover or contact request popover appears on the Desktop.

When you have multiple requests, the popovers are stacked. If you have more than five requests at any point in time, the requests are displayed as 1-5 of <total number>. You can accept the email, chat, or social messaging conversation by clicking the Accept button in each popover. To accept all requests together, click Accept <number> requests. The earliest request is displayed at the top. The order is emails, social messaging conversations, chats, and calls from top to bottom.

The popover displays the variables, the action buttons, or the links based on the configuration that is defined for each channel. The following table lists the variables that are displayed on the popover for the voice channel:

Table 1. Voice Channel Variables Displayed on Popover

Voice Channel-Call Type

Variables Displayed on Popover

Incoming Voice Call

In Flow Designer, your administrator configures the variables, labels of the variables, and the order in which they must appear on the Agent Desktop. A minimum of three and a maximum of six variables are displayed on the popover. An incoming popover doesn't display variables marked as secure by your administrator.

The consult call request displays a maximum of nine variables on the popover. That is, the three default variables (Agent Name, Agent DN, Agent Team) and a maximum of six variables configured by your administrator. The three default variables refer to the agent who initiated the consult call.

Callback

Phone Number
Queue Name
DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service)

Outbound Preview Campaign Call

Variables that are based on the configuration that is defined by your administrator.

Outdial Call

In Flow Designer, your administrator configures the variables, labels of the variables, and the order in which they must appear on the Agent Desktop. A minimum of three and a maximum of six variables are displayed on the popover. An outdial popover doesn't display variables marked as secure by your administrator.

Answer a call

When you receive an inbound call from a customer, the contact request popover follows the connecting popover. The status of the incoming call displays as Ringing.

If you don’t answer the call within the maximum available time, the call returns to the queue, and the system changes your state to RONA. A popover appears with options to change your state to either Available or Idle. For more information on RONA popover, see Understand agent states for Webex Contact Center.

Before you begin

You must be in the Available state to answer customer calls. If you are in the RONA state, you must manually change your state from RONA to Available.

When you receive a call request in Agent Desktop, use your physical phone to answer it.

The timer starts and your interaction control pane appears.

(Optional) Perform the following tasks in the interaction control pane, while you're handling a call:

Update the call-associated variables.
Hold and resume the active call.
Record and pause the voice recording.
Transfer the call to a queue, an agent, an entry point, or a dial number.
Consult with another agent, queue, entry point, or dial number.
Start a conference call between you, the customer, and another agent.
If you are using Desktop as a calling capability:
1. To receive customer calls, click Answer in the incoming call popover.
2. To reject customer calls, click Decline in the incoming call popover.
3. Click Keypad to view the phone keypad. Enter the dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) digits in this keypad. The system transmits these tones with the voice channel.
4. Click Mute to mute the agent.

Hold and resume a call

You can put the customer on hold to consult with another agent or look up additional customer information.

Before you begin

You must have accepted the call request.

To interact with another agent, you need to initiate a hold and resume on the Agent Desktop rather than using a phone device (hardphone or softphone).

Click Hold.

The Call on Hold state displays next to the timer. The End button is disabled.

Click Resume to take a call off hold.

When you are consulting with another agent, your call with the customer is automatically put on hold. When you take the customer off hold, the consulting agent is automatically put on hold. Both calls can’t be on hold simultaneously.

Initiate a consult

Before you begin

You must be on an active call.

Click Consult.

The Consult Request dialog box appears.

To interact with another agent, you need to initiate a consult call using Consult Request dialog box on the Agent Desktop rather than using a phone device (hardphone or softphone).

Select the agent, queue, organization, or dial number that you want to consult with.

The dial number supports the following formats:

US format: + [Country Code][Area Code][Seven-digit Phone Number]. For example, +12015532447
E.164 number format: [+][Country Code][Number]. For example, +11234567890
IDD (International Direct Dialing) format: [IDD][Country Code][Number]. For example, 01161123456789
The Agent Desktop validates the format of the dial number that you enter. The dial number can contain 3-18 digits and the supported special characters.

The Agent Desktop supports only the special characters + (plus), # (hash), * (asterisk), and : (colon) in the Dial Number field. If you copy a number with special characters or letters to the Dial Number field, the Agent Desktop retains only those special characters that are supported, and removes all other special characters or letters before allowing you to transfer a call.

Select Organization if you want to consult another agent who uses a collaboration tool.

You can search for a subject matter expert by their first name, role, department, or phone number.

To search for a subject matter expert by phone number, enter the complete phone number to retrieve the appropriate result.
Only the subject matter experts who have a business phone number assigned will appear in the search list.
There could be a delay in fetching the presence information of subject matter experts. Refresh or reload the search result to fetch the updated presence information of the Microsoft Teams subject matter experts.
Agents who access Desktop inside Microsoft Teams can consult with or transfer calls to Microsoft Teams users only when SSO is enabled in Microsoft Azure account.

(Optional) Click to retrieve the most recent list of agents, queues, entry points, and dial numbers.

Click Consult.

(Optional) You can perform the following while on a consult call with another agent.

Click Resume to put the consulting agent on hold and take the customer off hold.
Click Transfer to transfer the call to the consulting agent. The transfer request is initiated and the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears. For more information, see Transfer a call.
Click Conference to establish a three-way communication between you, the customer, and the consulting agent. For more information, see Start a conference call.

When finished, click End Consult.

The Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears. For steps on how to apply a wrap-up reason, see Apply a wrap-up reason.

Actions each consult call participant can perform

Each call participant involved in a consult call can perform different actions. Use this table to gain an understanding of how each participant can interact.

Agent 1 refers to the agent who initiates a consult call.
Agent 2 refers to the agent who accepts the consult call.

Participant	Actions
Customer	A customer can't initiate a consult call. When Agent 1 consults with Agent 2, the customer is put on hold. The customer can drop from an ongoing call with Agent 1, which ends the interaction.
Agent 1	Agent 1 can initiate and end a consult call. Agent 1 can resume a customer call that was put on hold. Agent 1 can consult with Agent 2 and put Agent 2 on hold. Agent 1 can transfer a call to Agent 2. When the transfer request is initiated, the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1. The call continues between Agent 2 and the customer. Agent 1 can start a conference call with Agent 2 and a customer. When a customer drops from a consult call, the interaction ends, and the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears for Agent 1. Agent 1 can end a consult call by clicking the End Consult button or by hanging up the physical phone. The customer and Agent 2 are dropped from the consult call.
Agent 2	When Agent 1 resumes a call with the customer who was put on hold, Agent 2 is put on hold and the customer is taken off hold. Agent 2 can't resume or end a consult call. Agent 2 can't apply a wrap-up reason for a consulting call. Agent 2 can end a consult call by clicking the Exit Consult button, and the call continues between Agent 1 and the customer. Agent 2 can accept a transfer request made by the Agent 1 during the consult call. If Agent 1 starts a conference call when consulting Agent 2, Agent 2 is part of the conference call. If the customer drops from a consult call, the interaction ends. Agent 2 is dropped from the call without wrap-up.

Transfer a call

If you can't resolve a customer question and want to escalate the call, you can transfer the call to another agent or supervisor.

Before you begin

You must have accepted the call request.

Click Transfer.

To interact with another agent, you need to initiate a transfer on the Agent Desktop rather than using a phone device (hardphone or softphone).

The Transfer Request dialog box appears.

Select the agent, queue, or dial number where you want to transfer the call to.

The dial number supports the following formats:

US format: + [Country Code][Area Code][Seven-digit Phone Number]. For example, +12015532447
E.164 number format: [+][Country Code][Number]. For example, +11234567890
IDD (International Direct Dialing) format: [IDD][Country Code][Number]. For example, 01161123456789
The Agent Desktop validates the format of the dial number that you enter. The dial number can contain 3-18 digits and the supported special characters.

The Agent Desktop supports only the special characters + (plus), # (hash), * (asterisk), and : (colon) in the Dial Number field. If you copy a number with special characters or letters to the Dial Number field, the Agent Desktop retains only those special characters that are supported, and removes all other special characters or letters before allowing you to transfer a call.

Select Organization if you want to consult a subject matter expert who uses a collaboration tool.

You can search for a subject matter expert by their first name, role, department, or phone number.

To search for a subject matter expert by phone number, enter the complete phone number to retrieve the appropriate result.
Only the subject matter experts who have a business phone number assigned will appear in the search list.
There could be a delay in fetching the presence information of subject matter experts. Refresh or reload the search result to fetch the updated presence information of the Microsoft Teams subject matter experts.
Agents who access Desktop inside Microsoft Teams can consult with or transfer calls to Microsoft Teams users only when SSO is enabled in Microsoft Azure account.

(Optional) Click to retrieve the most recent list of agents, queues, dial numbers, or subject matter experts in your organization.

Click Transfer.

If you want to transfer the call immediately (blind transfer), select either Agent or Dial Number and click Transfer. The call is answered by any available agent.

The transfer request is initiated, and the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears. For steps on how to apply a wrap-up reason, see Apply a wrap-up reason.

Record a call

Your call with the customer is automatically recorded if your administrator has enabled call recordings. To pause or resume the call recording, follow these steps.

Before you begin

You must have accepted the call request.

If your administrator has enabled the Privacy Shield feature for your enterprise, you can pause a call recording while obtaining sensitive information, such as a customer’s credit card information. Your administrator specifies the pause duration. After the specified pause time time has elapsed, the recording automatically resumes.
Pause Recording and Resume Recording features don't work during conference and consult calls.

1	Click Pause Recording to pause the recording of an active call. The Record icon () indicates that the recording is in progress.
2	(Optional) Click Resume Recording to manually resume paused recording.

Edit call-associated data variables

Call-Associated Data (CAD) variables allow the administrator to collect call data such as a case number or any customer's action code. During a call, you can edit the CAD variables if your administrator configures the CAD variables as editable.

Your administrator can mark variables containing sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information (PII) and your organization's data, as secure. If the variable is marked as secure, the Secure Variable icon appears beside the field name in the interaction control pane.

When consulting or transferring a call, if multiple agents edit the same CAD variable value at the same time, the changes that are saved first display, and the other agent is notified with a message. For example, consider that two agents (Agent A and Agent B) edit the same CAD variable at the same time and Agent A saves the value. Then, the value entered by Agent B is overwritten, and Agent B is notified with a message.

Before you begin

You must have accepted the call request.

Click within the text box of an editable field and enter an appropriate value. For example, enter a case number or an action code.

You can enter or paste a maximum of 256 characters for the CAD variable value.

You can do the following:

To change an existing value, select the value and overwrite it with a new value.
To copy a CAD variable value, hover the mouse pointer over it and then click .
To select date and time, click or click on the field. When editing a CAD variable corresponding to date and time, follow the supported international standard to save the variable value.

(Optional) If the secure variable values are displayed with an asterisk (*) symbol, click the Click to retry link to view their values.

After you edit the CAD variable values as required, click Save.

The system may delay displaying the updated CAD variable values, based on the routing configuration or events in Flow Designer. Saving the CAD variable values is subject to network availability and other operational considerations.

(Optional) To retrieve the previously saved values, click Revert.

End a call

After you’ve helped your customer with their questions or requests, we recommend asking the customer to end the call. If necessary, you can also end the call.

Before you begin

You must have accepted the call request.

Click End.

The Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears.

Select the wrap-up reason from the drop-down list or use the search field to filter the list.

For steps, see Apply a wrap-up reason.

Click Submit Wrap Up.

(Optional) If you're using a handset or headset, you must disconnect the physical phone before you can receive the next call.

Callback

Customers can opt to receive a callback using an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) by calling, visiting the website, or using a chatbot (Virtual Agent).

The following are the different callback types:

Courtesy Callback: A customer can opt to receive a courtesy callback instead of waiting in the queue for an agent to answer the call.
Web Callback (Callback): A customer can opt to receive a callback by submitting a callback request. The request includes a name and callback number when visiting the contact center website or interacting with a chatbot (Virtual Agent).

The callback requests are sent to the Webex Contact Center system. When an agent is available, the system initiates a callback to the customer. The customer can be offered the callback option during peak hours or nonworking hours of the contact center.

Callback requests are routed to you as an incoming call request. The callback contact request popover displays the Callback label, the Callback icon (), the phone number of the customer, DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service), the queue that routed the call to you, and a timer indicating the time elapsed since you received the call. The status of the incoming call is displayed as Ringing.

If the End Call feature for Web Callback is enabled by your administrator, the Ringing status is replaced with the Cancel button in the contact card request.

If the customer accepts the call, you are connected to the customer and the Interaction Control pane displays.

To cancel the Web Callback before the customer answers the call, click Cancel. When the callback is canceled, the Wrap Up Reasons dialog box appears.

If the customer doesn’t answer the call, the call is returned to the queue.

If the contact center has reached the maximum limit for concurrent calls that is set for the data center or tenant, you can't make more calls, and the corresponding reason codes are displayed on Agent Desktop.