Call Concepts #

The following concepts apply to call analytics and have an effect on how call data can be analyzed. It is important to understand these concepts to help with configuration and to ensure the system is used to its full potential.

Glossary #

The following table outlines terms used in the context of communications platforms and analytics.

Call Types #

Internal (Intercom) & External Calls #

Information about all telephone calls that take place are stored for call reporting purposes. This includes all external calls (calls involving a trunk line) and internal calls (intercom calls between internal devices of the business).

When analyzing call data, it is important to know that internal calls are included in some statistics and they can skew figures if the wrong statistics are used.

Statistics on the system will include only external calls unless the name specifically includes mentions internal calls. For example, the 'Total Calls' statistic includes only external calls, whereas 'Total Calls (inc. IC)' will include all external and internal calls on the system.

For more information on the fields available, please refer to the Statistics section.

Call Direction (Incoming & Outgoing, Both) #

The direction indicates which party initiated the telephone call (which party dialed the number). All calls modeled by the system have a direction, but depending on the tile/report being run, the direction may not be relevant.

External calls always have a direction no matter what tile or report is displayed the data. Trunk to trunk calls will have a direction of 'Both' due them having a incoming and outgoing leg.

Internal calls only have a direction when the tile/report is showing data which has been grouped by a device (Agent ID, Device, Queue or User) on the telephone system. When viewed on a wallboard tile, internal calls have no direction.

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If calls are forwarded by a user to an external number, the call will become a trunk to trunk call and will have a direction of 'Both'. Use an external device instead of a call forward to track these calls as incoming on reports.

Answered / Unanswered Calls #

An answered call is one where a caller is connected to a device/agent/user or voicemail. Consequently, an unanswered call is one which has not been answered by a device/agent/user or voicemail.

The concept of whether a call is answered or not varies depending on whether you are looking at Segmented or Non-Segmented call reports.

When looking at a Non-Segmented report, the call will show as answered if it was answered on any segment. If looking at a Segmented report, the call will only show as answered if that particular segment was answered.

Abandoned Calls (Lost) #

An abandoned call is an incoming external call where the last segment was not answered. Abandoned call statistics can be added to real-time tiles and historical reports.

An abandoned call is any call where the last segment was not answered, even if it has been answered on a previous segment (internal calls are not included in abandoned call statistics). On segmented call list reports, only the last segment will be marked as Abandoned.

E.g. If a call is answered by 'User A', but then gets transferred to 'User B' but ends before 'User B' answers the call, this would be marked as an Abandoned Call.

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It is not always possible to detect when a call has gone to voicemail. Due to this, calls that have gone to voicemail may be included in the Abandoned call statistics.

tip
Use the Short Ringing Threshold setting to stop very short ringing calls from being flagged as Abandoned.

Unreturned Abandoned Calls #

Unreturned abandoned calls statistics are available for real-time tiles only, not historical. These statistics track incoming (external) calls which were abandoned and that haven't subsequently:

• Dialed in again and been answered
• Had an outgoing return call which has been answered

These statistics provide a good way of tracking how many customers have tried to make contact, but have not yet spoken to someone.

There are two different unreturned abandoned call statistics which can be used, Unreturned Abandoned Calls & Unreturned Abandoned Calls (no filter). The difference between these two statistics is down to how filters are applied to them.

Unreturned Abandoned Calls When using this statistic, any filter applied will be applied to both the incoming calls and the return calls. E.g. If a filter for a certain DID is being applied, only a subsequent call from the same number which is answered on the same DID would remove the call from the unreturned abandoned calls statistic.

Unreturned Abandoned Calls (no filter) When using this statistic, any filter applied will only be applied to the abandoned call element. E.g. Any call incoming or outgoing call to the same number would cause the unreturned abandoned call to be removed from the statistic.

tip
If the same number rings in twice and both calls are abandoned, although there are two separate abandoned calls, it will only be counted as a single unreturned abandoned call.

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An outgoing return call that has been answered will remove an Unreturned Abandoned Call.

Refused Calls #

The refused call property relates to a call segment that has been offered to a user through a queue/group which they have not answered. The call itself may be offered to a different users after a set period of time or overflow to a different queue/group.

The call will be logged as refused against the user who did not answer the call. This statistic allows user performance to be compared to see who is routinely ignoring calls (they may be forgetting to set their availability correctly resulting in a poor customer experience).

Transferred Calls #

Transferred calls are calls that have been answered and then have been moved by the user to another device. This includes calls transferred by any of the following methods:

• Announced/Blind Transfer
• Pickup/Reverse Transfer¹

The systems provides specific fields for tracking calls which have been transferred to or from a device.

For example, if device 1001 transfers a call to device 1002, the call will be classed as 'Transferred Out' for device 1001 and 'Transferred In' for device 1002.

Overflowed Calls #

Overflowed calls are unanswered calls which have moved from one device to another. This can be because the call was deflected by the user or the call was moved automatically due to one of the following reasons:

• Forward Timer
• Group/Queue Timer
• Pickup/Reverse Transfer¹

For example, a call that rings device 1001 and follows a 'Forward - No Answer' timer to device 1002 will appears as 'Overflowed Out' against device 1001 and 'Overflowed In' against device 1002.

Hang-up Causes #

Where applicable, call segments will be attributed with a hang-up cause which can help to indicate why the call cleared down. The table outlines some of the possible hang-up causes which are displayed:

Service Level Statistics #

Service Level #

Service levels are a target of how quickly incoming calls should be answered. The service level statistics use a configured target service level to display the percentage of calls that were answered within the desired time. This can be viewed in historical reports and real-time tiles.

Service level settings are configured for the system but can be overridden at Workspace level if required.

Short Answered Calls #

These are incoming calls that have been answered but have an extremely short talk time (default set to less than 10 seconds). Calls that are classed as short answered can be removed from service level reports so as not to skew statistics.

Please refer to the Reporting Settings section for information on changing the Short Answered Call Threshold

Short Ringing Calls #

These are incoming calls that have not been answered and have an extremely short ring duration (default set to less than 10 seconds). Calls that are classed as short ringing can be removed from service level reports so as not to skew statistics.

Please refer to the Reporting Settings section for information on changing the Short Ringing Call Threshold

Route Path #

The route path name/number properties can be used to identify the route an incoming call has taken through the system. This helps when monitoring customer experience and helps to identify inefficient call flow programming.

The route path properties are initially populated with the caller id and caller name of the incoming call. As the call passes through Call Flows, the route path can be prefixed with additional information about the Queues or Groups it is being routed to.

When the call gets presented to a user, the caller id or name may have been prefixed with information of the call's route. This additionally helps the user know more information about the call, allowing them to answer the call in a specific way.

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On an outgoing call, the route path name/number properties are populated with the caller name and number that was presented when making the call.

note
If using ACDC, incoming Route Path prefixes can not be correctly modeled due to a lack of events linking the original call to the ACDC user call.

Reporting #

Route path information can be viewed on segmented and non-segmented call lists. A segmented call list will show the progression of the route path properties for a call. A non-segmented call list will show the route paths for the last segment which does not have a blank route path.

Dedicated route path summary reports are available to see a breakdown of the number of calls following each path through the PBX. Summarized route path reports work off non-segmented call data, so will look at the final route path of a call.

Please refer to the Route Path Reports section for more information on the summarized route path reports.

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If the route path of a call is reset or wiped out by a call flow, the summarized reports will not correctly show the path a call has taken.

Call Segmentation #

Call segmentation refers to how data about calls is modeled and stored for reporting. As a call is connected to different users or queues, it is tracked in different call segments. This allows reports to provide in-depth information on how calls have routed where they have been transferred or picked up.

Understanding call segmentation is an important step in being able to analyze call data correctly.

For more information on how call segmentation affects statistics, please refer to the dedicated Call Segmentation section.

Summarized & Aggregated Data #

On reports that show grouped data (Calls by User, DID etc), individual calls (or call segments) are grouped together and data from each call is summarized into totals, averages, percentages etc.

The Summarized Data section provides information on how this data can be interpreted and how aggregating call segments affects the data displayed.

Real-Time Data #

Active calls and user/agent status are modeled by the system and can be viewed through the Wallboard interface. The sections below outline each of the states available and provide examples of how these apply in the different call scenarios.

Call States #

When viewing statistics based on active calls, each call being modeled is classed as being in one of the states outlined on the table below. These call states are then used to build up the Active Call statistics (Calls On Hold, Calls Queuing etc).

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Call waiting statistics are based on the combined total of calls in the Queuing or Ringing state.

Examples:

Device States #

The following table outlines the different states a device on the communications platform can be in.

Agent States #

The following table outlines the different states an agent on the communications platform can be in.

User States #

User presence/status is not directly tracked other then by the calls they make/receive. When running user summary reports (e.g. Calls by User), the call states can be used to see how long people are busy on calls etc.

In addition, a Total Idle Duration can be shown for a user. This is the time of the report duration that the user has not spent on a call (Ringing, Talking or On Hold).