Making and receiving calls in ContactPad
Outbound calls
VGIS Click-to-Dial functionality
Using VGIS Click-to-Dial, agents can initiate calls by clicking any visible phone number on a webpage. To enable it, you must install the VGIS plug-in. To learn more about installing the plug-in, see Vonage® Integration Suite.
Plase note that the page must be fully loaded. Click-to-dial may not work properly on webpages that are not fully/properly loaded.
Making an outbound call using ContactPad occurs in two stages:
Vonage Contact Center dials your phone, and your state changes to Busy Outbound. You must answer this call.
When you answer the call, Vonage Contact Center dials the number you provide.
To make an outbound call, perform the following steps:
In ContactPad, click Make Call.
Your state changes automatically to Ready (Offline). In this state you are temporarily removed from any of the inbound queues you serve, giving you time to look up the contact number you wish to dial or read through your notes to prepare for your outbound call.
A new dialog box with the address book appears. For information about the address book and what it contains, see ContactPad address book.
Press Return or click Dial. An interaction card appears in ContactPad. The interaction card represents and contains information about the interaction and all channels (or parties) involved in the interaction.
Your telephone rings, and when you answer you hear ringing until you are connected to the target number.
In the following example, an agent made an outbound call to +441234567890 and was connected to the target number 49 seconds ago.
For more information about interaction cards and the information they contain, see Interaction cards in Overview of ContactPad.
Outbound call failures
When you make an outbound call, you might see receive error messages in the ContactPad message panel. These messages help you understand why calls have failed, so you can try another number, or arrange a later callback.
You can receive one of these three error messages:
Unable to place call to agent. Please try again This error occurs if your line is already in use, your line has a fault, or your telephone number is incorrect.
Important
Your supervisor should be able to identify any causes. If the above error messages persist you may have a problem with your phone and you should contact your supervisor to diagnose.
Unable to place call to dialled number. Please try again This error occurs if you have provided an invalid number. Check the number you want to dial, ensuring that you provide the correct national or international code.
Unable to place call - dialled number did not answer This error occurs if no one answers the phone after a configurable length of time — between 15 seconds and 3 minutes.
If messages persist, report a fault on your phone line to your Supervisor.
Inbound calls
When you receive a call through the ContactPad you can make use of Vonage Contact Center's call control features; you can put the call on hold, consult with someone else, transfer the caller elsewhere or even control the call recordings.
When you receive an inbound call, the following things happen:
Your state automatically changes to Busy Inbound
An interaction card appears in ContactPad. The interaction card represents and contains information about the interaction and all channels (or parties) involved in the interaction.
In the following example, an agent received an inbound call from +441234567890 1 minute 22 seconds ago.
Internal call
By default, if the inbound call is an internal call from another agent in your account, the agent's name will appear in the related interaction card in the information panel.
For more information about interaction cards and the information they contain, see Interaction cards in Overview of ContactPad.
The call control buttons — End interaction
, Release channel
, and Hold
— appear in the interaction card.
Your phone starts to ring
If enabled for your account and in your browser, a web notification also appears. For more information, see Call notifications in ContactPad.
If you answer your phone, you are connected to the caller and the Consult button becomes active. If you cannot accept the call right now, you can reject it. For information about rejecting a call, see the How do I reject an incoming call? section later in this page.
You can now perform one of the following tasks:
End the call. For information about ending a call, see How do I end an inbound call? later in this page.
Put the caller on hold. Click Hold
to put the caller on hold. The caller hears on-hold music or beeps and the Hold
button changes to a Retrieve
button. Click Retrieve
to speak with the caller again.
Consult with a third party — another agent, number, short code, queue or interaction plan — about this call, and, optionally, transfer the call to that third party. For information about consulting with a third party, see How do I consult with and, optionally, transfer to a third party? later in this page.
Rejecting inbound calls
Before you are connected to a call, you can reject it. To reject a call when you receive an inbound call, click End interaction in ContactPad. The inbound call is then returned to the queue and routed to the next available agent.
After rejecting an inbound call your state automatically goes into Ready (Blocked). You remain in the Ready (Blocked) state for the time configured in Agent No Answer Timeout (Unexpected) in User Admin. For more information, see Configuring individual users.
Consulting and transferring to a third party
While on a call, you can consult with another agent, short code, external number, interaction plan, or queue.
Warm and cold transfers
A transfer can be one of two types:
Transfer type | Description |
|---|---|
Cold transfer | You transfer a call directly to a third party without connecting to them first. |
Warm transfer | You connect to a third party before transferring the call. You can communicate with them - for example, to pass on information about the caller - before completing the transfer. |
The type of transfer available depends on which features are enabled for your account. For more information, see Warm and cold transfers in ContactPad.