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1. Agent 305 Raffaella 305 Edit agent Delete agent Agent 308 Ugo 308 Editagent Delete agent lPisiplenz SIP phone 899 Edit agent Delete agent Add new agent _ Agent code Agent 104 Agent description Alice Agent location Now we add a new queue First of all click on the Cfg queues label and delete the existing queues that were preloaded in the sample database Now create a new queue by filling in the form at the bottom of the page e Enter Oper as the queue Alias e Enter 401 in the Queues field The result should be similar to the following File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Lowa research Page 19 of 22 y Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox Ss aay Demo Admin Amministratore Log off Print QueueMetrics call center monitor Cfg Agents Cfg Locations Queues Configuration Alias Ann GA Oper Queue s Wrap up Key Ga inbound queue 8D outbound queue 401 Os Os Edit Agents Delete Add new queue Alias Queuefs Announcement sec Wrap up time sec Visibility key Call flow Inbound calls v Attention levels Yellow alarm Red alarm Number of calls in queue Number of agents on call Number of agents waiting r2. cccccesseeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeees 16 File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 3 of 22 research Turning AAH into a call center solution If you are reading this you probably already know that using Asterisk Home AAH you can install a fully featured Asterisk based PBX in a matter of minutes This PBX is very good for most users as it is preconfigured to handle the most common scenarios one can find in a personal environment or in a small to medium sized office The typical usage patters of a small call center are a bit different from the ones you are likely to find in a classical PBX because e Agents spend almost their whole working day available to answer the phone as opposed to standard PBX users who use the phone occasionally while doing other work handling and answering calls for them has to be made as easy as possible e Acall center is usually a high density commercial enterprise therefore it has to be run and monitored using tools that are able to quickly see how things are going identify bottlenecks and address them In our opinion running a successful call center is more a state of mind than a given set of telephone gear What makes a difference is not the number of extensions queues or agents you have is a mindset where you consider that the customers calling in are actually very important and you do your best to serve them well within given budget limits Maybe you just run a small computer repair
3. Done As you can see you may set up yellow and red alarms on each queue so that in the real time monitoring you can have lines turn red or yellow when specific events happen please consult the user manual for a thorough explanation of how to set this up Go back to the home page Have an agent log in form one telephone by dialing 299 and then their agent number Place a call to the queue dial 401 from another extension for example Click on the one Realtime reporting and you should see a screenshot very similar to this File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 20 of 22 research Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox Eile Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help Pes Demo Admin Amministratore Log off Print Your Logo QueueMetrics call center monitor Realtime call center monitoring 11 55 27 Queuefs Oper Reload now Hide calls Hide agents Show members only Location x Queue N agents Ready On pause N Calls waiting On phone On phone agents 7 inbound outbound All selected 1 0 Oper 0 Calls being processed Queue Caller Entered Waiting Duration Agent Oper 201 04105 11 55 00 0 00 0 27 Alice Agents currently logged in Agent Last logon Extension On pause Alice 0405 11 54 27 No In order to mantain session information this page will reload automatically Here we can see that there is only one agent logged in as an always o
4. recordagentcalls yes The format to be used to record the calls wav gsm wav49 By default its wav recordtformat gsm Insert into CDR userfield a name of the the created recording By default it s turned off sereatelink yes The text to be added to the name of the recording Allows forming a url purlprefix http localhost calls The optional directory to save the conversations in The default is fvar spool asterisk monitor Savecallsin var calls This section contains the agent definitions in the form agent gt agentid agentpassword name autologoff 15 wrapuptime 5000 jackcall no lgroup 1 jagent gt 101 Alice lagent gt 102 Bob Make sure that you enter the double commas before the agent s name correctly they are not a typo We have just successfully created a couple of agents Agent 101 is Alice and Agent 102 is Bob Configuring a queue To add a queue to your system from the main menu click on Setup and then Queues File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 11 of 22 research Asterisk Management Portal Mozilla Firefox DAR Eile Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help g Asterisk r A K D Management e Maintenance Setup Reports Panel Portal Setup Incoming Calls Add Queue Queue Extensions Ring Groups Add Queue Queues queue number queue name queue password CID name p
5. modify the queue through AMP the results will be ignored by Asterisk until you copy and paste them back to the file guewes conf and you restart That s because we actually redefine it in order to be useful to us Do have to create the queue with AMP in any case Yes you do because otherwise AMP will not know that the queue exists and will not route calls to it Allowing agents to log in and out as needed What makes an agent different from a static terminal is that the agent logs in i e tells Asterisk he is ready to handle calls and then logs out when he is not ready anymore There are two kinds of agents in Asterisk always on agents and callback agents File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 14 of 22 research An always on agent will sit all day with his headphones on listening to music until a call comes in When he is available the incoming call is routed to him immediately he does not have to answer it When he is done with the call he presses to disconnect it and goes back to listening to music on hold When he needs to take a break he hangs up the phone this way Asterisk knows he is not available A callback agent instead will simply notify Asterisk that he is available at a given extension When a call comes in for him Asterisk will ring his own extension He will handle the call normally and then will have to tell Asterisk when he is not available To do this he will have to perfo
6. shop and have a couple of lines coming in What is the cost of having people wait or call multiple times because they cannot talk to anybody within a reasonable time What will your clients think about you On the contrary what will your clients think of your customer service if it always answers on the very first ring And how do you know if your technicians actually answer the phone when the calls come in or wait five minutes because they are doing other things These are the questions you should ask If you follow the guidelines in this document you ll find an easy way to start answering to questions like these Running a call center therefore is not a matter of having multiple PRIs or special hardware You will not even need a separate box from your main PBX running AAH You will only need some software and a bit of configuration to set it up correctly Call centers 101 the very basics Before we start building a small call center we have to focus a bit on the terminology e Acampaign is a set of calls that belong to the same scope e g your technical support versus commercial support line are different campaigns though they may be e Aninbound campaign is devoted to answering people calling in while an outbound campaign is made up by agents dialing out Call centers often mix inbound and outbound activities in order to optimize the use of personnel File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 4 of 22 research e A
7. Lowa research y Turning Asterisk Home into a small call center with QueueMetrics AUTHOR LOWAY RESEARCH VERSION 1 0 DATE May 4 2006 Loway Research di Lorenzo Emilitri Via Fermi 5 21100 Varese Tel 0332 320550 Fax 0332 328609 p i 02888500127 Loway Page 2 of 22 research Index Turning AAH into a call center solution 111s acs ssdsssiscidsvsiacrisercs eta vsisciesveta sis adsense viavds 3 Call centers 101 the very DaAsiCSs annnannnsnsncunnensnaenncnanonananeaAennns 3 PPO eS uee E E O AS 4 Installing QueueMetrics ccsccevisadccasinerenseecroinenivrdeoeoinevivamereiaretrrsinoinrenraereenoeaermeeiceoess 4 petung up AAH oreieiri ersen iE ENA EATE E EEEE EAEE EEEE AERAR tenets 8 Creating agents sssesssseeeeesssssssseetrrrrrssssssertreresssssssetrrrorsssssssetrerresssssseeerersessssseeeerrerese 9 Configuring a queue sss ssssesssssssseerrereressssseerrrrressssssttrereeresssssetrerreresssseerrereeeessssererre 10 What if I change the queue definition in AMP sssssssssssseresssssssssesereesssssssseerree 13 Do I have to create the queue with AMP in any Case cccccececeeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeees 13 Allowing agents to log in and out as needed cccccccccssesssseeececceeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeees 13 Why don t we use the standard AAH logins cccccsssseeeeeeecceeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeeees 15 TRO a PE AE es 15 Configuring the agents and the queue in QueueMEtrics
8. Queue Sample Queue v Quick activity reports Today Yesterday The day before yesterday Last day Last 7 days Last 30 days Last 90 days Real time report Start realtime monitoring Custom report Run custom report Agent report Filtered for agent v Today Last 7 days Last 30 days Last 90 days Edit QueueMetrics settings Administer users Edit queues Edit agents Edit locations Setup wizard Load data from Asterisk Show licence information First of all click on Edit agents Add your new two agents by entering the agent code as Agent 101 and the description as Alice Delete existing agents you do not need a number of agents are preloaded when the system starts up but we may safely delete them File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 18 of 22 research Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox BAR File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help g j fl a Demo Admin Amministratore Log F li E Your Logo QueueMetrics enter monitor Home Cfg Users Cfg Queues Cfg Agents Cfg Locations J t Agents Configuration Agent code Agent description Location Agent 301 Mara 301 2 Edit agent Delete agent Agent 302 Simona 302 Edit agent Delete agent Agent 303 Laura 303 Edit agent 1 Delete agent Agent 304 Isabel 304 Edit agent Delete agent
9. SH Server fAlias 10 10 3 102 Connected to server running 35H 1 99 OpenS5H_3 9pl Server s hostkey ssh rsa fingerprint openssh md5 c ce 4 61 e6 66 fa 2 ea d2 e3 8d 26 be 29 4d bubblebabble xotim kyvef koban fufin basib kyhur gesuc cimig cyhaz besak zixix File operations disabled server identity can t be verified 10 10 3 102 login ff Java Applet Window Type the Return key when you see the line SSH Server Alias The supplied value should already be correct Then log in as root with password password When you are logged in type the following commands wget P etc yum repos d http yum loway it loway repo yum install queuemetrics The yum command will download QueueMetrics and all of its dependences and install it on your system This may take a while depending on your internet connection 6699 speed When asked to confirm the installation type y to confirm After the installation is done you have to install the sample MySQL database that will be used to initialize the system by executing the following commands cd usr local queuemet rics webapps queuemet rics 1 1 1 WEB INF README _ installDb sh File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 7 of 22 research Follow the on screen instructions it is a matter of typing in a couple of passwords as detailed by the installDb utility itself and the database will be created To test th
10. at everything is okay you ll have to point your browser to the address http myserver 8080 queuemetrics and you should see a screen like the following one Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox DER File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help a Print fe Your Logo QueueMetrics User logon Login Password If you see this screen you know that QueueMetrics is working fine As you ll be curious to ckeck it out you can login immediately with the credentials demoadmin password demo You may notice that the first time you load up a new page it may take a while to display it depending on your AAH box CPU speed this is normal as QueueMetrics uses Java Server Pages technology and such pages are internally compiled the first time they are accessed File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 8 of 22 research Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help a i IOU aisan lt uUuTCuUuUC vi Lh ee call center monitor QueueMetrics Home Page Queue Sample Queue v Quick activity reports Today Yesterday The day before yesterday Last day Last 7 days Last go days Last go days Real time report Start realtime monitoring Custom report Run custom report gt Agent report This is how the first page looks like Feel free to look around a bit before logging off You may now also close the SSH wi
11. euemetrics loway it It is a commercial product that is available free of charge to smaller call centers home users and SOHO s Log in to your AAH system using your web browser and the standard credentials they are login maint password password if you have not changed them manually File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 5 of 22 research Asterisk Home Mozilla Firefox DEAR File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help Asterisk Home gt wet z welcome Yoicemail amp Recordings ARI CRM Elash Operator Panel Web MeetMe Control Asterisk Management Portal AMP Click on Asterisk Management Portal and then click Maintenance Asterisk Home Mozilla Firefox Ele Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help Asterisk Home Maintenance Setup Reports dara Maintenance System Status System Status Config Edit Asterisk Home version 2 7 phpMyAdmin Process Status Java SSH Asterisk Sysinfo cron server Asterisk Infi terisk Info secure shell server Web Mail web server Upload Audio File Log Files Uptime 23 hours 20 minutes Backup Click on Java SSH from the column on the left A terminal window will open up it may take a while File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 6 of 22 research MindTerm_3 0 1 80x24 File Edit Settings Plugins Tunnels Help S
12. he from internal context menu Sysspeed The context from internal custom is included in from internal by defe from internal custom jexten gt 299 1 AgentCallBackLogin from internal lexten gt 298 1 AgentLogin 71234 1 Playback demo congrats extensions can dial 1234 71234 2 Hangup h 1 Hangup include gt custom recordme extensions can also dial jinclude gt custom speed dial jexten gt 60 1 Answer lexten 60 2 Playback at tone time exactly fexten gt 60 3 SayUnixTime IMp lexten 60 4 Playback beep lexten gt 60 5 Hangup jexten t61 1 Answer Save and reload AAH is now configured fully Why don t we use the standard AAH logins Instead of actual agents AAH usually uses either static extensions or fully dynamic callback agents where you log in to a queue by entering the queue number followed by and log off by entering a queue number followed by This works but for the way AAH is configured the logging in and logging off are not traced correctly this way it is impossible to gather data on agent sessions i e how much time the agent was available Such information is essential to the smooth running of a call center because it lets us compare our actual staff versus the flow of calls at any given moment in time Static extensions instead should not be used as they are never aware of the agent s availability and therefore may end up in empt
13. n and one call from 201 is ongoing with Alice Once the call is over if we click on the Home tab and then Quick activity reports gt Today we will be shown today s stats File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 21 of 22 research Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help Report Details Queue s 401 Period start date 2006 05 04 0 00 Period end date 2006 05 04 23 59 Total calls processed 6 16 7 ans 83 3 unans Export analysis in CSV format Answered calls Agents on queue v E t Answered calls N answered calls by operators Average call length Total call length Average call waiting time Agents on queue Agent N Calls Alice 1 Service level agreement Answer N Calls Delta ap Within 10 seconds 9000 O Within 20 seconds 0 100 0 O Within 30 seconds 0 100 0 R Done From the report page you can access a number of reports they are well detailed in QueueMetrics user manual but the following should be a working introduction The Answered tab gives statistics about the calls that were answered correctly how any were handled who handled them average duration and average wait times The Detail button on the bottom of the Answered page gives a call by call activity detail The Unanswered tab gives information on calls that were lost i e the user disconnected bef
14. ndow as we won t need it anymore for this tutorial Setting up AAH What we need to do now is setting up AAH so that e We can have actual Asterisk agents both in the always on and callback fashion e We can configure a queue to run agents To perform this we will have to edit Asterisk s configuration file This is very easy as under the maintenance menu we find the Config edit label clicking on it will lead you to a screen like the following one File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 9 of 22 research phpconfig for Asterisk PBX Mozilla Firefox File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help phpconfig for Asterisk PBX a2billing cont agents cont alarmreceiver cont asterisk conf cdr_mysql cont codecs cont dnsmgr conf dundi cont enum conf extconfig cont extensions conf extensions_additional cont extensions_custom cont features conf festival conf Done You will be able to edit each file just by clicking on it and then pressing Update to save do not forget to click on Reload config to have Asterisk load up the new configuration Creating agents We ll start by editing the agents conf file go to its bottom it should look kind of similar to the one in the picture File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 10 of 22 research J phpconfig for Asterisk PBX Mozilla Firefox File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help Header Edit agents conf agents
15. onal conf 401 wrapuptime 0 timeout 15 strategy rrmemory retry 5 queue youarenext queue thereare queue thankyou queue thankyou queue callswaiting music default monitor join yes monitor format max len 0 leavewhenempt y no joinempty yes context announce holdtime no announce frequency 0 Now copy all the queue definition for queue 401 and paste into the file queues conf after all the other values After that add two lines that read membe r Agent 101 ember Agent 102 The result should look very similar to the following screenshot File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 13 of 22 research phpconfig for Asterisk PBX Mozilla Firefox DE E3 Eile Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help g a 299 298 default Default settings for queues currently unused l include queues_custom conf include queues _additional conf 401 wrapuptime 0 timeout 15 jstrategy rrmemory jretry 5 queue youarenext queue thereare queue thankyou queue thankyou queue callswaiting imusic default jmonitor join yes imonitor format imax len 0 lleavewhenempty no joinempty yes context lannounce holdtime no jannounce frequency 0 menber Agent 101 lmember Agent 102 Update Now save this file and reload Asterisk You have just created a new queue that has two members Alice and Bob What if change the queue definition in AMP If you
16. ore talking to a living person The Detail button on the bottom of the Unanswered page gives a call by call detail of lost calls The Distrib tab gives a daily hourly and day of week breakdown of taken and lost calls File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 22 of 22 research e The Agents tab gives detail of agent sessions and calls handled during those sessions e The Detail button on the bottom of the Agents page gives a session by session detail of agent activity e The All tab is a convenient way to have all the stats on a single page so that it can be saved or printed for future reference File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06
17. queue is the physical implementation of an inbound campaign The queue receives calls and pipes them to the available agents according to a predefined logic usually FIFO for the calls and round robin for the agents In call center terminology this functionality is often referred to as the ACD Automated Call Distribution e Anagent is a person working at a call center The agent is different from a casual user as an agent logs in and out in order to tell the system when he is available or not In this way the ACD searching logic minimizes agent searching time as it almost never has to ring up an agent who is not available An agent can be working on one or more queues whenever he is available all calls coming in to any queue he s working on will be piped to him In this tutorial we will learn how to create an inbound queue and proper agents to handle it Prerequisites To follow this guide you will need an already installed reasonably modern AAH instance It may be your home or office PBX You can follow this guide completely while having your PBX running so there is no need for a prolonged downtime You will need at least a couple of telephones to test your setup and land line you can use You should be basically familiar on how to use AAH as a basic PBX creating extensions connecting to external lines and such things Installing QueueMetrics QueueMetrics is a full fledged call center monitoring solution see http qu
18. refix Outbound Routing static agents Digital Receptionist Trunks Inbound Routing On Hold Music System Recordings Backup amp Restore General Settings Clean amp Remove duplicates Queue Options Agent Announcement None x Hold Music Category Default max wait time 0 seconds max callers o v ves v You will see that a queue is highly configurable but for the moment we make ourselves content of entering the following data e Queue number 401 e Queue name Oper e Ring strategy rrmemory This is the basic call center setup where the ACD system tries one agent after the other until someone answers When you are done click on the red line and have AAH update the system Now comes the trickiest part The current versions of AMP will not allow you to enter a list of true agents in the form Agent 101 but that is what you have to do To perform this you use the editor to locate the queue definition you have just created that is written to the file guewes_additional conf it will look more or less like this File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 12 of 22 research phpconfig for Asterisk PBX Mozilla Firefox File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help queues_additional conf Jetc astetisk Nariwww litml panel lete Aftpboot Re Read Con queues_additional conf 401 Edit queues_additi
19. rm an explicit logoff The first scenario is only suited for high volume call handling while the second is usually better suited to smaller installations To choose whether your agents will be callback or not you just log them in by making them dial a different extension This means that the very same agent can be always on on a high volume Monday morning and callback in the afternoon with no change in the configuration So we now have to create a couple of extensions that will allow agents to log on and off in both ways You have to find a couple of unused extensions that will allow the log in Let s say they are 299 and 298 on our test system We modify the file extensions_custom conf by adding a couple of lines after the from internal custom section l exten gt 299 1 AgentCallBackLogin from internal exten gt 298 1 AgentLogin The result should look more or less like the following screenshot File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 15 of 22 research phpconfig for Asterisk PBX Mozilla Firefox File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help extensions_custom conf Jetc astetisk Nat wwwlitmlpanel fete Aftpboot Re Read Configs extensions_custom conf Header Edit extensions_custom conf from internal custom custom meetme custom wakeupext All custom context should contain the string custom in it s name custom speed dial Extensions in AMP have access to t
20. y extensions ringing while other agents are sitting idle waiting for the ACD to pass over the call Logging in You may have your agents log in by dialing 299 for the callback or 298 for the always on mode File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 16 of 22 research When you login as a callback agent you have to enter your agent number like 101 for Alice and then your current extension like 243 Each number has to be followed by pound To logoff a callback agent you dial 299 then enter your agent code followed by pound and then press pound again The voice will tell you that you are logged off Configuring the agents and the queue in QueueMeftrics Go back to QueueMetrics Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox File Edit Yiew Go Bookmarks Tools Help a Print fe Your Logo QueueMetrics call center monitor User logon Login demoadmin Password Please ask your system administrator for the correct credentials to access this instance of QueueMetrics Login as demoadmin password demo You should see a screen like the following one File QM_AAH_100 doc Version 15 05 06 Loway Page 17 of 22 research Loway QueueMetrics version 1 1 1 Mozilla Firefox DAR File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help i gt Demo Admin Amministratore Log off Print QueueMetrics call center monitor QueueMetrics Home Page
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