Setup Flow

Strategy Alignment

It’s important to be prepared for the specific needs of the customer that requires the Initial Configuration; that way we can focus on those configuration items that are key to get them started for their business domain and their particular needs.

The first clues come from understanding the business type; what business are they in, do they make calls, do they receive calls, how much lead/contact segmentation is typical in their business, how many agents they have, whether agents are multi-functional or specialized, etc.

With that in mind, following are a few general guidelines to consider, as follows.

Question – Are the business needs purely for Outbound calls? This would be typical for legacy telemarketers, political campaigns, and organizations that are in charge of setting appointments, to give some examples.
Strategy – Start with a single Outbound Campaign; consider a couple of sub-campaigns to introduce customer to segmenting leads, then define corresponding but simple Outbound Dial Priorities; include a couple of Agents with a standard Skill.

Question – Are the business needs purely for Inbound calls? This would be typical for those who just close sales (e.g. health insurance), or a customer support organization, for example.
Strategy – Start with a single Inbound Campaign; set up a basic IVR tree (Call Flow); include a couple of Agents with a standard Skill.

Question – Are the business needs for a combination of Outbound and Inbound calls? This would be typical for complex sales organizations where they have separate qualifier (front) and closer groups.
Strategy – Consider whether a Blended Campaign should be used, or separate Outbound and Inbound Campaigns would be more appropriate, usually by determining if same Agent can handle both (Blended) or Agent is assigned just one or the other (separate); on Outbound, ignore sub-campaigns for now, unless it’s a specific business requirement; on Inbound, set up a basic IVR tree (Call Flow); include a couple of Agents, with either a combined Skill or two different Skills.

There are certainly many other considerations, but for an initial setup or a trial, it’s best to start a workable configuration that is as simple as possible. This will get the customer started, who after training should be able to expand the initial configuration as needed.

The following diagram depicts the initial setup flow suggested here.

Pre-Setup

There are a few things that need to be completed before a ChaseData CCaaS setup is to be performed, as follows:

• Contract executed between Customer and ChaseData
  
• Customer application space defined and configured on ChaseData CCaaS server(s), including Administrator account
  
• ChaseData CCaaS Management Console and Agent Client installation links specific to Customer generated by ChaseData
  
• If applicable, DID(s) set up for Customer.
  

Step 1 – Requirements Verification

Refer to Requirements to verify that the following items meet the minimum requirements in the Customer environment:

• Workstation(s) where the Management Console and the Agent Client are to be installed and executed
  
• IP network where those workstations operate
  
• IP router handling that network.
  

Help Customer take corrective action where needed; if not able to resolve, reschedule for when Customer is expected to have resolved the issue(s).

Step 2 – Management Console and Agent Client Installation

Refer to Installation under Management Console and under Agent Client; follow installation instructions using the installation links provided by ChaseData.

Step 3 – Custom Fields

Perhaps the first thing to consider is the information that the Customer needs to save and use within the ChaseData system, for each lead or contact; if a corresponding field doesn’t exist already in the system by default, Custom Fields would need to be defined, and that would be assigned to the corresponding Campaign.  For example, there’s a system-provided PrimaryPhone field, but the Customer may also have a need for storing a secondary or mobile phone number, as well. Refer to Custom Data under General Tools and Data.

Step 4 – Campaign

For basic Campaign there’s no need for other elements to be provisioned beforehand, although we have chosen to create Custom Fields first.  Other elements could be added later on, as needed, such as Custom Script Pages, Dialing Rules, Call Queues, etc.

It is important that the Campaign type is set for the right activities, Outbound, Inbound, or Blended (there are also ‘Virtual’ modes for more specialized functions).  Since we decided to first create Custom Fields, also make sure to associate the corresponding Adv. Table (Custom Data) to the Campaign.

Step 5 – Agent Skills

Before we’re ready to provision Agents, we should have at least one Skill provisioned beforehand to represent the Agent role.

Note that when a Skill is provisioned, to be of use it must be activated for one or more Campaigns, which is the key link between an Agent and a Campaign; nevertheless, this relationship can be established at any time, therefore a Skill can be provisioned before the Campaign.

Refer to Agent Skills under Accounts.

Step 6 – Agents

Just like Campaigns, Agents are necessary for any call center activity to take place (with the exception of Virtual Campaigns); therefore, we proceed to provision a few Agents and assign them of the Skills provisioned.

Also like with Campaigns, a Skill does not have to be given to the Agent at this time, but without it the Agent will not linked to any Campaign and therefore not active for all practical purpose.

Step 7 – Voice Messages

Both Outbound and Inbound calls may require some custom Voice Messages; if recordings are available already for uploading, use them, otherwise for the time being could just define Voice Messages using Text-To-Speech (TTS).

Depending on the Campaign type(s) to be used, refer to Outbound Voice Prompts and/or Greetings & Announcements. If using TTS, refer to define corresponding Voice Scripts first.

Step 8 – Lead Import

At this point we should already have everything we need to handle calls without customized rules, except that we don’t have Leads (Contacts) to act upon.  Therefore, it’s important to Import some Contacts at this time; just make sure that the column headers for the records to be imported match exactly (case-sensitive) both the Default Fields and the Custom Fields previously defined.  Refer to Contacts Import and Custom Data.

Step 9 – Outbound Sub-Campaigns and Dial Priority

We now look into a nice-to-have setup, but also often used by typical Outbound Call Management; segmenting Contacts (Leads) into Sub-Campaigns for defining Dial Priorities.

The first step is to create Sub-Campaigns with a sub-set of the Contacts of a Campaign; refer to Sub-Campaigns under Campaigns.

The second step is to activate and assign a priority rule to one or more of these Sub-Campaigns; refer to Dial Priority under Outbound Call Management.

This applies only if Outbound Call Management is to be performed.

Step 10 – Inbound Call Flow

The other nice-to-have setup, in this case often used by typical Inbound Contact Centers is provisioning a Call Queue (which determines how to find an agent to take the call) and optionally defining a corresponding Call Flow (which allows for caller interactive responses).  Refer to Inbound Call Queues/Ring Groups and Call Flows under Inbound Contact Center.

This applies only if Inbound Contact Center functions are to be performed.

Step 11 – Wrap-Up Codes

An important part of a call center is to be able to set the disposition of calls in a manner specific to their business rules, therefore it’s highly recommended that a basic set of Wrap-up Codes is defined.  Refer to Wrap-Up Codes under General Tools and Data.