Native voice

On this page you can find an introduction on how to work with Native Voice as an agent.

Status

When logging in and going to your dashboard, the first thing you may notice, is that there are additional status options available for voice: Active and Inactive. This simply means you are either available for new incoming phone calls, or you are unavailable for new phone calls. These new status are separate from the existing ones, because you may want to be offline for livechat, but available for phone calls, or online on the livechat, but unavailable for phone calls.

Incoming Calls

When no agent is logged in and active, incoming phone calls will go into the queue. The left number is the amount of incoming calls currently in the queue and the right number is the amount of agents who are available for new phone calls or are currently on the phone but could potentially receive incoming phone calls later.

When you switch your status to Active, the number on the right will change and you can receive a phone call. The banner with the phone call will stay on screen for 18 seconds and you can either accept, in which case a conversation screen will be opened and you will be connected with the customer, or you can decline.

If you have not chosen accept or decline within 18 seconds, it will automatically decline and the system will try to reroute the call to another agent. In the last case, the system assumes you are busy, your status will switch to ‘busy’ for 7 seconds so you can wrap anything you need to finish up and to make sure that it really does try to reroute it to someone else who is available. If no other agent is available, after those 7 seconds the phone call will be presented to you again. During this whole time, the customer has been listening to waiting music.

Please find below a video about the status use and the incoming calls.

Answering Incoming Calls

When you click to accept an incoming phone call, you will be connected to the customer and a conversation window will open. On the left side of the window you can see the call log. If you have call recording enabled, this will automatically start when the call is connected and will also show in the call log.

In the top left tab bar of your browser, a red dot will appear. This means you are connected to the customer and the browser is using your microphone.

Call Controls

The different call controls can be found in the top right corner. If you have call recording enabled, you will find a button to stop recording and when the recording has been stopped, you can re-start the recording. You also get options to place the call on hold, or to transfer or hang up. All these actions will appear in the call log.

Wrap-up Stage

When you end the conversation with the customer and either they or you hang up the call, you will enter wrap-up stage. Wrap up stage is necessary because otherwise you will go straight back into availability for new incoming phone calls after ending a call. Wrap-up time can be used to finish any admin you need to do before going back into availability. During this time, you will get the status ‘busy’. When you’re ready, you can end the wrap-up and your status will change back to ‘available’.

In the video below you can find how to pick up, end and how to start a call.

Collaboration

It can occur that during a call you may need to consult colleagues or other people outside your organization.

External collaboration

To call someone outside of your organization, click on ‘external voice collaboration’, an option that has been added in the dropdown of the middle conversation window. Type in their number and click on ‘call’.

While the customer is on hold and if the collaborator picks up, you can consult where needed. You can choose to put your collaborator on hold, transfer the customer to the collaborator, or hang up your call with the external collaborator and go back to the conversation with your customer.

Internal collaboration

You also get the option to consult internal colleagues who are working in the same environment as you. To do this, simply select an internal collaborator as you would in any conversation. The difference here is that it will show you who is available to consult on your call. The collaborator will receive the call like any other, with the difference that they see the name of the colleague that is calling them, letting them know it is a consultation call. When picking up, the collaborator will see the same conversation as you, but see that you are the owner of the conversation same as with internal collaboration with written channels like email and livechat. They cannot interact with the customer or take ownership of the conversation themselves.

You can give your colleague, i.e. the 'receiving agent', the control of the conversation by transfering this call by clicking the blue transfer button (See picture below). After the transfer of the call the conversation closes for the agent that performs the transfer. The 'receiving agent' gets ownership over the conversation and the call is taken out of hold automatically. The 'receiving agent' now has full control over the call with the end-customer.

If you do not want your colleague to give ownership, you can hang up the collaboration call and resume the conversation with the customer. When the collaboration call is hung up, the collaborator will go straight back to ‘available’.

Below a video is shown about both External and Internal collaboration. Please note that the internal attended transfer feature is not explained.