Call Center Issues

Hi everyone,

I work as a consultant for a call center and I’m having some issues with the Elastix system there.

Here is a few of them:

  1. Hard Phones and Soft Phones Issue: Low Vol. while using an external lines. Problem occurs on some phones.
  2. Very low vol. with the recording tool, “from the client side almost no voices”.
  3. Major and Repetitive problem: User extension appears as busy while he/she is not in a DnD state, problem occurs while using soft phones and when the user restart the soft phone problem get solved.
  4. Listen and Whisper service is not working.
  5. Recording tool is not logging for some days, some days are not showing in filtering.
  6. When dialing an external number server responds with a busy signal while the outside line is not busy.
  7. There is no such a way to figure out whether the agent is in a DnD state or not.
  8. Major problem: Recording tool is counting missed calls “No answer”, while the call is answered and recorded (Showed in the Recording Reports Tool in the No answer tab).
  9. Transferred calls are not recorded.
  10. While the agent is in a DnD state he/she still receiving calls and clients go for queue “Waiting”.
  11. Agents extensions passwords are needed by the Supervisor to monitor the queue list for their extensions “Without going through the Flash Panel”
  12. Major problem: When the client hangs up the line while he just entered the queue list it’s counted as a missed call “No answer for the agent”.
  13. Repetitive problem: When a client calls from the outside lines most of the times it is ringing and doesn’t play a greeting message.
  14. When an agent puts a client on hold and dial another internal number “on Line 2”, when the agent gets back to the client he/she finds him disconnected.

What do you actually expect anyone to do with this list? Do you think someone is going to give you a magic fix for each line item.

You are the consultant and are being compensated to resolve these issues. If you do not have the knowledge to fix them you need to either retain someone who does or acquire the knowledge yourself.

I have never seen anyone with the audacity to simply dump a customer punch list into a help forum.

Wonders never cease.

Kinda strange…

I found the answers to many of these issues in just a couple of minutes of google searching.

Many of these issues have been well documented both in this forum and in other locations.

Bill/W5WAF

I know that I was wrong from the beginning that I didn’t clarify my problem enough. I admit it I relied solely on getting help from any help forum “Open source community” and that’s because:

a. I’m a “newbie” to Elastix system and I’m only on the Cisco side of the game, I mean I only dealt with CUCM and I know how to get help if I’m stuck with something and also because they are widely used and supported and every CCVP can implement and maintain a Cisco Unified Communication Network Infrastructure.

b. “You are the consultant and are being compensated to resolve these issues. If you do not have the knowledge to fix them you need to either retain someone who does or acquire the knowledge yourself.” ……… I won’t digress too much on this one here because I don’t want to get too deep on the reason behind why I’m here trying to get some help but yeah I work as a consultant for a SMB environment and this problem belongs to a call center that I do consulting for. And you’re right I should have tried solving these problems on my own or acquire the knowledge myself as you said.

c. Yes I admit it one more time that I thought that I’m in wonderland and everything I say would be answered but I forgot that I’m here on some free support helping open source community where you have to search for yourself and find it yourself and learn it yourself as I read before if you’re a newbie like me you will have to bang your head through the wall if you don’t know how to get the info.

d. Yes I spent some time Google searching for a solution for some of these problems and I got nothing so I got here and I admit what I did I copy/pasted my report to my supervisor here and I didn’t filter it so eventually you read my report to my supervisor and you thought that “I’m dumping a customer punch list into a help forum”.

So I’m sorry if I didn’t search enough or did what I supposed to do right here, but let’s start clean here with a fresh clean slate I need help and you people here have the solution so let’s make a deal let’s leave this topic open and I’ll discuss some of the major problems that I can’t find a solution for with my supervisor and re post them with nice and filtered look and hope you guys help me through it.

At last I hope that I didn’t bother anybody here.

Regards,

We need to know the version of Asterisk and FreePBX that you are running.

  1. Hard Phones and Soft Phones Issue: Low Vol. while using an external lines. Problem occurs on some phones.

There is a txgain and rxgain setting for the external lines (zaptel, dahdi) - are you referring to PSTN lines? You can use ztmonitor or dahdi_monitor to check levels with a 102 mW test line.

Interesting that it occurs on some phones only. Are you inferring that internal calls have an acceptable volume level?

Sure you can start clean and as Eugene said you need to start by telling us quite a bit more that you did. Version numbers are a good start along with network infrastructure, handset and headset types.

The more work you do the more willing folks are going to be to help.

I did want to respond to this comment. We are all aware of Cisco’s license and ongoing Smartnet costs. How much time and money did you spend on your CCVP (nobody is impressed with cert dropping BTW)?

While the software is free a very tangible and quantifiable cost basis can be calculated for ongoing maintenance an support. It makes no difference if the support is provided internal or external.

To properly administer an open source phone system you need decent Linux Sysadmin skills, Complete knowledge of Asterisk and FreePBX, familiarity with DB management and a complete understanding of networking.

Basically the same skill set as the closed source product.

End of digression.

Bottom line, provide more info. Try and prioritize your list.

If this is an ongoing gig for you consider the Open Source Telephony Training seminar. I know the team is trying to put out together for spring.

If this is a one shot deal consider retaining a consultant to assist you in clearing you list.

Hard Phones and Soft Phones Issue, Low Volume. while using an external lines. Problem occurs on some phones
.these problems we should phase

This would be a problem with your soft phone.

Probably a program running on the PC that conflicts with the soft phone program.

For this reason, I’ve always considered the use of soft phones somewhat problematic.

I guess you’re running under your work stations under windows. Just knowing that fact could point to your problem.

BF

These all are the common problem that everyone faced, you should search some good solution from web and also analyze just yourself to find the new solution.