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App Note 015 - Announce Position in Queue to Caller

Abstract

This Application Note describes a technique to play to the caller their position in the queue.

 

Overview of Solution

The LiveOps Call Flow Authoring (CFA) tool has a large number of modules that can enhance the customer experience in your menus and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) flows.  These include Announcing Estimated Wait Time and offering a “Virtual Hold” mechanism via the Callback with Voicemail module.

 

But there is no native module to play to a caller their position in queue. This can be a useful piece of information that you may wish to provide to your callers and this Application Note will present an example of using various CFA tools to create an effective “Play Position in Queue” offering.

 

Note:     If you use any type of queue manipulation or queue prioritization in your Call Flows, it is highly recommended that you do NOT play their position in queue to your standard callers. Doing so may provide misleading results.

 

For instance, if a caller is told that they are “second in queue” and then several “premium callers” with a higher answer priority are placed ahead of them, the next announcement played to the original caller might tell them they are “fifth in queue” causing alarm and frustration.

 

 

The technique described here involves creating custom recorded prompts for each announced position in queue and then using a “Branch on Call Attribute” module to play the appropriate message to the caller.

 

We will describe the following steps:

  1. Create Audio Files for each Position
  2. Capture the queue position of the caller into a Call Flow Attribute
  3. Set the Queue Position Attribute
  4. Use a “Branch on Call Attribute” module to determine which audio prompt to play to the caller

 

 

Configuration Steps

Step 1: Create Audio Files for each Position

 

You will need to record a set of custom messages that will be played to the caller to announce their position in queue.

 

Sample scripts for these might look like the following:

  • “You are currently eighth place in queue”
  • “You are currently seventh place in queue”
  • “You are current sixth place in queue”
  • “You are the fifth caller in the queue”
  • “You are the fourth caller waiting in queue”
  • “You are the third caller in queue”
  • “You are second in line, please continue to hold”
  • “You are next in lineto be answered by a representative”

 

For the example Call Flow in this Application Note we will announce queue positions of first, second and third, and then use a generic message if they are in a position greater than 3:

  • “You are first in queue”
  • “You are second in queue”
  • “You are third in queue”
  • “Please continue to hold. We will be with you are soon as possible.”

 

Note:     You can optionally leave the last announcement out if you don’t want to play queue position to the caller if they are too far back.

 

Within the LiveOps Administrative Web Portal, navigate to “Configure > Call Assets > Audio Library”.

 

 

 

We recommend you create a new audio catalogue (the equivalent of a “storage folder” for your message prompts) to hold the new recordings. We called our caltalogue “Position in Queue”.

 

Use the “Add Audio File” feature to record or upload your messages. You should end up with an audio catalogue that looks something like the image below.

 

 

Step 2: Capture the queue position of the caller into a Call Flow Attribute

 

Next we will create a Call Attribute in a Call Flow to identify the caller’s position in queue.

 

Within the LiveOps Administrative Web Portal navigate to “Routing > Call Flows”. Edit an existing Call Flow or create a new one.

 

 

Select the “Call Attributes” tab and click “NEW ATTRIBUTE”.