Handle Agent whisper

Agents in 8x8 Contact Center can hear an audio message (whisper) about the context of the call they have dialed or received via a queue. AgentClosedAgents use the Agent Console to view and manage customer interactions. Virtual Contact Center supports Regular agents and Supervisor agents. whisper is an audio file that can be uploaded and assigned by the tenant administrator to an inbound or outbound queue. Agent whisper informs the agent, upon connection, about the connected call. Let’s say John serves support calls as well as sales calls. Upon receiving calls, the system plays a brief message stating if it is a sales or a support call. Agent whisper can be implemented for both inbound and outbound calls such as campaign calls. Agent whisper is only played for the agent. The agent and customer can talk to and hear each other while the whisper is playing.

Features

  • Assign to both inbound and outbound queues.
  • Alert agents when a call is being connected.
  • Notify the agent on the call, and not the customer.
  • Play an uninterrupted prompt for the agents. The whisper can be talked over by both parties.
  • Agent whisper is not suppressed when the agent or customer talks.
  • Agent whisper can be set up for all queued calls. It is not available for numbers dialed by the agent, direct agent calls (DAA/DAR), or agent-to-agent calls.

Known limitations

  • In Auto Answer mode and in the process of validating a Persistent connection, at the very moment a call is offered, an agent will only hear the bleep and not the whisper for this interaction.
  • In Persistent Connection mode alone, if the call terminates before the whisper has finished playing, the agent will still hear the remainder of the whisper. In On Demand Connection Mode the above scenario does not apply.
  • Supervisors hear the full whisper when they join an active call to monitor an agent and customer.
  • With inbound and outbound calls, the whisper is played to the agent upon connection, however, when working in the preview mode, the whisper is played to the agent just before the call is connected.

Using Agent whisper

Calls flowing into or out of 8x8 Contact Center stay in a queue until an agent is available. When an agent changes their status to Available, the longest waiting call in the queue is offered to the agent. If the agent is a member of multiple queues, and the Agent whisper is set up for the tenant, Agent whisper informs the agent, upon connection, about the connected call. Agent whisper provides a useful prompt to the agent. For example, in Auto Answer mode, agents typically do not have time between calls. The whisper helps them identify the context of the incoming call even before the customer information pops for preview, thus allowing them to prepare for the call. Agent whisper messages can be heard on both inbound and outbound calls. For details, see how to accept phone interactions or make outbound calls.