Flow Courtesy Call Back Retry

[Randall Jackson]

In reviewing the Webex Help documents on Courtesy Call Back, the documentation indicates there are no retry options, it only offers the call one time and then it is lost.

Has anyone developed flow logic to manage retries? If the agent accepts the call and then an issue happens and it disconnects before the customer picks up, how can you determine that and keep the courtesy call back in queue? What happens inf the call goes to the customers voicemail, is there anyway to end the call and choose to put the contact back in queue vs leave a voicemail and force the caller to have to call back into the queue? I get their position in the queue may change. Just curious if there is any way to offer a retry option or even a delayed retry using Flow. From debugging the flow, it seems that after the courtesy call back, the call takes the "PhoneContactEnded" path. Flow has a "CallBackFailed" event path that says this can be used for managing call back retries, however, the call never seems to take this branch. Not sure why this is here if it is not being used. Anyone try anything like this yet?

[d.prasad]

@Randall Jackson 

The articles below provide information about CallbackFailed Events and how you can use them to set up retries. 

https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/nhovcy4/Flow-Designer#Cisco_Concept.dita_2a7326f7-67da-4157-bab1-e477b219ec7e

You can see the Callbackfailed event under event flows if you use callback activity in the main flow.

"To use a retry callback in a flow, configure a local flow variable (using SetVariable activity) with value 0 and increment it as required. Ensure that the value is less than the Retry variable count value."

[Randall Jackson]

@d.prasad 

Thanks for the link. Yes, the document does go over how to build events if the flow takes that path. However, this path is not taken on events like:

- Contacts mobile is turned off and call goes straight to users voicemail or the contacts phone is on and rings until it goes to their voicemail. The flow considers this a success as far as completing the contact

In the above situation, I would consider that failed. We did not reach the intended contact. It would be good to be able to re-queue that contact back to the queue instead of leaving a voicemail. Leaving a voicemail requires the contact to have to call back, go through the IVR, and potentially wait in queue again, which they have already done once. So how can this be avoided? In this event, the call does not go out the "CallBackFailed" event, it goes through the "Phone ContactedEnded event" as the agent had to click "END" to hang up the call. Need to have something that detects instant voicemail answering or be able to set a outbound ring timer to try and only ring the contact for a brief period and then have the call requeue. None of these scenarios are covered in the document link provided.  

In the event the agent doesn't answer, the Flow handles this automatically and requeues the caller, no Flow programming needed. 

Any example flows would be appreciated.

[d.prasad · Accepted solution]

@Randall Jackson 

I created the below flow to retry if the callback failed when the customer did not answer.

I cannot find an option to set up a timer to disconnect the outbound calls or identify if an answering machine has answered the call.

Below are the steps to set up a retry option for a callback. I hope this helps. You can do more tests and modify the event flow.

1. Create a local variable.

2. Then create the flow in the event flow.

1. Set Variable

2. Condition

3. Disconnect contact.

4. Add wait time for the next attempt to start if you need it (optional). During the wait time, the call will not show in real-time reports.

5. If there is no answer, then queue to the same callback queue.

6. Music.

[Randall Jackson]

For the solution you outlined, in the initial flow through the IVR the call is queued and they select they would like to be called back. The call back step keeps the caller in the same queue for which they were already holding. Then we call them back and that fails so the logic follows the callback failed branch as you listed.

In your example, you have a step to queue the caller. Does this mean that during the failed callback, the caller was removed from the queue they were in and have now lost their place in line? From a reporting standpoint, does this look like another call entering the queue as we have to queue this contact using another queue step?

Basically what you are saying is the only scenario in which a call is considered failed is when the remote end (the customer being called back) does not answer. What is considered them not answering? 

If we ring their phone and it is is ringing, and never stops ringing and does not go to voicemail, at some point the agent is going to end the call as there is no answer. In my testing this results in the "PhoneContactEnded" event and not "Call Back Failed". 

Could you please elaborate more on the exact phone call conditions that would need to be met to trigger the "CallBackFailed" step, as I have not been able to trigger that event yet in any testing.