Agents

Agents are the individuals who work in your call centre, and receive or make calls (in CATI surveys), and who conduct interviews (in CATI and CAPI surveys). The agents window displays all existing agent accounts managed by CCA. To open the agents window, in the ribbon, click the view tab, then click agents .

Note: agents can be assigned to groups, allowing you to assign multiple agents (via their group) to a survey. For more information, see groups.

Note: From version 5.4, agents can remove themselves from outbound duty by assigning themselves to a default "none" group. They may do this only if you have enabled the option allow "no outbound group" in the restriction pattern associated with the agent. To set this up, go to the agent tab of the restriction properties.

In this topic:

Columns in the agents window
Agent statuses
Ribbon commands
Context (right-click) menu

Columns in the agents window

The following information is shown in the agents window (note that some columns may be hidden; you can right-click in the column headings to select which columns appear):

ID: Indicates the unique ID number of the agent.
Username: The name of each agent. The name is preceded by an icon indicating the status of the agent.
Full name: The agent's last name and first name.
Description: Longer textual information, if any has been entered, about the agent.
Agent Status: The current status of each agent (whether he or she is logged on, etc.).
Task Status: The current position of each agent within the survey task he or she is working on (i.e. any chapter or sub-chapter he/she is in, and the question he/she is currently on).
Interview Status: The current status of each agent for the task he/she is working with.
Location: The location of each agent.
Supervisor Location: The location, by IP address/Computer name on LAN, of this agent's Supervisor.
NT Account: Each agent's NT Account; the field is empty when an agent has not been assigned an NT Account.
Last login time: The date and time of each agent's last connection.
Last status change: The date and time of each agent's last change of status.
Waiting time: The amount of time the agent has spent waiting since his/her last call.
Average waiting time: The average amount of time the agent has waited between calls. This statistic does not include the current waiting time.
Maximum waiting time: The longest amount of time the agent has waited between calls. This statistic does not include the current waiting time.
Minimum waiting time: The smallest amount of time the agent has waited between calls. This statistic does not include the current waiting time.
Duty: The type of duty (inbound or outbound) to which the agent is currently assigned. For details on switching duty types for agents, see duty swapping.

Agent statuses

The various possible agent statuses are as follows:

Agent Status	Description
Clerical work (inbound)	The inbound call is terminated but the agent is finishing a task.
Clerical work (outbound)	The outbound call is terminated but the agent is finishing a task.
Having a break	The agent is in pause.
Inbound call	The agent is handling an inbound telephone call.
Brief	The agent is conducting an interview in brief mode (data is not being recorded).
Logged off	The agent is logged off.
Manual call	The agent is making a manual outbound call.
Outbound call	The agent is making an outbound call generated by the system.
Processing e-mail	The agent is handling an e-mail.
Processing fax	The agent is processing a fax.
Processing voice-mail	The agent is listening to his voice-mail messages.
Ready	The agent is ready to receive a call.
Selecting	The agent is currently using the number selection window in CATI. This status is available only when your survey is in either manual dialing with preview or dialing with preview modes.
Supervisor	The agent is a supervisor, and he or she is not currently conducting a CATI interview. If a supervisor is conducting an interview, his/her status will show accordingly (e.g. as inbound call, above).

Ribbon commands

The agents tab of the ribbon (available when the agents window is active), contains the following commands:

Icon	Name	Function
	Properties	View or edit the properties of the selected agent.
	Duplicate	Create a copy of the selected agent. This is given the same name as the selected item, but with "- Copy" appended to the name.
	Delete	Delete the selected agent.
	Run Report	Run one of CCA's Crystal Report statistics. In the sub-menu, select the specific report you wish to run for this agent. Depending on the report type, you may be prompted to specify information, such as a date or group name. When the report has finished running, it appears in the Crystal Reports viewer.
	Send Message	Send a message to the selected agent(s).
	Disconnect	Manually disconnect the selected agent(s) from the contact center.
	Lists Monitor	Opens the sample list statistics window. This window displays call stats and details of next calls for any active lists assigned to the agent's current outbound group.
	Find Call	Opens the find call(s) window, which allows you to search for calls and view their most relevant properties.
	No Calls	Get a report from CCA on why the selected agent is not conducting calls.
	See-in	Monitor the selected agent's screen (provided you have the authority to do this). You can refresh the view by pressing `F5`.
	Listen-in	Monitor the selected agent's call (provided you have the authority to do this).

Context (right-click) menu

The window's context (right-click) menu contains the following commands:

New: Add a new agent to the system.
Copy: Copy the selected agent's properties to the clipboard.
Paste: Create a new agent with the properties that were previously copied to the clipboard. Note: when copying and pasting an agent's properties, the following properties are not pasted:
- NT Account.
- Delete password.
- Alarm levels of Administrator defined pauses.
- Group membership(s).
Delete: Delete the selected agent(s).
Disconnect: Manually disconnect the selected agent(s) from the contact center.
See in: Monitor the selected agent's screen (provided you have the authority to do this). You can refresh the view by pressing F5.
Listen in: Monitor the selected agent's call (provided you have the authority to do this).
Send message: Send a message to the selected agent(s).
Enable softphone trace: Start logging VOIP calls for the selected agent(s). From version 5.4.0, the CATI version is recorded in the softphone trace. Note that from version 5.4.3, the availability of this command depends on the program setting softphone trace enablemode; using that option, it is possible to automatically log all VOIP calls by all agents.
View last softphone log: View the last VOIP log for the selected agent(s).
Reset waiting times: Resets the waiting time for all agents.
No calls?: Get a report from CCA on why the selected agent is not conducting calls.
Find call(s)...: Opens the find call(s) window, which allows you to search for calls and view their most relevant properties.
Lists monitor...: Opens the sample list statistics window. This window displays call stats and details of next calls for any active lists assigned to the agent's current outbound group.
Properties: View the selected agent's properties.
Reports: Run one of CCA's Crystal Report statistics. In the sub-menu, select the specific report you wish to run for this agent. Depending on the report type, you may be prompted to specify information, such as a date or group name. When the report has finished running, it appears in the Crystal Reports viewer.

Create your own Knowledge Base