Just installed an app server with acd on a 670. While testing I realized that if a call was not answered by the 1st agent telephone it rang then the call went to the initial announcement (simple) instead of ringing other agents who were ready and logged in. The initial announcement timer is set for 04 seconds.

For giggles I tested this scenario at other acd sites. Two were using app server and a 3rd was on a micromas-h on win7. I was able to duplicate the issue at every site. After a call rang the first agent and was not answered it went to the initial announcement instead of searching for an idle available agent of which there was at least one in all my testing.

I'm wondering if I have been doing something wrong after all these years programming Strata ACD. Why isn't the call ringing at another agents desk instead of going to the initial announcement? FYI, Once the call transfers to the initial announcement and comes back out then it searches through the available agents properly. Agent RNA timer is 15 seconds.

Dave

I have noticed the same so always use custom script and send the call to the initial announcement straight away (0 sec delay) then transfer out to the agents.
The periodic announcement then does all the work playing messages and using the %U variable (the number of times the call has gone to the perodic ammouncement) to play different messages or give call back options with an overflow to VM if required.

To me this makes perfect sense, and personally think this would be my preferred results. If you look at it from the caller's side, they just hear 4-5 ringings, then if they get transferred immediately to another agent that also doesn't answer the call right away, there is another 4-5 rings. What they hear is that nobody is answering the phone. At least with the initial message the caller doesn't feel like their call is going nowhere.

But I do understand that you would rather that the call is sent to an available agent rather then just playing the message, but I think the comfort messages and on-hold music is better then ringing with no answer.

The reason why I would expect this to occur is that after the first agent doesn't answer, the system will see that it's due to play that initial message, since the caller has been in the queue for more then 4 seconds. Other system may interrupt the queue messages to transfer the call is an agent is available, but I don't think that the Toshiba does this. I think it will play the message before looking for an available agent. At least that is how I remember it.

Knowing that this is the way Toshiba ACD works, you can try to work around this a bit. While I don't usually do mandatory announcements, as Carl mentioned you can get the first message out of the way right at the beginning. Maybe do a short and simple custom message, IE.. "Please hold while you are being transferred to the tech support group"

Thanks for the input. Since I can duplicate this on multiple sites I assume it's the way the Toshiba works, just never noticed it before. I did call tech support and was told to bump the initial announcement timer to more than the agent RNA timer. Well that didn't go well. Yes the call bounced to the next available agent instead of going to initial announcement but as soon as the new initial announce timer concluded the call was either immediately disconnected or would transfer me to the overflow destination. After that I put it back and assume it's the way it is. Not sure if I will check back with tech support or not.

dave