Pause codes via the hard phone

[Mark A]

Is there a specific hard phone we can purchase for our agents so that we can program the buttons on the phone to mimic the Lunch/Away/etc... status thats available on the web client so we do not have to give our call center agents access to the web client?

 

[VoIPTools]

There is a dial code for changing your status (default *3). For example, *30 (Available) *31 (Away), etc.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Mark A

In addition to what @voiptoys suggested if you use a phone with BLF keys you can assign keys to change the status.

 

[craigreilly]

I've always thought it would be nice to have a BLF button (*3) that brings up a menu on the display.
And the menu says:
# 1: Available
# 2: Away
# 3: DND
etc. and they click 1,2,3,etc on the keypad.

Folks can't always be bothered to remember the * codes. and doing 3 or 4 buttons eats up your BLF's on some handsets.

 

[VoIPTools]

We could get fairly close to Craig's idea using a CFD application. You could create a CFD that (1) states the extension's current profile status, then (2) ask the caller to select a new status. For example. "The current presence status for extension 103 is 'Available'. To change your status select one of the following options. For 'Available', press 1, for 'Away' press 2...." Then using the Call Control API you could change the status of the extension that dialed the CFD. The extension of the CFD would be programmed as a BLF on the phone. And for those who are tempted to ask, no, we can't change the color of the BLF to represent the current status... changing the button color is not part of the 3CX API.

 

[Mark A]

We could get fairly close to Craig's idea using a CFD application. You could create a CFD that (1) states the extension's current profile status, then (2) ask the caller to select a new status. For example. "The current presence status for extension 103 is 'Available'. To change your status select one of the following options. For 'Available', press 1, for 'Away' press 2...." Then using the Call Control API you could change the status of the extension that dialed the CFD. The extension of the CFD would be programmed as a BLF on the phone. And for those who are tempted to ask, no, we can't change the color of the BLF to represent the current status... changing the button color is not part of the 3CX API.

This would be a nice feature to have. Something you would consider building? And is there anyway to change the actual name of the pause code? I know you can’t do it via the GUI but maybe on the backend? For example changing “Away” to “Coaching”

 

[craigreilly]

I think I was able to accomplish this using XML on a Yealink at my last job... it was only on the Admin Phone - 1) Here 2) Break/Lunch 3)Night Greeting
I do not seem to have the code handy.

 

[Mark A]

I’ll look into seeing how to do it. Is there a way to store the agent pause codes and log in log out times? Our payroll is based off their status inside the phone system currently but I don’t see an easy way to do it with 3CX

 

[VoIPTools]

3CX only captures when a person logs in / out of queues. I've not been able to find anywhere in the database where they record when the presence status changes (for example Available to Away). The good news is that our new Windows / Linux relay captures both -- when someone logs in / out of queues and changes to their presence status and can log this information. It would be straightforward to build a report showing how long a person was in each status for a given time period. However, keep in mind that unless you automatically change their status to away based on business hours, they could simply just leave their presence set to "Available". Our current Wallboard view is a leaderboard that shows all the agents and their presence status and includes a running counter of how long they have been in the status.

Regarding changing the label associated with a presence status, I know they keep the two custom labels separately, but I don't know whether you could do something similar for the other statuses, nor do I know if those changes would show up in other places within 3CX. It might be possible, but I must be very clear that if it can't be done through the API, we would never do it. We never manipulate database values directly, only through the approved API. To do otherwise would be a quick approach to getting your PBX flagged as "Unsupported".

If you want a CFD solution as described above for changing presence status, we absolutely can do it, but in the back of my mind, I seem to recall that you can change your presence via the voicemail menu? The CFD approach would be far easier to use, however.

 

[Mark A]

Matthew, I'm going to shoot you an email. Thanks