Question about the callback feature

[nenglish]

What happens if a caller selects a callback and their call is not returned during office hours (let's say if our queue was extremely busy)? Example: Someone calls at 4:55pm and chooses to receive a callback. Our agents are busy on calls and 5:00pm comes which is when our office hours end. Does the callback fail?

I looked through the online documentation, but I didn't see this scenario addressed.

 

[lneblett]

Great question and I do not have a definitive answer but will venture a guess -

My guess is that callbacks will continue until exhausted provided agents are still available.

I base my "WAG" on the notion that the office hours have more to do with inbound calling and how handled and ignore outbound calls altogether. Just as existing calls do not get disconnected when the hours change, I am guessing the callbacks proceed.

However, that raises the question of how callbacks are handled if the agents' Q status availability is also tied to office hours and all are logged out at - automatically or manually, and there are still pending callbacks? Do the calls get lost, is there a report, etc.? I can see this being an issue with the caller expecting a callback and it never comes,

Maybe 3CX will shed some light or others with relevant experience will advise.

 

[nenglish]

I can see this being an issue with the caller expecting a callback and it never comes

This is our biggest concern. We do not want to promise a service (the callback) and then not follow through with the customer. I agree with your guess that the office hours will not directly block or stop the callback feature, but if people log out of the queue and leave (because they see the queue is empty and its closing time) then that's going to be a problem.

The server is keeping track of the callbacks of course, but unfortunately they are not displayed in the 3CX app for Windows. If they were shown there then this would be a non-issue.

 

[NickD_3CX]

If there is a Callback request pending in a Queue, the minute there are no more agents logged into the Queue, the Callback will be flagged as 'Failed'.
It doesn't matter how agents are logged out of the Queue, based on Office Hours, manually, explicitly by the Queue Manager, but a callback will only remain active in the Queue while there is at least one agent logged in.

When working with callbacks, it is a good idea to enabled the Queue notifications so that emails are dispatched for failed callbacks.

 

[nenglish]

Thanks for the reply Nick, that clears up any questions we had about the issue. Are there any plans to have the 3CX app show how many pending callbacks there are for a queue? We don't have a problem with agents staying late to answer callbacks, but it's a waste of time (and money) to have people stay if there are no callbacks.

 

[NickD_3CX]

If you open the Wallboard from a 3CXPhone for Windows that is a Queue manager, you should see "Waiting" calls. This value will tells you how many calls are waiting in the Queue to be server and also include Callback requests.

A common practice for Queue is to set the Inbound Rule office hours to some specific time, but have the agents log out 15-30 minutes later.
The logic behind this is that when the Inbound Rules hours end, no more calls are going to enter the Queue, so then the agents have the rest of the time to finish up any remaining calls in the Queue and/or callback requests.

 

[nenglish]

I wasn't aware that the Waiting field included pending callback, so that's great to know. We have the 3CX app installed on all of our agents computers so they'll be able to monitor this on their own. Thanks again for the information.

 

[Maxwel ems]

hi,

is it possible to configure when we want to do the callback.
by default it calls immediately back but we want to do it manually?