Why are Abandoned calls counted twice with voicemail?

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blue16348 asked May 16, '19 jessica-community-moderator answered Jun 18, '19

Why are Abandoned calls counted twice with voicemail?

I have been reviewing call logs since the new Analytics portal launched due to KPI impacts. I have found two issues in how RingCentral dispositions/tags a call that is questionable. I say questionable because I consulted with someone who manages an IVR system for 57M customers that I partnered with several years ago.

Scenario 1: Customer calls 800 number, selects a queue and is routed to voicemail.

Issue: RingCentral will tag the call as Abandoned when the call is sent to voicemail prompt which is correct tag. RingCentral then tags the same call again with Abandoned after voicemail is left. That makes for two Abandoned KPI dings for one call. This is new as of April 2019 after looking back through Nov - March data.

I am not sure how anyone is supposed to answer a call when it is in Voicemail so I believe this is an invalid tag for Abandoned since the call has already been tagged.

Call Example:

Scenario 2: Customer calls 800 number, selects a queue, then presses keypad # for another queue, call is routed to that queue and answered in the other queue.

Issue: Since customer selected another option while in IVR queue, that queue is dinged with Abandoned call tag. When the call is routed to another queue based on customer selection and call is answered, call is still left abandoned in original queue.

Plus the other queue never shows the call as Abandoned and is call count for both queues

Suggestion: Tag/disposition the call the same as when call first comes into 800# and customer selects an IVR option there.

Call Example: Caller pressed 3 on keypad routing to another queue. This call was tagged as abandoned and was answered in another queue.

Same caller pulled up in queue customer was routed to and does not show it was Abandoned here. (I would not expect or want it to either)!

We have a low call volume which is a good thing from one perspective and bad from KPI perspective based on how calls are tagged/dispositioned in the IVR for call routing.

Has anyone else had this issue or have you noticed it? If yes, were you able to develop a resolution for this?

Thanks,

Blue

voicemail

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Answer 1 · 2019-05-22T14:46:40Z

jessica-community-moderator answered May 22, '19

Hi Blue,

I reached out to an analytics manager and was advised:

The first case there might be the following scenario: a caller picked a Queue and was routed to VM. He heard the prompt but did not want to leave a VM. So he might have decided to try again and get connected to a queue agent. While the VM prompt was on he pressed # and the Queue number again, so he was redirected to the same queue. since the queue has a setting to redirect all calls to VM the scenario was the same. A caller heard the prompt and left a VM. Since there were 2 calls to the same queue within one call session the first try (call), we fix the result as abandoned (no VM left) and the second try (call), we fix the result as VM/abandoned.

For the second case, a caller selected a queue and while he listened to the queue greeting he changed his mind and used the same scenario as before-- pressed # and another queue number. He was redirected to EVARS queue. As there was a call to the first queue (customer service) we are to display the call result - there was no live talk - it's abandoned. The caller was switched to the second queue and was answered. We show the result for the second queue as answered. In call session we display that there were 2 queues involved, so there results displayed are also for 2 queues.

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Answer 2 · 2019-05-30T15:34:16Z

blue16348 answered May 30, '19 jessica-community-moderator commented Jul 1, '19

Here is the KPI problem - A call is all ready tagged as abandoned when not answered and sent to voicemail. Why does RingCentral ding the KPI a second time when person leaves a voicemail as Abandoned. This does not make since due to voicemail itself is already a measured KPI so essentially RingCentral is applying two KPIs to one measure which is a double negative!

I reached out to a former colleague and ran this past her. She agrees in how this is a double ding and as mentioned in my original post she manages an IVR system for a much larger customer base in the millions. When I reviewed we have a low call volume vs their high call volume the impact is felt even more.

In regards to the call being dispositioned as abandoned when customer selects an option for another queue that is a false metric in itself. The call is routed to another queue where it was answered and needs to be treated as a routed call similar to when call comes into 800# and customer selects a option.

My background - I have worked with IVR systems with another company for 10+ years and metrics even longer with a top 4 telecommunications company in customer management for their call centers

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jessica-community-moderator ♦♦ commented · Jun 11, 2019 at 04:30 PM

Hi Blue,

I got some follow up clarification for you:

A [Queue] Call Session, if not answered might have 2 statuses - Abandoned and VM/Abandoned. We count a Queue Call Session as Abandoned with VM ( VM/Abandoned) in case a caller heard 1. a VM prompt AND 2. a beep signal (meaning recording started). In case there was a VM prompt in progress but a caller did not listen it to the end (there was no beep signal), pressed # and Queue extension, we count a Queue Call session status as Abandoned.

In the attached picture, we have a caller who tried to reach Queue "Customer Service", nobody picked a call and after Max Hold time a caller was redirected to voice mail. During a VM prompt playing (00:09) a caller pressed # (there was no beep signal), so we counted a queue call session as Abandoned. A caller having reached a "Customer Service" queue again got through the same process and this time he listened to the VM prompt to the end (00:15), there was a beep signal, and recording started. We count a queue call session as VM/Abandoned.

There are 2 statuses in the picture since there were 2 attempts to reach the same queue within a one call session, both attempts are with negative result and we display the first try as Abandoned and the second as Abandoned with VM.

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Answer 3 · 2019-06-11T17:15:05Z

blue16348 answered Jun 11, '19

Jessica - I understand the logistics behind this from previous reply, we still not appropriate to disposition same call as abandoned twice! I am glad to see that you responded faster than Tier 2 from the ticket I opened on this topic!

I believe engineers need to review the logic behind dispositioning the same call twice like this one. Add an algorithm to prevent the same call as abandoned or allow the customer (our organization) the ability to decide how we would like the calls like this handled. Customers will play in IVR system and/or accidently press a key. The opportunity is to adapt in how customers play within the system and not apply negative KPIs. This is a false negative since it is only one call in the same queue.

We have to report raw data to our client and explain that this is how RingCentral dispositions their calls. Even our client disagrees with how this is dispositioned!

Thanks again,
Blue

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Answer 4 · 2019-06-18T20:30:31Z

jessica-community-moderator answered Jun 18, '19

Hi Blue,

I understand where you're coming from. I've shared this thread with our analytics team, and at this time they're saying the report is working as designed-- it is on their radar though as valuable feedback.

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Answer 5 · 2020-07-30T04:18:09Z

blue16348 answered Jul 30, '20

Our help desk team was just discussing this particular call.

Going with the current logic where a customer presses a key while in VM prompt taking them back into the queue. In this scenario, a customer could possibly do this as many times as they wish until someone answered (Or is there a limit). With that logic in a low volume queue, we could have 4 abandoned calls with one call into that queue. When a queue only has two inbound calls a month, that would place that queue in the negative with more abandoned dispositions than actual inbound calls. We sometimes only have 2 calls into this queue....

The Customer Service queue only exists because RingCentral enables users to press 0. Tier 2 has said this cannot be disabled and has to be allowed. Other IVR systems has the ability to disable certain key presses as an invalid option which would be ideal to guide users to options available!

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