What occurred since the XCS v5.2.5 upgrade?

We’ve received reports from a few Unified clients that encountered a “phantom call”. A “phantom call” appears in three ways:  

1. An interaction that appears to Agents and Supervisors as a real call and is a “phantom call”. These calls cannot be answered and appear in the Supervisor real-time metrics as a waiting call. In the vast majority of these instances, the actual call was processed by the system normally and the “phantom call” is a second instance of that original call without an actual caller on the other end.
2. An interaction that appears in the Supervisor’s Current Interactions tab where the Interaction State shows as “Handled” or “Handling” indefinitely. In these instances, the actual call was handled by an agent normally and the Supervisor has a cosmetic issue that treats that call like it’s still active when in actuality it ended.
3. In very rare instances, a "phantom call" results in an agent being offered an incoming queue call while they are on another call. 

In most instances, these "phantom calls" comprise approximately 0.5% of the calls received and have not made a measurable impact on the contact center's metrics like Answer Rate or Service Level.

What causes a “phantom call”?

We’ve identified a few causes that result in the creation of a “phantom call”:

• Missed / Rejected Calls – these are calls Offered to an Agent that is either Rejected or Missed by the agent. A Rejected call occurs when the Agent explicitly hits that command (on the Agent application or Handset / UC-1) and a Missed call occurs when the Agent doesn’t answer the call within a specific time period (based upon the No Answer Timeout in Setup). In rare instances, ECS is not gracefully handling this situation and a “phantom call” is created.
• Consulted Transfer to a Business Process (BP) – these are calls answered by an Agent and subsequently transferred to a BP using the Consulted Transfer method. A Consulted Transfer is when Agent 1 speaks with Agent 2 before completing the transfer.

What steps has XTIUM taken to eliminate “phantom calls”?

We’ve released two rounds of hotfixes (on 5/21 and 5/27) that have reduced the frequency of these interactions. Based on client examples, we’ve identified a few additional scenarios that create “phantom calls” that will require a third round of hotfixes.

What steps should a client take when encountering a “phantom call?

The steps to take depend on which scenario occurs:

A “phantom call” in the queue is being offered to my agents.

Since there isn’t an actual caller on the other end, these calls cannot be answered. To remove that interaction, activate the Close All Interactions command in the Supervisor Agent Monitor when the call is being offered to an Agent. This should remove the “phantom call” – occasionally it may return and that command needs to be performed again to remove it. In some instances, the only way to completely remove a “phantom call” is to perform a Service Restart which typically occurs outside of business hours since it is service impacting (active interactions are dropped). A Service Restart will remove existing “phantom calls” and will not prevent new ones from being created.

A “phantom call” is displayed on the Current Interactions tab in Supervisor in the “Handling” state

Since the actual call was handled normally by an agent, there is no interaction to remove. This “phantom call” is a visual artifact left behind from an answered call. This is purely a cosmetic issue that can be ignored.

How can a client identify a “phantom call”?

A “phantom call” can be identified in the Supervisor Agent Monitor. This interaction will be in an “Offered” Interaction State for a time that exceeds your organization’s No Answer Timeout. The No Answer threshold varies for each client and is configured in Setup by a System Administrator. For most organizations, this threshold is 12 to 18 seconds. If your organization’s No Answer Timeout is set to 18 seconds and there is an interaction that is in an “Offered” state for longer than 18 seconds, it’s most likely a “phantom call”. You will likely see this same call being offered to different agents – the call is offered to Agent 1, leaves Agent 1, the call is offered to Agent 2, and this cycle continues to other agents.

What steps should be taken if an agent is displaying a “Phantom Call” in the “Offering/Offered” state?

• Within the Supervisor application, navigate to the Agent Monitor
• Right Click on the Agent with the “phantom call” and select Close All Interactions

• A confirmation message will appear indicating all interactions for that Agent have been cleared.

Note: In some instances, these steps only temporarily remove the interaction and it may reappear again requiring these same steps to be repeated.

What steps can be taken to prevent “phantom calls”?

There are two actions your contact center can take to prevent these interactions until the underlying issue is resolved via a Hotfix.

1. Limit the number of Rejected or Missed calls. Encourage your agents to answer every interaction they receive while in a Ready state and to be more diligent about taking themselves out of a Ready state if they do not want an interaction before they are offered a new one.
2. Perform Blind Transfers to a BP instead of Consulted Transfers. Encourage your agents to perform a Blind Transfer when they need to send a call to another BP. We recognize this is a stopgap measure that doesn’t meet the ideal caller experience.

What are the next steps to eliminate “phantom calls”?

XTIUM’s Software Development and Engineering teams are actively working on a software hotfix to prevent “phantom calls” entirely. We recognize this is important to our clients and are feverishly working to quickly develop, test, and release a hotfix. We appreciate your patience and continued partnership.