3. Agents, Agent Groups, and Workstations

3.1. Agents

Agents Agents are call takers (workers who answer/place calls) at the call center. Creating an agent entry for someone (in the logger’s database) is necessary if you want to be able to evaluate their phone performance.

To avoid cluttering your logger’s User list with Agents, agents do not require a proper User account unless you also wish for them to be able to use an account to log in to the recorder. They can be entered only in the Agents Page. Group Leaders, who are able to log in to the recorder to evaluate agents, do need a proper user account. Group Leaders do not need to have their own agent entry unless in addition to their group leader role they will be taking/placing calls and will themselves need to be evaluated.

Each Agent has an Agent ID and a Name. Agents can also be associated with a User account, which can be used to allow an agent to see (and add a comment to) their own evaluations. If an Agent is expected to use MediaWorks DX or have other recorder access, they will also need a properly configured User account.

Each evaluation can be marked with an Agent and their Agent Group. To simplify this, the Workstations feature allows Agents to be automatically associated with calls based on channel number or channel name.

The maximum number of agents able to be configured on a recorder is determined by the add-on license key for Agents, which is called “Quality Factor Base Software 20x” on the System: License Keys page of the NexLog Configuration Manager. Agents are licensed in groups of 20, so a “Quality Factor Base Software 20x = 3” would mean you are licensed for 60 agents.

3.1.1. Agent Page

Fig. 3.1 Agents

Agents are managed at the Quality Factor Software: Agents page of the Configuration Manager. Here you can add new Agents, and edit or delete existing Agents.

Special note about deleting agents: Completed evaluations for deleted agents remain on the system and you can view those evaluations by other criteria. In addition, data about deleted agents continues to be used in generating reports, for example a report on a group will include the deleted agents’ scores, since they are part of the group’s historical performance data. However, you will no longer be able to run a report explicitly on the deleted agent as a criterion.

3.1.2. Add Agent

Fig. 3.2 Add agent

Creating new Agents is simple. You enter an Agent ID, an Agent Name, and optionally, associate the Agent with a User account existing on the Recorder. It is recommended that the associated user be made part of the Agent permission group.

Note

If you add agents without an active Quality Factor License, it will limit the number of agents you can use when the license is activated.

3.1.3. Edit Agent

Fig. 3.3 Edit agent

Here you are able to change the Agent Name and associated User Account of an Agent.

3.1.4. Delete Agent

This button allows you to delete an existing Agent. It will prompt you to verify you want to proceed, and then will delete the Agent from the recorder.

3.2. Groups & Scheduling

Fig. 3.4 Agent Groups

For organizations with multiple teams, Agents can be added to Groups. You can run Evaluation reports against groups to compare performance intra- and inter-groups. Groups contain agents and one or more users who is a group leader. Users with Admin, SuperEvaluator or Group Evaluators Security Groups are able to be group leaders.

Fig. 3.5 Agent Group Creation and Edit Page

3.2.1. Creating a Group Leader

Group leaders are users and must be created in the Users And Security: Users page of NexLog DX-Series Configuration Manager. Group leaders must be part of one of three Security Groups: Admin, SuperEvaluator or Group Evaluator. A user in the Group Evaluators security group must also be a Group Leader in order to run evaluations.

Fig. 3.6 User Permissions tab in User Edit and Creation Pages

Once a user with Agent Group Leader permissions is created, you can assign that user to be Leader of a Group as shown in the previous section above. If the group leader is also a call taker, you can associate the group leader’s user account with an agent in the agent creation or editing page, as seen in the Add Agent section above.

3.2.2. Schedules

Calls can be automatically flagged for evaluation using the Scheduled Evaluations feature. For each Agent Group, there can be schedule rules configured that will tag every X call longer than Y duration with the user name of the group leader. The group leader can then do a search in MediaWorks DX against the Flagged for Evaluator field for their user name, and see the calls that have been assigned.

Fig. 3.7 Schedule Evaluations

In the example above, every 100th call longer than a minute will be flagged for evaluation; calls less than a minute long will be ignored for the count. Calls are scheduled starting from the start date, at the time the schedule is saved and then once every hour thereafter.

Fig. 3.8 Example of a Call Record Flagged for Evaluator

After the call has been evaluated, the Flagged For Evaluator field will be cleared and the Evaluated checkbox will be checked, as seen here:

Fig. 3.9 Example of a Call Record Flagged for Evaluator After Being Evaluated

If you are logged into MediaWorks DX with a Group Evaluator, Super Evaluator or Admin user, you will see a tab available for you:

Fig. 3.10 Scheduled Evaluation tab

The Schedule Evaluations tab open a search tab pre-populated to search for all calls in the last 60 days with Flagged For Evaluator set to your user account. This list makes it easy to keep up to date on your assigned evaluations.

3.3. Agent Mapping

Fig. 3.11 Agent Mapping

Agent Mapping allows you to tag incoming and outgoing calls on a channel number or channel name with information about the Agent or User handling the call.

With Static Mapping, all calls on a specific channel name or channel number are tagged with an Agent_ID. This is ideal for situations where an Agent has his or her own telephone that is not shared by other agents.

To use Static Agent Mapping, you must first go to Recording->Custom Fields and add a Custom Field for Agent_ID, of type Text.

With Dynamic Mapping, calls are tagged with a User_ID based on active MediaWorks (thick client) logins from Workstations identified via MAC address. If the User also has an associated Agent account, the call is also tagged with the Agent_ID. This is ideal for situations where a call taker desk is used by multiple people over the course the day and each call taker has their own user account to log into MediaWorks (thick client) with.

For Dynamic Agent Mapping, you must first go to Recording->Custom Fields and add Custom Fields for User_ID and Agent_ID, both of type Text.

If an Agent is associated with a User account, and calls are tagged with either method, the other field will be automatically filled out as well. The User ID field must match the User account name exactly; if you are using Windows User Tracker to tag calls, the recorder user account and the Windows user account must be named identically for the Agent field to also be populated.

3.3.1. Adding a Workstation with Static Mapping

Fig. 3.12 Add Workstation

The Add Workstation screen is used to assign specific channels to a workstation location and an agent (user), so that calls can be tagged with that information. When a user is logged in to MediaWorks (thick client) at a designated workstation, calls received at that location will have the user name saved in the call metadata.

Add a workstation name and location; these are for clarity sake. Entering a MAC address is recommended but not necessary as it is not used internally for a static mapping.

Click the radio button for Static, then choose the AgentID you want to map to a channel name or channel number from the AgentID pull down menu. Then enter the channel number(s) and/or channel name(s) you want mapped to that Agent.

You can create a single static map that maps the same Agent ID to multiple channels by entering channel numbers like this:

• 1, 3, 5, 7-9

which would map to channels 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Channel names can be mapped in a comma delimited list, or with * as a wildcard, so: - Fire 1, Fire 2 Would map to channels Fire 1 and Fire 2, and - F* - would map to channels Fire 1, Fire 2, Forestry, and all other channels on the recorder that had channel names starting with F.

3.3.2. Add Workstation with Dynamic Mapping for MediaWorks

Fig. 3.13 Add Workstation

The Add Workstation screen is used to assign specific channels to a workstation location and an agent (user), so that calls can be tagged with that information. When a user is logged in to MediaWorks (thick client) at a designated workstation, calls received at that location will have the user name saved in the call metadata.

Enter the workstation name, location identifier, the channel number(s) associated with this workstation, channel name(s), and the MAC address of the workstation in the fields provided.

Each workstation must have a unique MAC address, which is a unique hardware identifier for the workstation’s Ethernet adapter.

Do the following on the PC containing Microsoft Windows to find out the MAC address that is assigned to the PC: 1. From Programs, select Accessories, then Command Prompt. 2. When the Command Prompt screen displays, type ipconfig /all and press Enter. The following information displays:

Fig. 3.14 Finding MAC Address with IPCONFIG /All

The MAC address is the Physical Address (in this example 00-13-20-FB-94).

Finally, to complete workstation setup, you must create a new metadata field called user_id. If a user is logged into MediaWorks (thick client) or MediaAgent on a configured workstation, then any calls recorded on the channel(s) associated with that workstation during the logged-in period are tagged with the user_id logged in.

3.3.3. Add Workstation with Dynamic Mapping for MediaWorks DX

Fig. 3.15 Add workstation

The Add Workstation screen is used to assign specific channels to a workstation location and an agent (user), so that calls can be tagged with that information. It is possible to configure this at each workstation such that the agent currently logged in is tagged to the calls that come in during their shift.

This method requires each workstation to be configured individually from the workstation itself. Connect to the NexLog recorder and navigate to Add Workstation, then fill in the workstation name and its location. Check the Tag position by web browser ID checkbox, configure the channels and then click Add.

What this does is allow this web browser act as a workstation login. Once configured, navigate to http://(recorder IP address)/agent/login.py and you will be greeted by a list of the Agents present on this system. Select an agent and click the Login link that will appear. This Agent will remain logged in until logged out from this page, even if in the meantime the browser is closed and then re-opened.

Fig. 3.16 Agent Login Page

In the figure above, you can see that Agent Robert Sigal logged in 4 minutes, 59 seconds ago, and the Logout link is available. This method of tagging agents is ideal for sites using MediaWorks DX.

3.3.4. Workstation Summary

In summary, a call will be tagged with Agent_ID if: 1. Static Agent Mapping is configured for calls on that channel number. 2. Static Agent Mapping is configured for calls on that channel name. 3. A User with an associated Agent account is logged into MediaWorks (thick client) at a Workstation configured for Dynamic Agent Mapping of calls on this channel name or channel number. The call will also be tagged with User_ID. 4. An Agent is logged in at the Agent/Login.py webpage in a configured browser. The User_ID will then be populated with the User name of the Agent.

A call will be tagged with User_ID if:

1. Dynamic Agent Mapping is configured for calls on this channel name or channel number and a User with permission to access those channels is logged into MediaWorks (thick client) at the Workstation at the time of the call. 2. Static Agent Mapping is configured for calls on that channel name or channel number, for an Agent with an associated User account. The call will also be tagged with Agent_ID.

For additional information on Workstations and Call Tagging, see Appendix A: WinUserTracker