Sometimes you come across a contact card which you thought should've been removed / finalized, but an agent still called to this card. In this article we'll cover a few common reasons why cards become available, even when you thought that they shouldn't be.
Different ways of calling
When a card is removed from the contactlist, you will not see a contactcard in your (semi)automatic dialer.
However, from the contactlist dialer mode, an agent can choose to show finalized cards in their overview and make calls from there.
This feature is available on purpose, but switched off by default. Your agent is the one that will make a conscious choice to use this feature. If you like to avoid this, please consider removing the dialer option from the campaigns settings.
From the manual dialer, your agent is able to make phone calls by typing in any number, regardless of any existing finalized contact card being present. When a phone number as such is called, it can A) be saved as a new card B) be merged with an existing card via contact card actions.
As an admin you are able to distinguish between different cards, for instance by using the Admin > Overview (1) > Search function (2). Here you can search for a card. We advice to look for the name, rather than the phone number, as multiple phone numbers might exist for a single person or company. Below you can see from the Phone numbers (3) tab, that there are 7 identical contact cards. Two of them exist in the Netherlands campaign. This might lead to confusion.
You could consider removing them from this interface. At the same time you can engage with the agent that last called this number to correct their way of working.
Callbacks can cause some confusion when it comes to removing a card from your list.
Example:
1. Agent calls customer
2. Agent makes a callback and does not use the reason "Callback".
This means that the card technically could be approached by another agent and the current agent.
A contact card starts having two flows at this point. Please consider whether this is desirable or not. For an inbound contact center this can make sense, but for an outbound center this might not be the best idea.
Example 2:
1. Agent calls customer
2. Agent applies a callback
3. Agent calls contact back via callback
4. At the end of the call the agent chooses to not remove the callback and chooses to put the contact card back into the contactlist.
This again means that the current agent has a callback and will eventually call the customer, but at the same time another agent might come across this card in the dialer.
Both examples can cause either one of the agents to finalize a contactcard without the other agent knowing that this is the case.
Finally there is the inbound phone call.
Though you might've removed a contact card with a call ending reason, a customer can always call to your inbound line. The system will fetch a contactcard according to contactlist logic. In a situation where you mostly call out, but also have inbound available, a finalized call can still be activated due to an inbound call.
As long as your agent uses the proper call ending reason to either process or remove the contact card after such a call, this should not result in any unwanted behavior; rather this could provide you with a valuable lead.
From the contact card's history you can see how calls have been approached, for instance from the Admin (1) > Calls (2) > Number (3): icons will tell you the direction of the call (4). Hovering your mouse over this icon will give you additional information on any particular call.
Call ending reasons
When a contact is approached (in- or outbound), at the end of a call a call ending reason should be applied by your agents. Making sure that you design an easy to follow flow in your system, will ensure that your agents do not get lost in processing a card according to your wishes.
Taking a moment to explain the contact card flow to your agents will prevent unwanted behavior.
Be sure to document and update your agents on any changes that you might make.
In your call ending reason, there are clear differences in moving your card around.
(1) Removes contact from contact list: removes it from the different dialer modes. An agent can still manually dial this number, but (s)he needs to consciously search for this card to do so.
(2) Moves contact to contact list: this can move a card out of the current list. You might consider this option to make a card completely unapproachable.
(3) Move number to blacklist: prevents future cards from being used / uploaded again.
Please note the difference between using global or sponsor specific blacklists.
(4) Applying waiting period: temporarily removes a card from your list, but this is not a permanent change. Your agent can still decide to manually call this number.