This article is part of the Implementing Omni series. The previous article is Creating Projects for Omni.
Understanding outcomes
At the end of each interaction with a customer, agents must record an outcome. These have two main functions:
- For monitoring and reporting purposes.
- To determine what happens next with the contact. This might be to remove the contact from the current list, move them to a different list or to blacklist them, for example.
In a customer service environment, the outcomes you use will primarily be about monitoring and reporting. As such, you may want to define your own, instead of using the default options.
Global and project-based outcomes
You can create outcomes which are available in all your projects, or which are tied to specific projects.
If you have an outcome that you intend to use for multiple projects, it is better to create it as a global outcome, then hide it from the projects that don’t use it. This reduces the chances that you create multiple outcomes that all do the same thing, which can result in confusing reports.
Likewise, before creating a new outcome, double-check that you do not already have a duplicate.
Creating a global outcome
To create a call result that is available in all your projects, in your Admin account:
- Go to the Settings page.
- Go to the Global outcomes page.
- Click the Create new button.
The Global outcome dialog will open:
- Type a name for this outcome in the first field. This is the name that will appear in the list of options the agent can choose from, and in call result reports.
Choose something that will communicate the level of detail you need – this may be as simple as “Issue solved” and “Waiting for further info”, or you could use this to record what type of call it was, if you want to monitor what your most common types of calls are.
Removing settings and Moving settings
These options let you manage the contact, removing it from the contact list or moving it to another list. For most purely customer service Omni environments, you probably don’t need these options.
Message settings
For Omni, these settings are only available as part of a Global outcome.
If the agent selects this outcome, LeadDesk will automatically send an SMS template of your choice to the customer.
If you want this global outcome to send an SMS when selected:
- Click the Message templates drop-down list to select the template to use for this outcome.
- For Omni, the SMS template selected for this outcome will be sent automatically, with no input required from the agent. If this outcome might also be used for outbound, click to tick Automatic sending to have the same behaviour. Alternatively, if unticked, outbound agents can see, and potentially edit, the message before sending.
As noted, the SMS templates used for this option should not include message tags. For more about tags and creating SMS templates, see Creating SMS templates.
Waiting period settings and Outbound number
These settings are unlikely to be used for Omni, as the focus will generally be on inbound calls.
Extra settings
For Omni, there are two important options in Extra settings for global outcomes: Outcome keeps the conversation active and If call was ended with this outcome...
In Omni, when the first message arrives from the customer, a conversation is begun. This continues as messages go back and forth, between customer and agent. Normally, the conversation ends when an agent assigns an outcome.
- To keep the conversation active when the agent selects this outcome, click to tick Outcome keeps the conversation active.
A further consideration for outcomes relates to calls. In most use cases, agents will need to select an outcome for a call and an outcome for the conversation. In many use cases, a single call can start and end the conversation with the customer, and in such cases having to select an outcome twice may be unnecessary.
- Click to tick If call was ended with this outcome... if you want the agent to be able to select this outcome to outcome both the call and the conversation at the same time.
There is, however, an additional option in Extra settings which is only available in Project specific outcomes, see below.
Shortcut key
- To make a shortcut key available to agents for this outcome, click the Shortcut key drop-down list and click to select an option. Not all shortcut keys are available in all browsers. Hover your mouse over the red exclamation mark to see information about available options.
When all settings have been selected to your preference:
- Click the Save button.
Project specific outcomes
There are settings which are only available in project specific outcomes, that must be created or edited as part of the project. These settings allow you to direct messages back to a flow using an outcome. Note that this option does not work with calls.
- Click the Redirect messages to flow drop-down list and select the flow to which you want to send messages.
This option can be useful if, for example, you want to forward the customer to a satisfaction survey, or return them to a chatbot.
As noted, using this option will always keep the current conversation active.
Once you have a project and your call endings reasons, the next step is to create agents.