FreePBX Asterisk IVR and Queue Time Conditions

Interactive Voice Response and Agent Call Queues

Today, I am glad to discuss on our favorite topic which  is about Asterisk based FreePBX and the main feature we will go through is about how to setup the Interactive Voice responses and the Agent Call Queues for Call center type environment.

         

Firstly, lets discuss why we need the IVR , mainly any small to enterprise level organization want to get their inbound business calls through IVRs, as it provide smooth and fast handling of incoming calls to the business units.

Smart IVR_Features, Smooth IVR_Functionality

• Interactive voice response makes the administration, processing and management of concurrent inbound telephone calls a "piece of cake".
• With the multitude range of smart futuristic options, a new intuitive GUI interface; Which has simple/easy to configure the smart Caller options,
• IVR helps in the answering and callforwarding for concurrent high number of incoming calls very smooth, it makes decision faster, and efficiently for enterprises scaling from small , medium to large industries.
• It works effortlessly within asterisk based PBX here in our case in Freepbx VoIP system
• Administration of IVR is also very simple and straightforward

User-friendly with a focus on productivity

Asterisk Interactive Voice responses act as a Receptionist that offers a number of user-friendly functions, such as callback reminders,contact notes, and automatic monitoring of hook state and presence.

Futureproof

New features are added regularly. A future-proof software solution is regularly updated and improved
and anticipates future developments and new technologies.

This rich functionality is available for attendants, receptionists, contact centers, or any employee who uses a telephone:

• AutomaticCallDistribution (#ACD) – It_Handle and distribute large volumes of inbound conversations in an efficient way.

• Customer Insight – On the spot information from various lines of business systems like Dynamics CRM, SalesForce and others.

• Availabily Matrix– It provide client details during each call_conversation also the agent availability, call_conversation chat and availability reporting.

• Matrix_Control - IT empowers your agents to act swiftly and do the meaningful call_conversations quickly and efficiently.

• Single pane of glass – Display information from multiple sources in a single, integrated view.

• Monitoring and Reporting – Provide real-time statistics and performance information to maximise customer interaction and satisfaction

                                    // Configuration of IVR on Freepbx //

Configuration oF IVR on Asterisk Freepbx is straightforward, administrator can do it via command line interface as well as graphical user interface, but easy and straightforward one is by doing the changes from GUI of Freepbx.

First Step - Once you login with your username and password to Freepbx GUI, you need to go under Application Tab and click on IVR , as per the figure illustration shown below;

                        

Once you under the IVR, click on Add new IVR and you will need to fill up the basic details regarding the call flow , all the options that you get in the IVR config is as shown below;

      

You need to make sure if you want to play the greeting recording to the callers , for that you need to upload the recording on the Announcement module under Application->Announcements

In the Announcements page -> You can upload the recorded greetings by uploading it or do drag/drop on the page itself.

Once the recording is uploaded, go back to the IVR page under Applications, and add that announcement in the Main IVR settings.These recordings get stored in the database and can be deleted or added at any time.

Second Step:

For the correct inbound call routig to main number administrator need to configure an inbound route for the Main IVR system, in order to do that what you need to do is, go under the connectivity tab and select Inbound Routes, Once you click on the add New Inbound Route , it will give you option as below illustration,

Here, you need to select the DID number it should match your incoming called number that is being dialed by the client from the PSTN telephone or Mobile user, Asterisk will route the call based on this inbound called number so if you don't specify the route you will hear something like predefined announcement that the number is not in service . So make sure you update the Inbound Route with DID number that is coming from ITSP SIP trunk

   

What about internal dialing of that IVR, Is it possible:

Yes, Internally users can dial the IVR but that need additional configuration as below;

Administrator needs to create a Misc. Application, this module is under Applications->Misc Applications as here in this figure-:

Here, they need to specify a Feature code that user can dial to reach this IVR, like in this example user can dial 8001 to reach the Main IVR internally. This feature is very important when you need to transfer the call internally to main IVR or user call forward his line to Main number.

Once it gets enable, whenever someone dials the Featurecode number like here i example it is 8001 -> It will call the destination specified, in our case it will be Main Number IVR.

So the call will land to IVR greeting and follow the call flow suit that we configured there on IVR page under Applications.

I hope you gain that baseline path of understanding about the IVRs and how to configure it in the Freepbx Asterisk system. For more updates please do subscribe our blog. We will meet tommorow with some new tech article. Before going, please check below the latest trends update in the world of Cisco Collaboration-

Latest collab news and trends update from Cisco --

This week we have got several exciting updates to the dCloud Collaboration demos! 🆕💥

Cisco PackagedContactCenter Enterprise_12.5#v1: One of the exciting cloud_demo, it shows the new features of PCCE release #12.5: enhancements in the Finesse tool, theWebex ExperienceManagement, analyzer, SPOG@Solution+Gadgets and all the custom_features from the other versions. 🎯💬

Cisco_Webex_Workforce_Optimization#v1 - Demo:  Here is the demo that includes #callrecording and #qualitymanagement, #workforcemanagement, and analytics. ⏺📈

Troubleshooting Collaboration Security for the Enterprise On-Premises Preferred Architecture: This collaboration security lab educates users on how to enable security features and functions available with the Collaboration Solution Release 12.5. 🔒⚙️

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