Set Up Inbound Voice

Complete each of these tasks in the order given.

Before you set up inbound voice ACD skillsClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge, first contact your NICE CXone account representative to help you set up a DNIS for each inbound voice ACD skill.

Create a Campaign

Required permissions: Campaigns Create

If you've already created a campaignClosed A grouping of skills used to run reports. that you plan to use, you can skip this step. For example, you may have a campaign that you intend to use across several channels.

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.
  2. Go to Contact Settings > Campaigns.
  3. Click Create New.
  4. Enter a value in the Campaign Name field.
  5. Click Create Campaign.

Create an Inbound Voice ACD Skill

Required permissions: Skills Create and Skills Edit

The name of a skill should be meaningful. It's helpful to be consistent when naming skills. Decide on a standard format for skill names that works for your organization.

A skill name must have a minimum of 2 characters and a maximum of 30. Skill names may only contain letters, numbers, and these special characters:

  • Hyphens (-)
  • Underscores (_)
  • Periods (.)
  • Colons (:)

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.

  3. Click Create New > Single Skill.

  4. Set the Media Type to Phone Call and Inbound/Outbound to Inbound.
  5. Enter a Skill Name.
  6. Select the Campaign you want the skill to be part of.

  7. Configure the remaining optional fields in the Skill Information section as needed.

    Field Details
    Transferred to Script

    Specifies the script that runs when an agent transfers a contact from another skill to this skill. The transferred contact switches to this script rather than running scripts from the original ACD skill. You could use this field for overflow or supervisor escalation scripts, which often include multiple queue scripts with varying logic that differ from normal inbound logic.

    Re-Skill Hours of Operation Profile

    The hours of operation profile that controls when agents can transfer a contact to this ACD skill. For example, if the Sales at the Longbourn contact center closes at 4:00 in the afternoon, and an agent in Support tries to transfer a contact to Sales at 4:30, the agent receives a warning message that says the ACD skill is closed. If the agent selects Proceed, the contact either hangs in the queue until an agent with that ACD skill becomes available or hears a message that you configure for the ACD skill when it's closed. Note: if you add an existing inbound skill to an hours of operation profile, that profile automatically appears in this field.
    Workforce Intelligence Minimum Agents

    The minimum number of agents that must belong to this ACD skill. This setting prevents automatic actions associated with Workforce Intelligence rules from removing too many agents from the ACD skill. When the number of agents reaches this number or lower, all skill removal actions, even automatic ones, require approval.

    This setting doesn't affect agentless ACD skills.
    Workforce Intelligence Minimum Available Agents

    The minimum number of available agents that must be maintained for this ACD skill. This setting prevents automatic actions associated with Workforce Intelligence rules from removing too many agents from the ACD skill. When the number of available agents reaches this number or lower, all ACD skill removal actions, even automatic ones, require approval.

    This setting doesn't affect agentless ACD skills.
    Require Manual Agent Accept When enabled, agents on an active voice connection have to manually click Accept or Reject for any incoming contacts except callbacks. This is available in MAX.
  8. If you want to use screen popsClosed A configurable pop-up window with information about the contact. It appears on an agent's screen after a certain event, usually when the agent connects to a contact. for this skill, select the Use Screen Pops checkbox. Modify the optional settings in the Screen Pops section if you want to customize your screen pops. This capability is only supported for CXone Agent suite. You can also do this later.
    FieldDetails
    Use Custom Screen PopsSelect this checkbox if you are using a separate application or website to run the screen pops.

    Application or

    Webpage

    Select either Application or Webpage.

    If you chose Application, enter either the entire path to the executable. if you chose Webpage, enter the full URL.

    You can customize the title of the tab that pops up in the MAX interface by appending the icAgentPanelTitle= parameter to the URL.

  9. If you want to change the default prioritization settings for this skill, modify the settings in the Priority Management While in Queue section. You can also do this later.

    The P&P division of Classics, Inc., has a contact center on the Longbourn Estate. The center handles accounting calls from employees and tenants of the estate and from merchants and tradespeople with whom the estate does business. Mr. Bennet, the center supervisor, wants to make sure that employee and tenant calls always have priority over other calls.

    When he creates the voice skills for the center, he assigns an initial priority between 101-200 to skills for employee and tenant calls. He assigns an initial priority of 001-100 to his other skills. Here's how this would impact two calls in different types of skills:

    • Call #1 comes in on the Employee skill, which has a priority of 110.
    • Call #2 comes in on the Merchants skill, which has a priority of 10.
    • When an agent becomes available, Call #1 will be delivered first since it has the higher priority.

    Mr. Bennet also wants to control how the priority changes for calls over their time in queue. To do this, he uses acceleration. With this setting, the formula becomes Overall Priority = (Time * Acceleration)+ Initial Priority. Here's how this setting impacts two calls that have been in queue for the same amounts of time:

    • Call #1 comes in on the Employee skill, which has a priority of 110. The call has been in queue for 4 minutes. It currently has a priority of 110.
    • Call #3 comes in on the Tenants skill, which also has a priority of 110. Because Mr. Bennet wants calls from tenants to be answered in the shortest time possible, he has also assigned an acceleration of 10 to the Tenants skill. The call has been in queue for 4 minutes. It currently has a priority of 150.
    • When an agent becomes available, Call #3 will be delivered first since it has the higher priority.
    Image of priority management section of the CXone skill creation page

    Field

    Details
    Initial Priority Enter a numeric value you want to set as the base level priorityClosed Skill-based designation of the importance of contacts that determines delivery order. for all contacts in an inbound skill or for fresh records and retries in an outbound skill (callbacksClosed Holds a customer's place in queue and automatically calls the customer when they move to the front of the queue. always take priority and are not affected by this setting). The default value is 0.

    Acceleration

    Enter a numeric value to determine how quickly the priority of the skill increases. For every minute a contact stays in queue, the priority increases by the value you configure for Acceleration.

    The default value is 1. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum priority is the value configured in the Maximum Priority field.

    For example, if the Initial Priority is 4, and you set Acceleration to 1, then with each passing minute that the contact is not handled, the priority increases by one. In this example, if the contact has been in queue for three minutes, then the priority will be raised to 7.

    Priority increments in seconds. For example, when Acceleration is 1, a contact's priority increases by 0.5 after 30 seconds in queue.

    For Personal Connection skills, set this value to 0 because there is no queue of contacts.

    You can set Initial Priority for one skill lower than another skill, but if you set Acceleration for that skill higher, it can jump spots in the queue. For example, you set Initial Priority for Skill A to 1 and Acceleration to 5. You set Initial Priority for Skill B to 3 and Acceleration to 1. Initially, a contact for Skill B will be first in queue because it has a priority of 4, but after one minute, Skill A will take its place at the top because its priority will be 6.

    CXone combines the acceleration value with the time the contact has been in queue and the initial priority using the formula Overall Priority = (Time * Acceleration) + Initial Priority.

    Maximum Priority Enter a numeric value to determine the maximum priority a contact can have. If you choose not to use Acceleration, this value should match the Initial Priority. The default value is 1000.

  10. If you want to change the default service level settings for this skill, modify the fields in the Service Level section.

    Field

    Details
    Service Level Threshold The number of seconds agents have to respond to meet an SLAClosed Commitment between a service provider and a customer with a defined service level threshold, including quality, availability, and responsibilities. For example, if your SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 20.

    Service Level Goal

    The percentage of contacts agents must respond to by the Service Level Threshold to meet the SLA. For example, if the SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 80
    Enable Short Abandon Threshold CXone collects data and offers reporting on abandonedClosed Call that enters the contact center system, but the caller ends the call before reaching an agent contacts that fall within the Short Abandon Threshold for this skill.
    Short Abandon Threshold The number of seconds that must pass for an abandoned interaction to be considered a short abandon. For example, if the value is set to 15 and an interaction drops from the queue after 7 seconds without being delivered to an agent, it is reported as a short abandon.
    Short Abandons Counts short abandons, as defined by the Short Abandon Threshold, against the service level for reporting purposes.
  11. If you want to test how contacts in this skill change in priority over time compared to other skills, use the Priority Comparison tool. You can also do this later.
    screenshot of the Priority Comparison tool.

    1. In the Skills to Compare section, click +.

    2. Add Available skills until all skills you want to compare are in the Selected list. You don't need to add the skill you are currently editing; it appears in the graph automatically.

    3. Click Done.

    4. Use the Elapsed Time and Time Interval fields to define the period of time you want the graph to cover and the time intervalClosed A period between points, limits, or events, such as dates or times you want to mark a new point on the graph.

    5. Click Compare.

  12. Click Create. Complete additional configurations to customize or manage your skills.

Assign Users to the ACD Skill

Required permissions: Skills Edit, Skills User Assignment

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.

  3. Click the skillClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge you want to edit.

  4. Click the Users tab.

  5. Select the checkbox for each user you want to assign to the skill. Click Add Users.

  6. Set the Proficiency for each user in this ACD skill to a number between 1 (highest) and 20 (lowest). Click Save Proficiencies.

    If you don't click Save Proficiencies before leaving the page, all users you added to the skill profile will be removed.

Create an Inbound Phone Script

Required permissions: Scripts Create

Image of basic Studio inbound voice script

  1. In Studio, click File > New.
  2. In the Create New Script window, select the Phone icon. Verify that the Business Unit is correct and click OK.

  3. Add BEGIN and REQAGENT actions to the canvas and connect them. Inbound calls automatically route to the skillClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge specified in the point of contact associated with this script. If you want to route to a different skill, change the value in the Skill property of the action.

  4. If you want to set up an IVRClosed Automated phone menu that allows callers to interact through voice commands, key inputs, or both, to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both., add it here. You may need to contact your CXone Account Representative for guidance.
  5. If you configured screen popsClosed A configurable pop-up window with information about the contact. It appears on an agent's screen after a certain event, usually when the agent connects to a contact. in the skill, configure the screen pop content. You may need to contact your CXone Account Representative for guidance.

  6. You can customize the script with additional actions that you want to occur during call events, such as when the call begins, is transferred to another agent, or ends.

  7. Click File > Save.
  8. In the Save Script As... window, enter a name for the script, and click Save.

Create a Point of Contact

Required permissions: Points of Contact Create

point of contact info screen

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to Contact Settings > Points of Contact.

  3. Click Create New and select Single Point of Contact.
  4. For the Media Type, select Phone Call.
  5. Enter a Name for the point of contact.
  6. From the Point of Contact drop-down, select the DNIS you configured earlier with NICE CXone that you want to reach this ACD skill.
  7. Select the ACD Skill you created earlier.
  8. Select the Script you created in Studio.
  9. If you want calls to this number to track IVR press paths for reporting, select IVR Reporting Enabled.
  10. Click Create Point of Contact.

Create a Do Not Call (DNC) Group

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to Lists > DNC.

  3. Click Create New.

  4. Give the group a DNC Group Name and, if you want, a Description.

  5. Click Save.

Assign the ACD Skill to Do Not Call Groups

  1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

  2. Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.

  3. Click the ACD skill to open it.
  4. Click the Do Not Call tab.
  5. For Default Contributing DNC Group, select either Use Business Unit Setting or Select Do Not Call Group. From the drop-down, select the DNC group you want this ACD skill to contribute to.
  6. If you are working with a Personal Connection skill, use the tables to specify all the contributing and scrubbing DNC groups you want to apply. Click Add.
  7. Click Save.

Customize Voice