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Table of Contents

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Before You Begin

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This document list lists the best practices that are recommended to be followed for an optimum and a hiccup-free Agent Call Centre experience. The document is divided into two sections:

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  1. Agent Login from Office and Home

  2. Best Practices for Agent

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Bandwidth for Web calls and agent-UI

Telephony

In order to connect to telephony, we have two options. Calls can be sent to Agent’s Deskphones when working from office, or to their Mobile phones when working from anywhere. This section details best practices for both options.

For Agents Using Office Desk-Phones, Soft-Phones and WebCall

For Agents using office desk phones, digital phones, softphones or webRTC enabled web calls, it is advised to maintain the following:

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  1. Login

Agent login from Office🏢 and Home🏘

Agent login From

Office 🏢

Home 🏘


How to login into central

https://central.phonon.io/agent-ui and select the login option for

Status
colourPurple
titleMOBILE
,
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colourBlue
titleLandline
,
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colourRed
titlesoftphone
,
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colourYellow
titleDesk Phone
,
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colourGreen
titleweb call

Tip

Use WebRTC-based

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titleWEBCALL
for best results.


Network connectivity

Internet Lease Line(ILL) - Using corporate ILL

  1. Broadband with dedicated bandwidth which is a minimum of 500 kbps, or

  2. Mobile data with enabled 4G/LTE with good signal -85 dm

Network bandwidth

150 kbps

Warning

Bandwidth less than 150 kbps will impact the calling.


How to check network speed

  • Go to fast.com and ensure you’re getting enough network bandwidth

signal strength can be checked using apps like “network cell info lite“ which will give you the network strength and network speed can check using http://fast.com

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wilysis.cellinfolite&hl=en_IN&gl=US

Jitter and Latency for web call.

Jitter values higher than 30 milliseconds on web calls can lead to poor audio quality. High network congestion can also lead to packet loss, resulting in chunks of audio never reaching the intended recipient. When this network latency is more than 30 milliseconds of the round-trip time, call participants can experience audio lag.

Device Hardware

Incompatibilities between hardware components such as network drivers, audio cards, and other firmware components can result in unexpected issues with media handling. Attempting to reproduce issues on other devices should be a key step in your debugging process

The Audio Input and Output Device

Headsets minimize echo by providing acoustic isolation between the speaker and the microphone. High-quality VoIP headsets with noise-canceling features can greatly enhance call quality in noisy environments by eliminating background sounds.

Wired headsets generally offer more stable sound quality than wireless or Bluetooth headsets. Wireless headsets are more prone to adapter and driver configuration issues, which can lead to static or white noise on calls. We recommend testing with a different headset, or with a built-in mic and speaker, when troubleshooting audio quality issues.

(thumbs up) Best Practices for Agent / Agent UI Login

On Mobile Phones or Tabs 📱

Agent Login using

Status
colourPurple
titleMOBILE

  • Agent Phones should be in auto-answer mode enabling agents' phones should answer the call immediately on ringing without the agent having to click on the answer

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  • Agents should use the phone and be dedicated to the given process only. That is when logged into the agent-UI, the Agents should not be assigned to any other inbound or outbound queue for a different process.

Work From Anywhere with Mobile Number

Use 2G Mode

  • 4G / LTE mode can often have a 4x-5x failure rate for voice calls as compared to 2G mode. Please ensure your phone is set to 2G mode.

  • Do not use Dual SIM Mode

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  • - If dual SIM mode exists, please have the agent switch off the dual SIM

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  • model and work on single SIM mode only. Calls on a second SIM can hamper the

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  • Agent’s productivity, and cause unwanted abandoned calls. It also helps to save battery.

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  • How To:

    • Remove the second SIM card.

    • In the case of

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    • e-SIM: Go to Settings > Mobile Networks > Disable the second SIM.

  • Disable Call Waiting

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  • - Enabling Call Waiting can cause an unnecessary distraction to the Agent if there’s any external call landing on the agent. Agents often also mistakenly think multiple calls are landing from the system. This can cause the Agent to put the customer on hold or get distracted impacting the customer experience and agent productivity.

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  • How To:
    This is usually available in Phone → Options → Call Waiting and Forwarding or Call Management.

Info

If you do not want to receive any further calls, please log off from the Agent UI. Do not just shutdown your mobile phone.

  • Ensure Good Network Coverage

    • Check that cell phone network reception or signal is Good or Excellent.If the signal strength is not good enough, expect voice issues, call drop and call connectivity issues. This can significantly impact agent productivity, customer experience, and high call abandonment.
      Please ensure you stay in “Excellent” or at max “Good” (

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    • -85dBm) to ensure smooth operations. Anything

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    • lower than -85dBm can cause significant call drops or non-connectivity.

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    • The preferred network type needs to be 2G for better connectivity and

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    • less signal fluctuation.

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  • Image Added

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      • - Enable Jio

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      • Wi-Fi calling or You can use a landline phone instead of a mobile phone.

Note

Remember Signal Strength is measured in negative numbers. So -85dBm means -75dBm, -70dBm etc. (smile)

Info

Two prerequisites for Jio

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Wi-Fi calling

  1. You will need to connect your phone with a

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  1. Wi-Fi connection

  2. The phone being used should support the feature of Jio

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  • You can use a landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Desktop Agent-UI

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  1. Wi-Fi calling

Agent Login using

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colourBlue
titleLandline

  • Ensure there are enough channels from the telecom operator side to receive the incoming calls on the

    Status
    colourBlue
    titleLandline
    number

  • Good quality Landlines phones with headphones or received to avoid voice disturbance issues.

  • Use the Landline phone for the particular agent login purpose only to avoid the call congestion on the lines.

Agent Login using

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colourRed
titlesoftphone
,
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colourYellow
titleDesk Phone

  • Make sure that agent is not register

    Status
    colourRed
    titlesoftphone
    details on the multiple systems to avoid the missed calls issues.

  • The Network ports that phonon shared are open at network/Firewall for the agent system.

  • Jitter is measured in milliseconds of delay, and jitter values higher than 30 milliseconds on web calls can lead to poor audio quality. High network congestion can also lead to packet loss, resulting in chunks of audio never reaching the intended recipient

Agent Login using

Status
colourGreen
titleweb call

  • Jitter is measured in milliseconds of delay, and jitter values higher than 30 milliseconds on web calls can lead to poor audio quality. High network congestion can also lead to packet loss, resulting in chunks of audio never reaching the intended recipient

  • Enough bandwidth should be available as per the above “Agent login from Office and Home” section and also make sure that you have followed the Agent login from Office and Home” section.

  • using split-screen option for another tab or browser - reference link How to use Web Calls on Mobile Phone while using another tab / app

While using a Desktop or Laptop Computer 💻

The work-from-home scenario is getting more prevalent these days. There are multiple ways agents can connect and received receive calls. They can receive calls through SIP channels (requires compliance with OSP guidelines) using the web call option on the agent screen and they can receive calls directly on their mobile phone numbers (two-way call legs).

This page focuses on the latter, using two-way call legs and conferencing on the PBX to manage the second leg of the call. At most locations, call center agents who will use their own or company-provided mobile phones. In this section, we suggest some best practices that should be used when agents are using mobile phones to receive calls.

Ensure Minimum System Requirements:

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Upgrade Chrome Browser:

  1. Latest Google Chrome version https://www.google.com/chrome/update/

  2. Stable 1.6 Mbps Internet Speed

  3. (Optional) Mobile Phone with

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  1. -85 dBm Signal Strength or Landline

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Ensure Good Internet Speed

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Ensure that you have Good & Consistent Internet speed of 200 KBps.

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To Check:

  • Go to fast.com and ensure you’re getting (200*8) 1.6 Mbps speed.

  • Click on more details to check latency. Ensure latency is less than 300 ms either way.

How to Improve:

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Please check if any service is taking background bandwidth, specially OS updates.

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Use LAN to connect Internet services with your desktop

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Disable Memory Saver Settings:

Expand
titleClick here to view the configuration
  1. Type the following in the address bar: chrome://flags/#enable-memory-saver

    image-20240207-063513.pngImage Added

  2. Set the flag of all the Memory Saver labels to

    Status
    colourGreen
    titleDISABLED

    image-20240207-063709.pngImage Added

  3. Click the Relaunch button in the bottom right

    image-20240207-063935.pngImage Added

Always Keep the Sites Active:

Expand
titleClick here to view the configuration
  1. Navigate to Chrome Settings.

  2. Select the "Performance" option from the left panel.

  3. Click the "Add" button within the Memory Saver section.

  4. Add the following sites according to the necessity:

    1. http://central.phonon.io in case of

      Status
      colourBlue
      titleLANDLINE
      or
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      colourBlue
      titleMOBILE

    2. http://central.phonon.io and webrtc.phonon.io in case of

      Status
      colourPurple
      titlewebcall

    3. http://central.phonon.io and softphone-24.phonon.io in case of

      Status
      colourGreen
      titleHARDPHONE
      or
      Status
      colourGreen
      titleSOFTPHONE

Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (1) (1).gifImage Added


How to go on a Break or Logout:

  • If you would like to go on a break and not receive any further calls, you can enable the associated break while your current call is in progress.

  • By doing so, your break will be enabled after the call is over, and you’ll not receive any further calls after your current call is over.

  • After you have come back return from your break, you can disable the break and start receiving calls again.

  • If you do not want to receive any further calls, please log - out using the “Logout” button at the top right-hand corner.

Using another system with Phonon Agent UI

Are you using another system, such as a CRM or LMS system on which you’ll be spending more than 5 mins minutes (i.e. not visiting the Phonon Central Agent UI tab)? If not, please skip this part. If yes, there’s a chance that the tab will be suspended in the background during which the agent is considered offline (i.e. login hours and calls stopsstop). It can be circumvented by making a few configurations:

Expand
titleClick here to see the configurations
  1. Type the following in the address bar: chrome://flags/#temporary-unexpire-flags-m89

    1. Image Modified
  2. Set the flag for "Temporarily unexpire M89 flags" to

    Status
    colourGreen
    titleEnabled

    Image Modified
  3. Click the Relaunch button in the bottom right

Image Removed

Bandwidth for Web call and agent-UI

call quality is influenced by several factors, including device software and hardware and the network a device is connected to. Here we explore the key factors that influence call quality and recommendations for improving call quality.

Agent login from Office

Agent login from office using web call or softphone then it should have 150 kb/Second dedicated for the agent and there should be dedicated ILL connection to avoid the bandwidth related issues.

Agent login from home

Agent login from office using web call or softphone then it should have 150 kb/Second dedicated for the agent and there should be having 4G/LTE enabled internet connection.

Network Characteristics

The network the device runs on has a big influence on call quality thanks to factors such as jitter and latency.

Jitter and Latency

VoIP calls involve the transmission of a continuous train of voice data packets. If the network is congested, some of the first packets sent may reach a recipient later than other packets. This out-of-order receipt of packets, known as jitter, can result in the audio sounding jumbled or robotic. Jitter is measured in milliseconds of delay, and jitter values higher than 30 milliseconds on web calls can lead to poor audio quality. High network congestion can also lead to packet loss, resulting in chunks of audio never reaching the intended recipient.

Latency, in the context of web calls, is the spoken-to-heard delay in the transmission of audio. The major contributing factor to VoIP latency is the delay incurred in the transmission of voice packets from origin to destination. When this network latency is more than 300 milliseconds of the round-trip time, call participants can experience audio lag.

  1. Image Added

Phonon Recommends

To minimize network and device issues and improve call quality,

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Phonon recommends the following best practices.

  • Using a high-bandwidth fiber connection from a reputed internet provider. Dedicated business internet connections generally come with guaranteed SLAs on bandwidth and latency.

  • Use a physical Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi when possible.

  • If using Wi-Fi, limit the number of devices connected on the same channel.

  • Using high-quality Wi-Fi routers built for enterprises or real-time gaming. Look for routers that come with advanced QoS features.

  • Auditing your network firewall and NAT settings to check for transmission delays due to improper configuration.

  • Avoid large data transfers on the Wi-Fi network during calls.

  • Limiting bandwidth per connected device to ensure an even allocation of total available bandwidth.

  • Avoid calls over cellular data connections (4G and older) as they are not optimized for low-latency traffic during the login from office..

  • During the work from home, the agent should have a broadband connection which should have proper bandwidth dedicated or Mobile data with less than 4G/LTE

  • Ensuring uplink and downlink bandwidth availability of at least 50Kbps 150Kbps for voice transmission.

  • If operating in a low-bandwidth environment, capping the bandwidth to be consumed on the call using the maxAverageBitrate configuration parameter of the Browser SDK.

Device Characteristics

Certain software and hardware device characteristics have a direct impact on VoIP call quality.

Device Hardware

While most modern PC and smartphone devices are more than capable of handling VoIP calls, incompatibilities between hardware components such as network drivers, audio cards, and other firmware components can result in unexpected issues with media handling.

Attempting to reproduce issues on other devices should be a key step in your debugging process.

The Audio Input and Output Device

Phonon recommends using quality headsets for browser-based calls.

Headsets minimize echo by providing acoustic isolation between the speaker and the microphone. High-quality VoIP headsets with noise-canceling features can greatly enhance call quality in noisy environments by eliminating background sounds.

Wired headsets generally offer more stable sound quality than wireless or Bluetooth headsets. Wireless headsets are more prone to adapter and driver configuration issues, which can lead to static or white noise on calls. We recommend testing with a different headset, or with a built-in mic and speaker, when troubleshooting audio quality issues.

Version History

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Confidentiality

This document has been developed by Phonon.io for the sole and exclusive use of the customer / prospective customer with whom this document is being shared. Further, this document has been provided by Phonon.io to the recipient in good faith and based on request from the recipient for the same. This document is a confidential document and contains confidential product technology, workflow and commercial details that are for the sole usage of the intended recipients of this document. Recipients are advised not to share this document with any third party that is not the intended recipient of this document and neither to bring this document in full or parts into the public domain. Any unauthorized access may be brought to Phonon.io’s notice immediately. Phonon.io is free to take any legal action it deems necessary against any person or entity that violates this confidentiality agreement. Phonon.io is bound and governed by the rules of the state of Gujarat in India. In case you are not in agreement with the terms set in this clause or are not an intended recipient of this document, please destroy the document and intimate us of the same at info@phonon.io.