Set Up a Manual Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) Voice Channel

Content on this page is for a product or feature in a public preview program. If you are not part of the preview and would like more information, contact your account representative.

This page describes setting up a channel for manual outbound voice calls when your system is configured to use Outbound Engagement (SmartReach). This type of channel allows your agents to dial calls themselves.

If your system does not have Outbound Engagement (SmartReach), see the Set Up a Manual Voice Channel help page. To set up an agentless outbound voice channel with Outbound Engagement (SmartReach), see the Set Up an Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) Voice Channel help page.

Before you can set up Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) for NiCE CXone, it must be enabled by a NiCE account representative.

Complete each of these tasks in the order given.

Create a Campaign

Required permissions: ACD > Contact Settings > Campaigns Create, Divisions > Division Assignment (only for systems configured for divisions Separate data securely between lines of business. Data can only be accessed from within the division it's part of.)

If you've already created a campaign 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.

Click the app selector and select ACD.
Go to Contact Settings > Campaigns.
Click Create New.
Enter a value in the Campaign Name field.
Choose the Division you want to assign the campaign to. This option is only available if your system is configured for divisions. After you have assigned the campaign to a division Separate data securely between lines of business. Data can only be accessed from within the division it's part of., you cannot change the division assignment.
Click Create Campaign.

Create a Manual Outbound Voice ACD Skill

Required permissions: ACD > Skills Create, Edit

Agents using Agent Workspace (Agent) need to have the Digital Engagement attribute enabled in their Admin employee profile and be assigned to a digital ACD skill to handle digital interactions. Agents using MAX can handle digital interactions if they have either the Digital Engagement attribute or a digital skill assigned to them.

When you create an Outbound Engagement skill, the system automatically creates an Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) service. You may need to make additional configuration changes to the service in Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) to finish setting up the skill or channel you're creating.

The name of a skill should be meaningful and unique. 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 (:)

Click the app selector and select ACD.
Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.
Click Create New > Single Skill.
Set the Media Type to Phone Call and Inbound/Outbound to Outbound, and Outbound Strategy to Outbound Engagement.
Enter a Skill Name.
Select the Campaign you want the skill to be part of.

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

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Override Caller ID	Enables you to override the default tenant High-level organizational grouping used to manage technical support, billing, and global settings for your NiCE CXone system. caller ID number. If you want to, select this open, then choose a new caller ID from the Caller ID drop-down list. These are the numbers you have set up for A-level attestation in the STIR/SHAKEN database. By law, the number you display as caller IDs must reach your contact center when a contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. calls the number back.
Caller ID	The phone number contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. see when an agent calls with this ACD skill. The default is your tenant caller ID number. By law, this must be a phone number where the contact can reach you. If you selected Override Caller ID, select a different phone number.
Custom Script	A Studio script that runs when agents place a call with this skill. Your Studio script can control things like agent script sessions, dispositions, and custom screen pops. If you're going to enable preview dialing for phone skills, you can use the OnPreview action to specify any actions you want to occur when the preview pop-up appears.
Maximum Ringing Duration	Controls the length of time in seconds that the phone rings before timing out. The call automatically ends after timing out. The default maximum is 55 seconds. Changing this field impacts your dialing time. When the Maximum Ringing Duration value is reached, the system automatically dispositions the call as Not Answered. This includes calls placed by the dialer and manual outbound calls placed by agents. Agents cannot manually disposition calls that reach the maximum ringing duration because the calls don't connect.
Do not allow transfers to skill when closed	Determines whether interactions can be transferred to this skill when its hours of operation profile is set to Closed. Select to prevent transfer or leave unselected to allow transfer during closed hours.
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.

If your system is configured for divisions, use the Division field to specify which division Separate data securely between lines of business. Data can only be accessed from within the division it's part of. to assign the skill to. After you have assigned the skill to a division, you cannot change it. To configure this option, you must have the Division Assignment permission.

If you want to use screen pops

A pop-up window with information about the contact that appears on an agent's screen after an event such as connecting 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 Agent Workspace (Agent) suite. You can also do this later.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Use Custom Screen Pops	Select to enable. Allows you to use a separate application or website to run the screen pops.
Application or Webpage	Select how your screen pops will appear. If you chose Application, enter either the entire path to the executable. if you chose Webpage, enter the full URL. To have custom variables appear in the screen pop, the variable must be configured to do so in your custom Studio script. You can customize the title of the tab that pops up in the MAX interface by appending the icAgentPanelTitle= parameter to the URL.

Field

Details

Use Custom Screen Pops

Select to enable. Allows you to use a separate application or website to run the screen pops.

Application or

Webpage

Select how your screen pops will appear.

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

To have custom variables appear in the screen pop, the variable must be configured to do so in your custom Studio script.

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

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.

Learn more from a use case

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 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:

Interaction #1 comes in on the Employee skill, which has a priority of 110.
Interaction #2 comes in on the Merchants skill, which has a priority of 10.
When an agent becomes available, Interaction #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:

Interaction #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.
Interaction #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, Interaction #3 will be delivered first since it has the higher priority.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Initial Priority	Enter a numeric value you want to set as the base level priority 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 (callbacks 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. For existing digital skills, Initial Priority is set to the same priority value for its associated routing queue filter. For Outbound Engagement skills, this is currently the only priority setting available.
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. NiCE 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. The maximum priority for digital contacts is 1000.

Field

Details

Initial Priority

Enter a numeric value you want to set as the base level priority 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 (callbacks 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.

For existing digital skills, Initial Priority is set to the same priority value for its associated routing queue filter.

For Outbound Engagement skills, this is currently the only priority setting available.

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.

NiCE 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.

The maximum priority for digital contacts is 1000.

To require agents to enter an account number when making an outbound call:
1. Select Require customer account ID.
2. If you want the system to check that the ID is valid, select Validate customer account ID. If you select this option, agents will only be able to place manual outbound calls to valid customer accounts.
Click Create. Complete additional configurations to customize or manage your skills.

Assign Users to the ACD Skill

Required permissions: Skills Edit, Skills User Assignment

Click the app selector and select ACD.
Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.
Click the skill Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge. you want to edit.
Click the Users tab.
Select the checkbox for each user you want to assign to the skill. Click Add Users.
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.

Complete Configuration in Outbound Engagement (SmartReach)

During its public preview, the remainder of Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) configuration is done in a separate portal, which you can access from NiCE CXone by going to Customer Engagement > Outbound Engagement from the app selector menu Icon of a 3x3 grid of squares. . You can find more information at these links:

To complete the setup of your Outbound Engagement voice skill Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge., you need to update some settings in Outbound Engagement (SmartReach). When you create an Outbound Engagement voice skill, a service is automatically created in Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) with the same name as your skill. You must configure the service to be outbound.

Additional configuration may be required in Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) to customize the behavior of the system. Refer to the documentation links earlier in this section for more information.

Click the app selector and select Customer Engagement > Outbound Engagement Admin.
If you're not automatically logged in, enter your Outbound Engagement (SmartReach) credentials.
On the Config page, click Services.
Locate the service that matches the skill you just created in ACD and open it.
On the General tab, select Outbound from the Service Type, Call Direction, and ACD mode drop-downs.
Click Save.