Capabilities
The Agent Greeting feature lets an agent record a message that plays automatically to callers when they connect to the agent. The greeting message can welcome the caller, identify the agent, and include other useful contextual information. With Agent Greeting, each caller can receive a clear, well-paced, language-appropriate, and enthusiastic introduction. Another benefit is that it saves the agent from having to repeat the same introductory phrase for each call. It also gives the agent a moment to review the desktop software screen popups while the greeting plays.
The process of recording a greeting is much the same as recording a message for voicemail. Depending on how the call center is set up, agents may be able to record different greetings that play for different types of callers. For example, agents can record an English greeting for English speakers or an Italian greeting for Italian speakers.
Agent Greeting Phone Requirements (for Local Agents Only)
Agent Greeting is available to agents and supervisors who use IP Phones with Built-In Bridge (BIB). These agents are typically located within a contact center. Phones used with Agent Greeting must meet these requirements:
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The phones must have the BIB feature.
Note
If you disable BIB, the system attempts to use a conference bridge for Agent Greeting call flow and raises a warning event.
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In an IPv6-enabled environment, Agent Greeting may require extra Media Termination Points (MTPs).
See the Contact Center Enterprise Compatibility Matrix at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-enterprise/products-device-support-tables-list.html for the list of supported Cisco Unified Call Center phone models.
Agent Greeting Functional Limitations
Agent Greeting is subject to these limitations.
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Agent Greeting does not support outbound calls made by an agent. The announcement plays for inbound calls only.
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Only one Agent Greeting file plays per call.
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Supervisors cannot listen to agent recorded greetings.
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Agent Greetings do not play when the router selects the agent through a label node.
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Agent Greeting supports Unified CM based Silent Monitoring with this exception: Supervisors cannot hear the greetings themselves. If a supervisor tries to start a silent monitoring session while a greeting is playing, a message displays stating that a greeting is playing and to try again shortly.
Whisper Announcement with Agent Greeting
You can use Agent Greeting with the Whisper Announcement feature. Here are some things to consider when using them together:
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On the call, the Whisper Announcement always plays first.
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To shorten your call-handling time, use shorter Whisper Announcements and Agent Greetings than if you were using either feature by itself. A long Whisper Announcement followed by a long Agent Greeting equals a long wait before an agent actively handles a call.
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If you use a Whisper Announcement, your agents probably handle different types of calls: for example, "English-Gold Member-Activate Card," "English-Gold Member-Report Lost Card," "English-Platinum Member-Account Inquiry." Therefore, you may want to ensure that greetings your agents record are generic enough to cover the range of call types.
For more information about Whisper Announcement, see Whisper Announcement