Activities take an agent out of distribution because they are doing something else: a break, a meeting, training, follow-up work at the desk. The agents choose them in the Agent with Activity — see Activities in the Agent chapter. Every activity is available to all agents. If there are none, the agent starts a general activity without a name, in which they receive no conversations.
You find the activities under Global elements › Activities; you need the Activity configuration permission for this.
Creating an activity
- Right-click in the list and choose Add.
- Fill in the fields, see below.
- Click Save.
The new activity is available to the agents immediately.
| Field | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The agents choose the activity under this name; with presence synchronization, it also appears as the presence in the phone system. Required. | — |
| Description | Your note; the agents do not see it. | — |
| Is busy time | The activity counts as working time in the statistics, not as a break. | off |
| Allow conversations in activity | The agent continues to receive conversations during this activity. | off |
| Request controlled by supervisor | A supervisor decides whether the agent may start the activity. | off |
| Automatic release from activity | The activity ends by itself after the time under Max duration — provided this is turned on in the server configuration, see below. | off |
| Skip in escalation | Agents in this activity are not counted when distribution checks whether it has to fall back on less qualified agents. | off |
| Max duration | the intended maximum duration, hh:mm:ss | 00:10:00 |
The list shows the same information as columns; there, Allow conversations in activity is called Calls while in activity. Activities that count as working time have a green icon. The order in which the agents see the activities cannot be set.
When an activity ends by itself
Max duration alone does not end an activity. For this, the server configuration has two switches on the Agents tab in the Agent inactivity actions group:
- Reactivate agent automatically after activity time ends activities with Automatic release from activity as soon as their Max duration has elapsed.
- Release agent if activity to long ends every activity after the Release agent time at the latest.
If both apply, an activity ends after the shorter time. The agent is then available again.
Who decides on an activity
If an agent wants to start an activity, the decision is made by
- a logged-in supervisor who shares a skill and a language with the agent — if the activity has Request controlled by supervisor or this supervisor has turned on Answer requests,
- otherwise the constraints of the agent’s skills: they allow the change, warn against it or forbid it.
What this looks like for the agent and the supervisor is described in When permission is required and Requests and messages.
Activities after login
On the Agents tab of the server configuration, you also specify how an agent starts after login: with Login agents to wrap-up in wrap-up, otherwise with Login agents to activity in the selected activity, otherwise available.
Activities that myContactCenter triggers itself
| Activity | Trigger |
|---|---|
| Too many conversations not picked | The agent has not accepted or has rejected several conversations in a row. Turned on in the server configuration with Pause if agent does not pick conversations and the Number of conversations. |
| Session lock | The agent has locked Windows or disconnected their remote session. The activity does not end by itself. |
| Screen saver | intended for the agent’s screen saver |
| Forwarding | Call forwarding is switched on for the extension, and the profile checks this with Check client side rules. |
Whether Too many conversations not picked, Session lock and Screen saver are used at all and whether they count for escalation is set in the server configuration on the Special activity handling tab. No maximum duration applies to these activities.
Deleting
If you delete an activity, it is removed permanently and is immediately no longer available to the agents.