So a little while ago, I was on the phone with a customer, and there was some bad weather outside. We then were instructed to move down to the first floor and take cover. It was kind of an odd/awkward situation to explain that I had to go suddenly, and then just leave. As I sat huddled in a hallway among a mass of people, I started to think that I could come up with a solution that would be automatic, configurable, and easy to use. Attached is a ZIP of 3 handlers I wrote with this idea in mind. They're pretty simple (and I'm sure some of the more experienced people on the forums could definitely improve and enhance them). They're initiated via custom notification. They'll read all of the workgroups in DS, then go through each workgroup, grab each active call, play a message to it, then create a callback and transfer it to an "emergency" queue. The original call is disconnected after this. Again, these are pretty basic and bare-boned, and could definitely benefit from improvements. Possible additions for "features" I thought of quickly:

• Configurable for multiple types of emergencies/situations
• Put calls back into original queues
• Allow caller to leave "comment" (not sure best way to implement, but could be useful)
• Add configuration options to only do this for pre-selected workgroups
• Add support for chat interactions (without doing any initial research, I have a feeling this would involve a good amount of work)
• Add feature to also have the option to enable "Emergency" Inbound Attendant schedules
• Add support for calls waiting in queue, not connected to agents (and possibly calls on hold on agent queue)
• Add some sort of option for reporting/notification/status report (email, text file, write to DB, etc)

I'm not sure how useful or useless this may be to most call centers, as I assume they would have contingency plans for situations like this. Anyway, it was a fun little mini-project for me. I welcome any feedback, suggestions, or criticism. Also, if I'm so inclined, maybe I'll start to add some features to them based on free time/feedback. Because I have to: These handlers are provided as-is and come with absolutely no guarantee or warranty. Use them (or don't) at your own discretion. Feel free to PM me or just reply with any questions/comments.

Hi <g class="gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="5" data-gr-id="5">Malcom</g>, 
    This is indeed a great idea. Would you mind attaching the zip file again, seems like after the migration from the old community to this all attachments are gone. Thank you.




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Rijeesh Chathoth
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-23-2012 03:58
From: Malcolm Rogers
Subject: "Emergency" handlers

So a little while ago, I was on the phone with a customer, and there was some bad weather outside. We then were instructed to move down to the first floor and take cover. It was kind of an odd/awkward situation to explain that I had to go suddenly, and then just leave. As I sat huddled in a hallway among a mass of people, I started to think that I could come up with a solution that would be automatic, configurable, and easy to use.

Attached is a ZIP of 3 handlers I wrote with this idea in mind. They're pretty simple (and I'm sure some of the more experienced people on the forums could definitely improve and enhance them).

They're initiated via custom notification. They'll read all of the workgroups in DS, then go through each workgroup, grab each active call, play a message to it, then create a callback and transfer it to an "emergency" queue. The original call is disconnected after this.

Again, these are pretty basic and bare-boned, and could definitely benefit from improvements.

Possible additions for "features" I thought of quickly:

• Configurable for multiple types of emergencies/situations


• Put calls back into original queues


• Allow caller to leave "comment" (not sure best way to implement, but could be useful)


• Add configuration options to only do this for pre-selected workgroups


• Add support for chat interactions (without doing any initial research, I have a feeling this would involve a good amount of work)


• Add feature to also have the option to enable "Emergency" Inbound Attendant schedules


• Add support for calls waiting in queue, not connected to agents (and possibly calls on hold on agent queue)


• Add some sort of option for reporting/notification/status report (email, text file, write to DB, etc)

I'm not sure how useful or useless this may be to most call centers, as I assume they would have contingency plans for situations like this. Anyway, it was a fun little mini-project for me. I welcome any feedback, suggestions, or criticism. Also, if I'm so inclined, maybe I'll start to add some features to them based on free time/feedback.

Because I have to: These handlers are provided as-is and come with absolutely no guarantee or warranty. Use them (or don't) at your own discretion.

Feel free to PM me or just reply with any questions/comments.