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External Contacts

  • 1.  External Contacts

    Posted 09-10-2019 17:50
    Hello,

    Agents most of the time have to call Stores.
    There are stores with long numbers (e.g +33xxxxxxxx), in this case, I create the store in External Contacts and the agents just type the name of the store and they can directly call them.

    The problem is that most stores only have short numbers (DID) (e.g 11252) and I can't create them in external contacts.

    Would there be a solution to make it easier for agents to call a store when they want to call without necessarily typing the short number ?

    Regards,
    #Outbound
    #PlatformAdministration
    #SystemAdministration

    ------------------------------
    Charaf Eddine Chemlal
    Dimension Data France
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-10-2020 00:54
    Edited by Paulo Mesquita do not use 05-10-2020 00:56
    Hi Charaf,

    Did you find a solution for this?

    You can create a script to transfer the calls where you select a store from the list and then transfer to an external extension.



    ------------------------------
    Paulo Mesquita
    Spark NZ Trading
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-14-2020 05:12
    Hi Paulo,

    Thank you for your reply.

    I have tested your solution and it works fine.

    But since I have a very long list of extensions, I couldn't implement it in the script and it must be so long and with native purecloud transfer, agents can search by typing the store name while on the drop-down list no.

    Best regards,


    ------------------------------
    Charaf Eddine Chemlal
    NTT France
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-14-2020 09:02
    For the short numbers you can create a new Number Plan entry based upon a Regular Expression which would take a valid phone number format (something your company would most likely never dial) and then strip off the leading substring before placing the call to the shorter number.

    For example, maybe use a NANP format:


    I don't know what Classification you use for those short numbers to stores. The above example takes the long number which is in a format that can be added to an external contact, strips off all but the last 5 digits, and sends those outbound.

    I tested the concept using an External Contact to call an internal extension by converting a long number like above, and it worked fine.

    Just a thought.


    ------------------------------
    George Ganahl GCP (Genesys Cloud), ICCE
    Principal Technology Consultant
    Genesys
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-15-2020 08:17
    I'd be interested in the scenario more. It seems like these may be internal stores and you are trying to create a sort of an internal phone book.

    ------------------------------
    Lucie DeCristofaro
    Genesys - Employees
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-15-2020 08:56
    The main desire is for agents to be able to type the name of a store when placing a call and have it come up in the list of dialable contacts.

    What we didn't discuss in this thread is the other workaround many people use, which is to create a dummy user for the store with the phone number assigned as their Home phone (or cell phone...anything but a Work Phone). Then when an agent types the name it would show up as a User and could be called that way. The same thing would have to be done in the Number Plan and fake callable number, though, to allow the short number to be entered on the User.

    ------------------------------
    George Ganahl GCP (Genesys Cloud), ICCE
    Principal Technology Consultant
    Genesys
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-18-2020 16:03
    Is the dummy user/ transfer the best way for all agents in our pure cloud instance to have visibility to an external contact?  Ultimately, I am looking for the best way to give agents visibility to a transfer contact that is outside of Genesys.

    ------------------------------
    Matt Keleshian
    Lon Operations, LLC
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-18-2020 16:56
    I am probably misunderstanding your question, @Matt Keleshian

    External Contacts is a perfect way to allow agents an easier way to transfer calls to contacts outside of the Genesys Cloud organization. The agent just starts typing the name or phone number in the transfer dialog and selects the contact from the list that sho​ws up under External Contacts.

    So. I don't see a need for the dummy user workaround there.

    ------------------------------
    George Ganahl GCP (Genesys Cloud), ICCE
    Principal Technology Consultant
    Genesys
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-18-2020 17:03
    I agree with George. Generally speaking, external contacts are intended for external contacts such as vendors or customers. I would not recommend to use them for employees who do not have Genesys Cloud login or for other general internal address book purposes, i.e. internal flows.

    ------------------------------
    Lucie DeCristofaro
    Genesys - Employees
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-19-2020 09:15
    Lucie,
    You said you would not recommend the External Contacts for transfers to internal flows. Why not? Is there a potential problem there?
    We have several instances where customers want to have an agent be able to transfer to a different flow where a different skill, priority or queue can be assigned. The only want to do that is for them to transfer to the +1 ten digit number - the only way to address a route and flow. So we create "Transfer to..." flows and routes, and put the telephone number in an External Contact. Its essentially a speed dial. Then just train the agents to lookup that External Contact in the Transfer window, rather than type in the full telephone number for the Transfer To flow. Do you see potential problem there?
    Until we get a Transfer to Inbound Flow option like we used to have with CIC/PureConnect this is the next best option I see.

    ------------------------------
    Greg Beal
    ConvergeOne, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-19-2020 09:38
    I agree that it's a great workaround due to us not having transfer to flow functionality. We recently discussed prioritizing adding transfer to flow option so that customers can do what they really want to do, rather than having to leverage external contacts as a workaround.

    I don't see an immediate issue with using external contacts that way, however, if customers use these workaround they may want enhancements to external contacts that we are not planning. The best option that I see would be for us to provide transfer to flow functionality.

    ------------------------------
    Lucie DeCristofaro
    Genesys - Employees
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-15-2020 11:40
    Hi @Lucie DeCristofaro

    In my case, agents need to transfer and call vendors, managers in stores across the country.

    Those numbers are in short format (7 digits), I have counted almost 450 short numbers and I cannot create 450 users.... in term of Reporting, it won't be easy to manage. (maybe create a specific division to be clean...)

    The only workaround that I found, for each External Contact, I put the short number in the middle name label, so the agent when typing the name of the vendor for call transfers, the vendor appears and agent can copy the short number then paste it to make the transfer.


    It's a little bit a manual operation , but what George has suggested yesterday is working fine.

    Regards,



    ​

    ------------------------------
    Charaf Eddine Chemlal
    NTT France
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-15-2020 11:55
    Charaf, how do those short numbers work with the Telco? 

    In other words, why does your provider at the other end of the External Trunk recognize the short numbers, but our External Contacts does not recognize them as valid?

    If I understand correctly, they are just going out the same external trunk as all the other National numbers from the Org.

    ------------------------------
    George Ganahl GCP (Genesys Cloud), ICCE
    Principal Technology Consultant
    Genesys
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-15-2020 12:16
    George,

    Those short numbers are defined and recognized in CUCM at the end of the External Trunk.

    Unfortunately we are not able to declare extensions or short numbers to External Contacts, we are obliged to assign only long numbers !


    If short numbers were accepted at the level of external contacts, we would be able to reach them easily as a regular call to an internal agent.

    Regards,


    ------------------------------
    Charaf Eddine Chemlal
    NTT France
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-18-2020 09:31
    I've been seeing many requests on External Contacts and Organizations to house non standard data fields. Seems like it wouldn't be a bad enhancement to have a handful of user defined fields we could use on each object to solve many of these work arounds using standard fields for what they aren't intended for. Anyone know if that enhancement exists?

    ------------------------------
    Greg Barrett
    Outdoor Network, LLC
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  • 16.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-18-2020 10:13
    Currently In Progress on roadmap - guessing this quarter or early Q3.  It will allow you to define up to 25 custom fields on the contacts page of various types and look up that information in Architect or through API.  



    ------------------------------
    Robert Wakefield-Carl
    Avtex Solutions, LLC
    Contact Center Innovation Architect
    robertwc@avtex.com
    https://www.Avtex.com
    https://RobertWC.Blogspot.com
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 05-18-2020 17:01
    Would you have time to chat through this sometimes? I'd like to understand this a bit better.

    ------------------------------
    Lucie DeCristofaro
    Genesys - Employees
    ------------------------------



  • 18.  RE: External Contacts

    Posted 05-19-2020 08:01

    Sure. You can send me an invite or just call me at 941 544 2241.

     

    Reply from Greg Barrett

     






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