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  • 1.  Sorting External Contacts

    Posted 09-07-2022 17:12
    Hello!

    OK, so a slightly odd one here...

    Does anyone know what criteria are used to sort External Contacts in the UI? Also, is this configurable? They appear to be random...

    TIA
    #Omni-ChannelDesktop/UserInterface

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    Paul Simpson
    Sr. Cloud Partner
    AAA Club Alliance Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    Posted 09-07-2022 23:30
    Welcome to the world of a digital rolodex (if you are old enough to remember those!)  You can scroll forward or backward by and find one by name or org, but that is just about it.  Also, you can add lots of information on the cards like we used to write on them, but we don't really have a good way to search or use all that information.   Genesys is working on making this more useful, but until then, please don't try to use External Contacts as a CRM. 

    Rolodex Mini Rotary File,  250-Card Capacity,  1-3/4"x3-1/4",  Black ROL66700

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    Robert Wakefield-Carl
    Avtex Solutions, LLC
    Contact Center Innovation Architect
    https://www.Avtex.com
    https://RobertWC.Blogspot.com
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  • 3.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    Posted 09-08-2022 12:05
    Edited by Paul Simpson 09-08-2022 12:06
    LOL, sadly, yes, I'm old enough to remember them on stone tablets ;-)

    Actually, the searching (for us) isn't too bad (although it would be nice to limit which fields are searched) and we are merely using it as Speed-Dial, not a CRM, so we're good there!

    The issue is simply that wherever I look at it (whether it's in the Directory directly, in the call box, or on the transfer box) I type in a search term and the results are in an essentially random order! I'd like them sorted by, say Last Name - is that too much to ask?

    Even if I can't change the field used, if I could figure out which one it is, I could perhaps manipulate it to get the order I want? Or is it something I cannot affect?

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    Paul Simpson
    Sr. Cloud Partner
    AAA Club Alliance Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 09-08-2022 13:26
    Hello Paul,

    When you search for External Contacts, they are returned in relevance-order according to your search terms, not random order.  In other words, contacts that match the search "better" are ranked higher in the search results, just like a Google search.

    There is no way to sort search results by a given field at this time.  If you would like to suggest that feature, please submit an idea to the ideas portal.  You can find instructions here: https://help.mypurecloud.com/faqs/how-do-i-submit-an-enhancement-request/

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    Andrew Johnson
    Genesys - Employees
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  • 5.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 09-08-2022 13:34
    Hi Robert,

    External Contacts are searchable using full-text search -- kind of like a Google search of your contacts.  Here are some helpful resource center articles:


    I hope you find the search functionality useful!

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    Andrew Johnson
    Genesys - Employees
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  • 6.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 09-08-2022 13:44
    Unfortunately I am old enough to remember those Robert!

    But with Single Customer View; it is the mechanism for consolidating active and disparate conversations from the previous 60 days to a contact providing a unified view of rich context to an agent as a first phase release. 

    And unlike the Rolodex will have native rich orchestration capabilities through Architect. This is a core platform feature.

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    Aoife Kelly
    Genesys - Employees
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  • 7.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    Posted 09-08-2022 16:02
    Edited by Paul Simpson 09-08-2022 16:06

    Thanks to everyone who responded!

    "Relevance" is a somewhat vague term, if you don't mind me saying...

    Say I go to call a number and enter "John", within the list of External Contacts displayed, I'd like them to be shown alphabetically. There is no way the system can know which "John" is more, or less, relevant than another.

    I understand that it is intended to be used as a kind of CRM, however many people are simply using it as a phone book. The particular subset I am currently working on are actually numbers that "loop back" to allow our users to easily call / transfer to flows without having to know / memorize the numbers.

    As suggested, I will head over to ideas, but I'm leaving this here for anyone who comes after and finds this thread in a search.

    I should also point out that the full-text search, together with the way the UI is structured, and the 1000 contacts returned limit, makes maintaining it a nightmare!

    Say I have more than 1000 entries - I have to narrow it down with a search. Unfortunately, if I enter "A", I don't get all those contacts whose names start with an "A", I get everyone with an "A" anywhere in their profile (and so on) so there isn't really a way I can "batch" my search!

    Furthermore, as I work through the list, making changes, as I exit each contact, I'm returned the top of to Page 1 of the list! This gets very old, very quickly....


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    Paul Simpson
    Sr. Cloud Partner
    AAA Club Alliance Inc.
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  • 8.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    GENESYS
    Posted 09-09-2022 09:37

    Hi Paul,

    Agreed that "relevance" can mean different things in different contexts.  From our full-text search API's point-of-view, a more "relevant" result is one that scores numerically higher in the search results.  Example:  a contact named "John John Smith" will score higher than "John Smith" in a search for "john" because "john" appears twice in the first contact.

    From reading your response, what I am understanding is that trying to maintain, by hand, a phone book with more than 1,000 contacts is difficult because the Genesys Cloud CX UI does not provide a way to simply list *all* of the contacts.  This is true -- we only provide a search-based interface today.  I definitely suggest submitting that new feature idea to the ideas portal and we can consider it.

    It sounds like you would also be able to search on specific fields.

    One option you have is to build your own custom UI using the platform APIs.  Is that something you might be equipped to do?

    If you could have whatever interface you wanted, what would it look like?

    Thank you.



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    Andrew Johnson
    Genesys - Employees
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  • 9.  RE: Sorting External Contacts

    Posted 09-21-2022 16:23
    That is interesting, however what about entries that, by your description, score equally? Say I have a John Smith, a John Jones and a John Doe, If I search for "John", it doesn't show me them in creation order. Or alphabetic order. Or any predictable / discernable order.

    This is also an issue for our users. When they want to call or transfer a call, they type in a search term (Like John) and the list is presented in what appears (at least to them) to be a random order.

    I could certainly build my own UI, but I shouldn't need to for something as simple and fundamental as this. I also draw your attention to my other question thread about the limit on records returned, which make this kind of thing much more complex.

    If the system allowed for custom sorts and / or searching on specific fields, it would be much more useful.

    Remember a lot of folks (us included) are not using it as a CRM, but simply as a phone book.

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    Paul Simpson
    Sr. Cloud Partner
    AAA Club Alliance Inc.
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