Estimated Wait Time

This help page is for Desktop Studio. This information is also available for CXone Studio.

Makes educated estimates on wait time based on historical data for a contact center queue. This action helps manage contact expectations by communicating the wait time up front in the routing flow. Additionally, this action enables you to offer other methods of contact, such as leaving a voicemail or setting up a callback, in case the contact does not want to endure a long wait time.

The estimates that Estimated Wait Time creates can be impacted by various factors, including a sudden change in the number of agents available to handle contacts, spikes in volume, or mixing long duration and short duration contacts into a single queue. The estimate is providing you with statistical data that you can use to craft the appropriate experience for your contacts.

This action is a powerful tool to help you keep callers in queue. A best practice is to never show the actual estimated time to the contact. Instead, use general time boxing; for example, "Your wait time is less than five minutes."

Dependencies

  • Only contacts that pass through the Estimated Wait Time action will be added to the calculations. Best practice would be to place the Estimated Wait Time action right after the Reqagent action.

    When using this action in a work item script, it could be used for decision logic while the contact is in queue.

  • Estimated Wait Time can help you make decisions on when to play certain prompts versus sending a caller to voicemail.
  • Remember that you are operating in a skillsClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge-based routing environment, which means you may have a business workflow that determines whether one contact has a higher priority over another.

Supported Script Types

The icon for a Generic script type - a rectangle with < and > symbols inside it.

The icon for the Email script type - a large @ symbol in a diamond.

The icon for the Chat script type - a chat bubble with an ellipsis inside (...), in a diamond shape.

The icon for the Phone script type - an old-style phone handset with curved lines indicating sound coming out of it.

The icon for the Voicemail script type - a symbol that looks like a cassette tape - two circles sitting on a horizontal line.

The icon for the Work Item script type-a piece of paper with one corner folded down and a bullet list on it.

The icon for the SMS script type - a smart phone with a chat bubble coming out of it.

The icon for the Digital script type - a computer monitor with a smartphone next to it.

Generic

 Email Chat Phone Voicemail Work Item SMS Digital

Comparison of Similar Actions

The following actions have similar functions, but with some key differences: 

  • Estimated Wait Time: Returns an estimate of the contact's wait time based on the input values.
  • Getqueue: Returns values you can use to determine how long the specified queue is.

Input Properties

These properties define data that the action uses when executing.

Property

Description

Caption

Enter a short phrase that uniquely identifies this action in the script. The caption appears on the script canvas under the action icon. The default is the action name.

SkillNo

SkillClosed Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge Number of the queue for which you are getting the estimate.

LookBack

Historical time frame used for determining average wait time in minutes (30Min, 15Min, 5Min).

HighConfidence

Percentage threshold of Look Back that determines the wait time has a high confidence level.

MinConfidence

Percentage threshold of Look Back that determines the wait time has a minimum confidence level.

Output Properties

These properties contain variables that hold data returned from executing the action. They're available for reference and use when the action completes.

Property

Description

EstimateValue (out)

Estimation of wait time for any call coming into the queue at that moment in seconds.

EstimateRange (out)

Plus/Minus value indicating the range of the estimate in seconds.

AdjustedEstimateValue (out)

Estimation time adjusted by time already spent in queue in seconds.

This output property is available for all supported script types except digital.

Properties - Out Advanced

The following properties are available for all supported script types except digital.

Property Details

Average Queue (out)

Average number of callers in queue.

AverageQueueTime (out)

Average time (in seconds) callers spend in queue.

AverageArrivalRate (out)

Average incoming rate of arrival for callers.

AverageCallDuration (out)

Average length of call (in seconds).

AverageServiceRate (out)

Number of calls (per second) that are being handled.

LongestWaitTime (out)

Longest time (in seconds) in queue.

StandardDeviationForCall (out)

Standard deviation of call duration time.

AgentsOnCalls (out)

Number of agents taking calls for a selected Skill.

CurrentWait (out)

Time (in seconds) already spent in queue.

Result Branch Conditions

Result branch conditions allow you to create branches in your script to handle different outcomes when an action executes.

Condition

Description

Default

Path taken unless the script meets a condition that requires it to take one of the other branches. It is also taken if the action's other branches are not defined.

OnHighConfidence

Path taken if confidence levels are above the value set in the High Confidence property field. You can enter a custom value between 1 and 100.

OnMedConfidence

Path taken if confidence levels fall below the value set in the High Confidence property field but above the value in the Low Confidence property field.

OnLowConfidence

Path taken if confidence levels fall below the value set in the Low Confidence property field. You can enter a custom value between 1 and 100.

OnInvalidEstimate

Path taken if the estimate is not valid.

OnError

Path taken when there is an unexpected problem (for example, poor connectivity, syntax errors, and so forth). The _ERR variable should be populated with a condensed explanation of the problem.

Script Example

This is an example to show how this action can be used in scripts. It is not intended to be a complete script. Additional scripting may be required.

The following example is a part of a much larger script. However, for the Estimated Wait Time example, what you need to know is that the confidence levels are set in the Estimated Wait Time action, and the snippets determine which prompt to play.

View the High Confidence Snippet Properties

View the Medium Confidence Snippet Properties

View the Low Confidence Snippet Properties

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