Insurance or service agency

Last Updated : Aug 26, 2020 |
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In the example, an insurance company call center handles calls from independent field agents, policy holders with claims, policy holders with need for customer service, and several general service agency type toll–free number client accounts such as 800, 888, 877, 866 number types. Each different type of call has an 800 number that routes the calls to associated VDNs.
Call center requirements:
  • Independent field agents require prompt service. The field agents call the company to find the latest rates for specific clients, to set up policies, or to make adjustments. Therefore the insurance company wants to maintain an Average Speed of Answer (Rolling-ASA) of less than 30 seconds for field agent calls. Field agent calls are given the highest priority in queue.
  • Calls to Claims must be separated by area code. Training for the Claims agents is based on the area of the country for the claim. A particular group of agents can be given training for more than one area code. Therefore, area codes must not be tested individually and can be grouped in Vector Routing Tables (VRT).
  • The insurance company wants the customer service callers to hear an announcement indicating the wait duration for a service.
  • The insurance company also sells spare call center capacity to client accounts. The account contracts are provided on the basis that only so many calls to a particular account are accepted at any given time.
In this example, Rolling ASA routing is used to maintain the rolling ASA objective of less than 30 seconds for field agent calls. ANI or CLID routing is used to partition arriving calls based on any of the following combinations so as to route calls to the appropriate Claims agent:
  • Area code, that is, Numbering Plan Area (NPA)
  • Area code and Central Office (CO) within the NPA, that is, NPA-NXX
  • Entire phone number, that is, NPA-NXX-XXXX
The terms ANI and CLID are, in practice, used interchangeably with respect to vectors. ANI equates to the caller's number when the caller dials a toll-free number, whereas CLID equates to the caller's number when the caller dials a non toll-free number. EWT routing is used to notify callers about the expected wait time if the wait time is more than 60 seconds. VDN Calls routing is used to regulate the number of calls to service agency clients.
The following table shows the VDNs and vectors associated with each type of call.
VDN table for insurance agency or service agency example
Type of service
VDN number
Vector number
Field Agents
1001
1
Claims
1002
2
Customer Service
1003
3
Client 1
1004
4
Client 2
1005
5
Note:
To demonstrate the features described in the example, the sample vectors do not include tests for unstaffed or full queues and out-of-hours operation.
Step 1 queues the call to the main split. If the main split is currently answering calls within the target time of 30 seconds, step 2 bypasses all the backup splits and goes to the announcement in step 6. The call is handled by split 10 within the time constraints. However, if the call is not answered by the time that vector processing reaches step 8, the backup splits are checked.
If the Rolling ASA for the main split is more than 30 seconds, steps 3, 4, and 5 check backup splits are executed. The call is queued to any of the splits that have a Rolling ASA of less than 30 seconds. If the call still is not answered by the time vector processing reaches step 8, the backup splits are checked again.
Use the following vector example to route Claims calls by area code.

Claims vector example

 VDN 1002 -- Claims calls
 1. goto step 10 if ani = none
 2. goto vector 21 @step 1 if ani = 201+
 3. goto vector 22 @step 1 if ani = 212+
 4. goto vector 23 @step 1 if ani in table 1
 5. goto vector 24 @step 1 if ani in table 2
 6. goto vector 25 @step 1 if ani in table 3
 7. goto vector 26 @step 1 if ani in table 4
 8. goto vector 27 @step 1 if ani in table 5
 9. goto vector 30 @step 1 if unconditionally
10. wait-time 0 seconds hearing ringback
11. collect 3 digits after announcement 10001   [Please dial your area code]
12. goto vector 30 @step 1 if digits = none
13. goto vector 21 @step 1 if digits = 201+
14. goto vector 22 @step 1 if digits = 212+
15. goto vector 23 @step 1 if digits in table 1
16. goto vector 24 @step 1 if digits in table 2
17. goto vector 25 @step 1 if digits in table 3
18. goto vector 26 @step 1 if digits in table 4
19. goto vector 27 @step 1 if digits in table 5
20. goto vector 30 @step 1 if unconditionally
Each VRT referenced in the example contains a list of area codes with the + wildcard. Each list of area codes is handled by a specific group of agents. Vectors 21 through 27 queue calls to the appropriate group of agents. Vector 30 provides a live agent to screen calls that have area codes that are not listed in any table or vector step. The vector also provides access to an agent when ANI is not available and the caller does not enter an area code when prompted.
The following vector example notifies customer service callers of the expected wait time.

Customer Service vector example

 VDN 1003 -- Customer Service calls
 1. goto step 10 if expected-wait for split 32 pri l > 600
 2. queue-to split 32 pri l
 3. wait-time 20 seconds hearing ringback
 4. goto step 8 if expected-wait for call > 40
 5. announcement 1100
 6. wait-time 40 seconds hearing music
 7. goto step 5 if unconditionally
 8. converse-on split 80 pri l passing wait and none
 9. goto step 5 if unconditionally
10. disconnect after announcement 1400
In step 1, callers who wait more than 10 minutes are routed to a call back later announcement. Step 4 routes callers to a VRU to be given the EWT announcement while the callers hold the place in the queue.
The following vector examples can be used to regulate the number of calls to service agency clients. In this example, client 1 has contracted for 100 simultaneous calls while client 2 has contracted for only 50 simultaneous calls.

Service Agency Clients vector examples

VDN 1004-- Client 1 calls
1. goto step 3 if counted-calls to vdn 1004 <= 100
2. busy
3. queue-to split 60 pri l
4. wait-time 20 seconds hearing ringback
5. announcement 12000
6. wait-time 60 seconds hearing music
7. goto step 5 unconditionally

VDN 1005 -- Client 2 calls
1. goto step 3 if counted-calls to vdn 1005 <= 50
2. busy
3. queue-to split 60 pri l
4. wait-time 20 seconds hearing ringback
5. announcement 12000
6. wait-time 60 seconds hearing music
7. goto step 5 unconditionally
In both the examples vectors, the first step routes calls to queue if the number of contracted calls is not exceeded. Otherwise callers receive a busy signal.