User Manual 

1INTRODUCTION

This manual is meant as a resource for Call Center Agents and Managers to help them to better understand

how the ASQUARE web client works, and to learn how to use all of it's features correctly as well

as answer questions as to why things work the way they do within ASQUARE.

What is ASQUARE?

Simply, ASQUARE is call center software package that sends calls to an agent. It can run in an

inbound, outbound(as predictive or manual dialing) or blended capacity. There is also the ability to

allow for Interactive Voice Response(IVR) applications interacting with customers' calls.

How does the agent screen work?

The ASQUARE agent screen is basically a web page. It allows the agent to interact with the dialer during

the process of a call and do things such as add/modify information about the customer, conference

in other parties, transfer the call, record and many other functions necessary in a call center.

The ASQUARE agent screen is available fully translated in English and Spanish, and partially translated

in French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Greek.

The next few chapters will go over how to operate as an agent within ASQUARE and will go into detail

about how all of the agent features work.

2. OVERVIEW OF AGENT CLIENT-SCREEN FUNCTIONS

UNIVERSAL FEATURES

First we will go over the features that are accessible for all ASQUARE users, whether predictive, manual

dialing or inbound campaigns.

PROPER LOGIN AND LOGOUT PROCEDURES

Depending on how your Manager has set up the ASQUARE web link, you may be opening a web

browser and clicking on a bookmark, or you may have an icon that you can click on on your desktop

that says ASQUARE. Open up ASQUARE and you will see the login screen(see Figure 1). If you have a

login for your phone first(it will show "Phone Login" and "Phone Password" fields) then enter the values

in that your manager gave you for those fields. Then you will see the "User Login" "User

Password" and "Campaign" fields in the form for you to fill out. Once these fields are filled in and

your campaign selected, click on the "SUBMIT" button to login.

After you click SUBMIT, your phone should ring. Pick the phone up(or answer it if you are using a

softphone on your computer). From now on you should not hang up your phone unless you log out of

ASQUARE.

At this point you are logged in to ASQUARE(see Figure 2) and you are PAUSED. Most of the buttons

on the left side will not be activated until you are on a call. At the top you will see the ID of the phone

that you are connected through as well as your user ID and name. Below this is a clock showing the

current system time and your session ID, which you may need to reference later. Below this, in the purple

section, is the Status line which will show you important information as you make and receive

calls. Towards the bottom, below the Comments section, on the left side you will see your dialing status

and a count of the calls being dialed in your campaign at this moment(This is only useful in Autodial

mode and may not appear on your screen). On the right side you may see a link to active Agentonly

callbacks, if enabled, as well as a link to manually dial a customer. Below this is a small line of

type that shows you the software version and build date as well as the address of the ASQUARE server

that you are connected to.

If you are in Manual dial mode you will see a “Dial Next Number” button in place of the green

PAUSE and RESUME buttons(these show up in auto-dial mode) you see in the top left corner of the

purple section. In this mode you may also see a checkbox to enable you to preview leads before dialing

them(This us unavailable in auto-dial mode). In either dialing mode you may also see a checkbox

FIGURE 1 - ASQUARE Agent Login screen

below these buttons that allows you to dial alternate numbers if your manager has enabled that feature

on the campaign you are logged into.

When you are ready for a break or are done with your shift, click on the "Logout" button in the upper

right corner of the ASQUARE screen. This will hangup your phone and show you a relogin link. If you

click on the relogin link, all of the field information that you entered when you logged in will show up

on the screen and you can just click "SUBMIT" to login again without having to fill it all in again.

NOTE: At no point should you press the BACK or FORWARD buttons in your web browser, this may

log you out without you knowing. Also, do not close your browser with the "X" at the top of the window.

That may lead to you not logging out and may result in your loosing clocked-in time on your

ASQUARE timesheet.

FIGURE 2 - ASQUARE Agent PAUSED

SCRIPT TAB

When you login to ASQUARE you will see two tabs at the top ot the screen, ASQUARE and SCRIPT.

ASQUARE is the main screen that shows all customer information in the system as well as a call timer,

the name of the line your call is connected on and the local time where your customer is located.

The SCRIPT tab's purpose is to show the agent a script to read with the customer's information filling

in fields in the script if that is setup by a manager(see Figure 3). If it is setup by your manager, the

SCRIPT tab may pop up when a call comes to you, otherwise you can get to the SCRIPT tab by just

clicking on the tab portion at the top of you screen and you can go back to the main ASQUARE screen

by clicking on the ASQUARE tab at the top.

CALL RECORDING

The first button below your green call control buttons("Dial Next Number", "PAUSE", "RESUME") is

FIGURE 3 - SCRIPT tab

the "START RECORDING" button. This button will initiate recording of your session. If your campaign

is set up to do so, recording may be started at the beginning of every call you receive automatically

without you needing to start it. This button may also be disabled if your manager has defined that

in the campaign.

Above the recording button you will see the filename of the recording which may contain things like

the time, your ID number, the customer's phone number or other information. Also, the system recording

ID will be displayed above the recording button. You may want to keep track of this number

because it is the easiest way to retrieve the recording in the future if needed.

WEB FORM

This button will take all of the information about the call and the customer and send it to a new web

browser window that has been set by the manager for this campaign. This allows for such things as the

easy lookup of a customer's information in a company database or even a longer sales or survey form

that can contain many fields. Your manager can also set the web form to open automatically when a

new call arrives at your session.

PARK CALL

The next button is the PARK CALL button and it allows you to send a customer that is in your session

to a music-on-hold waiting area. Once you send the customer to park you can retrieve them by clicking

on the button again. The park button can be set to a custom message by your manager if a recording

has been setup for this campaign.

TRANSFER CONFERENCE

This button opens up a new frame towards the bottom of the screen that allows you many options in

transferring your customer or bringing in a third party to the session(see Figure 4).

Third Party Calls

There are two ways to call a third party and bring them into the session. First is the DIAL WITH CUSTOMER

button, this allows you to dial the third party at the number you have typed in the "Number to

Dial" field with the customer on the line while the call is diale. The other way is to click on the PARK

CUSTOMER DIAL button which will park your customer and place the call, then you can retrieve the

customer again by clicking on the GRAB PARKED CALL button when ready.

It is possible to leave the three party call by clicking the LEAVE 3-WAY CALL button which will send

the customer and the third party to another conference and will allow you to disposition the call and

move onto the next call.

If you want to hangup the third party and continue talking with your customer, just click on the

HANGUP XFER LINE button and the third party will be hungup. If you want to hangup the customer

and the third party, click on the HANGUP BOTH LINES button, both calls will be hungup and you

will go directly to the Disposition screen.

Dial Override Checkbox

This checkbox is used to enable the direct sending of the digits in the "number to dial" field as the

dialout numbers unaltered. This is used because some systems require dialing a 9 or 1 before some

numbers are dialed and that may be done automatically, but this checkbox sends exactly the number

the agent defines as the call out number to the dialer. Find out from your manager if you need to select

this checkbox for your third-party calls.

Closer Transfers

If your campaign is set up to allow transfers to closers then you can use the LOCAL CLOSER and

INTERNAL CLOSER buttons to send calls to closer agents. You should find out from your manager

FIGURE 4 - Transfer Conference section active

which button your should press as well as if there is anything your should put in the "CODE" field next

to the closer transfer buttons.

Blind Transfers

To send a customer to another number you can enter in the phone number you want to send the call to

in the "NUMBER TO CALL" field and click on the BLIND TRANSFER button. This will immediately

drop the customer to a new line and dial that number. You will then be sent to the Disposition

screen.

Voicemail message

If your campaign is set up for it and if you receive a call that has an answering machine on the other

end, you can send your call to an answering machine message for the campaign by clicking on the VM

button with the picture of the phone on it in the lower right side of the transfer conferenc frame. The

message will play for the answering machine and you will be sent to the Disposition screen.

Presets - DTMF and Number

If your campaign is set up for it, you may have upto two presets in the Transfer-Conf frame for filling

in the "Send DTMF" and "Number to dial" fields. These presets are small text links in the middle row

of the Transfer-Conf frame on the far right that are labeled "D1" and "D2". When clicked, they will fill

in values in the "Send DTMF" field and/or the "Number to Dial" field.

SENDING DTMF DIGITS

Because of how ASQUARE is setup, DTMF digits(the sound a key-press makes on your phone) are

blocked from being played to other callers in your session. To send these DTMF digits you will need to

enter them into the field next to the "SEND DTMF" button. If you want to add a pause between digits

just add a comma ",". For multiple pauses just add more commas in a row.

USING HOTKEYS

Hotkeys are a way of reducing the time it takes to hangup and disposition a call if the customer is

unavailable. If your manager has set it up for you, Hotkeys works by you pressing one of the numeric

keys on your keyboard that are listed in the HotKeys window according to the disposition that you

want that call to be placed under. The call will immediately be hungup and dispositioned automatically

and you will be able to take your next call immediately. To use Hotkeys, it needs to be set up by your

manager for your login and for the campaign that you are on. Also, your mouse needs to be on top of

the orange HOTKEYS button at the bottom of your screen for the HotKeys functionality to be

enabled(see Figure 5).

DISPOSITIONING A CALL

After a customer call is hungup, the green Disposition screen will appear(see Figure 6). Here you can

select the status that you want for the call you just finished to be placed into. To select one, you can

either click twice on the status you want, or click once on a status and then click the SUBMIT link at

the bottom. If you are in auto-dial mode you can select the PAUSE AGENT DIALING checkbox to be

paused after dispositioning so that you do not immediately get another call and you will be paused.

If you need to take written down notes, such as a log sheet, and you forget to write the customer information

down before you click the hangup button, you can click on the 'minimize' button at the top of

the Disposition screen to move the disposition frame out of the way enough to see the customer data

below. This data is not editable because the data has already been committed to the system as soon as

you press the hangup button.

FIGURE 5 - HotKeys Active

Customer is still on the line

If a customer is still on the phone after you have arrived at the Disposition screen, you can click on the

"Hangup Again" link at the top of the screen to attempt to hangup the call again(You can only click on

this link once per call). This should be an infrequent problem and if the call still does not hang up your

should be able to hang it up from the "conference call channel information" link list at the bottom of

your agent screen after Dispositioning the call.

Minimize to see customer details

If you need to see the information on the screen about the customer you just talked to, you can click on

the "minimize" link at the top of the screen to view the customer information again. Any editing of this

information will be discarded since the customer information is committed to the system as soon as

you click on the "Hangup Customer" button.

Open web form after dispositioning

If your manager instructs you to, you can click on the "Web Form Submit" link on the Disposition

screen to open up a web form window at the time you submit your chosen call disposition. This web

form window will also be sent the disposition that you just selected for the previous call.

Wrapup Time After Call

If your campaign is set up for it, you might have a set amount of time after you hangup and disposition

a call during which you can complete other call wrapup work before you are able to receive another

call. You will see this green Wrapup screen after dispositioning a call. It will contain a countdown of

how many seconds remain in wrapup time before the green wrapup screen disappears and you can take

another call. There is also a “Finish Wrapup and Move On” link that you can click to bypass the

wrapup time and immediately go on to the next call.

FIGURE 7 - Live customer call

CALLS IN THE SESSION, AND FORCED HANGUPS

To see the participants in your session at any time, click on the "Show conference channel information"

link at the bottom of your screen(see Figure 7). A frame will appear at the bottom that will list the

channels in your session including your channel. If you have a problem where a channel does not get

hung up properly when you have clicked a hungup button, you can click on the channel's HANGUP

link in this frame and it will be released.

FIGURE 8 - Callback date and time selection screen

CALLBACKS

The Callback feature allows for the setting of a date and time for callback leads so that they can be

removed from active dialing until that date and time have arrived. Callbacks default to allow any agent

to receive the call when the customer is called back(ANYONE Callbacks), but if it is enabled for your

account, an agent can select to have the callback be restricted to only their login. When an agent

receives a call that was last set as a CALLBK, there will be a message showing up next to the

"Customer Information" header of the ASQUARE screen that will say "PREVIOUS CALLBACK" so that

the agent will know that this lead was set as a callback the last time it was called.

Setting a Callback

If a customer wants to be called back after a specific date and time, the agent will hangup the call as

usual and select the CALLBK status in the disposition screen. Once they do that, a new screen with

upto 12 months of monthly calendars will show up on the screen(see Figure 8). The agent needs to

click on a day from the calendar and select a time(hour, half hour and AM/PM menus at the top of the

screen) for the callback customer lead to be reactivated after. There is also a field for comments about

the callback if necessary. Once a callback date and time are set, the agent should click on the SUBMIT

button so that they can go on to their next call.

Callbacks are reactivated and put back into the system at the time specified by the agent. The call will

not happen immediately and by default the agent that set it may not necessarily get that callback call. It

is important to note that managers have the ability to see what callbacks were set by each agent and

when the agent set them. Managers also have the ability to override agent callbacks by changing them

to Anyone callbacks or assigning them to another agent.

Agent-only Callbacks

If your manager has activated this feature, it will display a "MY CALLBACK ONLY" checkbox under

the date fields in the callback screen(If you have chosen to disposition a call as CALLBK). This checkbox,

if selected by the agent, will save the callback to only be accessible by the agent that set it.

If you have set an agent-only callback, you will see a text link under the comments on your main

screen that will show "1 ACTIVE CALLBACKS". If you click on this link you will see a screen that

has a list of all ACTIVE and LIVE callbacks that you have set for yourself(see Figure 9). An ACTIVE

callback is one that has yet to be triggered to be called, while a LIVE callback is one that has passed its

callback trigger date and time. For agent-only callbacks you can call either ACTIVE or LIVE call-

FIGURE 10 - New manual dial number screen

backs. If you click on one of the callbacks listed in this screen the callback record will be changed to

INACTIVE, removed from the list and you will go to the main screen in manual dial mode where you

can see the customer details. From here you can call the customer by clicking on the "DIAL LEAD"

link at the top of the screen. After the call is over you will HANGUP CUSTOMER as usual for a call

and you will disposition it. If you want to make it a callback again, another callback record will be

added and you will need to pick a date and time again.

NEW LEAD OR SEARCH LEAD MANUAL DIALING

If your manager has activated this feature, you will see a MANUAL DIAL text link below the comments

field of your main ASQUARE screen. This feature allows you to add a new lead to the database

manually or search for an existing lead by phone number and call that phone number. You can also

place a call to any extension in this screen by entering it in the "Dial Override" field. When the "NEW

MANUAL DIAL LEAD" screen appears you will see instructions at the top along with the campaign's

dial prefix that your system may use to get to an outside line, a Dial Code field and a Phone Number

field(see Figure 10). In the USA and Canada the Dial code usually stays as a "1", the phone number

field is a maximum length of 10 digits and should only have digits entered into it. Once you have

entered in a phone number you can click on the “Search Existing” checkbox to search for this phone

number in the system and bring up its record if it exists. Then you can click the "Dial Now" link and

you will go to the main screen ready to dial the lead(you may choose to enter or modify the customer

information in the "Customer Information" fields on the main screen before you click the "DIAL

LEAD" button to call the customer). After the call is finished and you have Hungup Customer, you will

disposition the call as usual and go into the next call.

SESSION WARNING MESSAGES

If your agent phone is hungup while you are logged into ASQUARE, you will see a message that will turn

your screen blue and say that there is noone in your conference(see Figure 11). If you accidentally hungup

your phone, you can get back into your session by dialing the session id that is at the top of your

screen or you can have the dialer call you back by clicking on the "Call Agent Again" link that will be

on the screen.

If your customer hungup, and you have not clicked on the HANGUP CUSTOMER button, you may

see the "Customer is no longer in your session" message show up on your screen(see Figure 11). To

remove this message, just hangup the call as normal through your ASQUARE screen. You can also click on

the "Finish and Disposition Call" link which will take you directly to the Disposition screen.

MANUAL DIALING MODE

Manual dialing mode is when the agents controls when a call to a customer is dialed by clicking on the

green "Dial Next Number" button in the top left of the screen. In this mode, the agent will hear the

ringing of the phone, can hang it up at any time manually and will not start another call until they click

the button to dial again.

PREVIEW DIALING

Clicking on the LEAD PREVIEW checkbox directly below the green DIAL NEXT NUMBER button

activates this feature. This allows for the agent to be able to see the lead information before the call is

FIGURE 11 - session warning screens

placed(see Figure 12). This is desired for example if the agent just wants to open a WEB FORM with

more information about the customer before dialing them. This feature is available in Manual dialing

mode only.

MULTIPLE NUMBER-PER-LEAD DIALING

Clicking on the ALT PHONE DIAL checkbox directly below the LEAD PREVIEW checkbox activates

this feature. This allows for the agent to be able to dial the alternate phone number or the address3 field

as a phone number after a call has been placed to the customer. This is desired for example if the agent

was unable to get in contact with the customer at the first number they tried so they can try two other

numbers that are in the database for this customer. Nothing will change on the ASQUARE screen until the

call has been hungup. At this point the screen would normally go to the lead disposition screen, but in

Alternate number dialing mode, the status area at the top of the purple section will change and display

FIGURE 12 - Preview Dialing

links that will allow you to dial the main customer number again or the alternate phone number or

address3 fields as numbers(see Figure 13). When you have finished all of the calls you want to make

for this lead, simply click on the FINISH LEAD to go to the disposition screen.

AUTO-DIAL MODE

Auto-Dialing mode is when the agent is only sent calls that have been picked up. That means that no

Busys, Disconnects, Invalid numbers or Ring-no-Answers(and if your system is configured for it,

Answering Machines) will not go to the agent in this dialing mode. Because of this, the agent will not

hear ringing of the phone, they will simply hear a quick double-beep when the customer is connected

to their session.

FIGURE 13 - Multiple number dialing per lead

CALL CONTROL

The PAUSE and RESUME buttons at the top left of the screen are known as the call control buttons.

When the agent logs into a campaign in auto-dial or inbound/closer mode, the PAUSE button will be

grey and the RESUME button will be green, this is known as the paused state. Once the agent clicks on

the RESUME button, the agent is made available to start taking calls. When an agent is ready to pause,

they just need to click on the PAUSE button to stop receiving calls. The agent can also select the

PAUSE AGENT DIALING checkbox on the disposition screen to PAUSE themself when they submit

the disposition for that call.

PAUSE AND RESUME PROCEDURE

If the agent is going to go on a break or log out at the end of their shift, they need to be paused or click

on the LOGOUT button in the top right corner. If the agent does not do this and leaves their screen in

the disposition screen or just closes the web window, their login time may not be recorded accurately

and/or calls may still be made for a couple minutes because the system is assuming they are still

logged in.

MULTIPLE NUMBER-PER-LEAD DIALING

This is another feature that must be activated by your manager. Clicking on the ALT PHONE DIAL

checkbox directly below the PAUSE and RESUME dial buttons activates this feature. This allows for

the agent to be able to dial the alternate phone number or the address3 field as a phone number after a

call has been received by the agent. This feature is described in more detail in the manual dial section.

INBOUND AND CLOSER FEATURES

Agents on inbound, closer or blended inbound/outbound campaigns need to login to a CLOSER campaign.

Depending on how the campaign is set up, the agent will be able to take calls from many different

sources. The call control procedure(pause/resume) is the same for inbound and closer campaigns is

the same as for regular auto-dial campaigns.

LOGIN SELECT GROUPS MENU

Depending on how the manager has configured the CLOSER campaign, once an agent logs into a

CLOSER campaign they will see a green screen that will show them a list of inbound and closer

groups that they can select from to determine which inbound or closer groups that they wish to take

calls from. The ability to choose may also be disabled and the manager chooses the groups an agent

receives calls from. Also on this screen is the option to select the BLENDED checkbox that allows the

agent to be able to take outbound calls when they are not on an inbound call. Agents should make sure

from their managers whether they should click on BLENDED or not when they log in.

DISPLAY AND CALL INFO

Inbound and Closer campaigns have some special display features that are not in regular auto-dial campaigns.

When the agent takes a call in from an inbound source they will see a color associated with it

in the status bar toward the top and also the in-group that the call came from. If the call is a closer call

from a fronter on another ASQUARE campaign the status line can be setup to show who the fronter is by

name and their ID number for tracking purposes.

3. LOGGING INTO ASQUARE OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE

ASQUARE is capable of allowing agents to login and use the dialer from a remote location. All that is

needed is a reliable computer with a good internet connection and a Firefox web browser, and a softphone(

or any phone setup as a local extension on the dialer) or a regular land line phone with the ability

to be called from a regular phone number.

WEB LOGIN

First you must bring up your web browser. Firefox 1.0 or higher is suggested, but ASQUARE has been

tested with Opera and Netscape as well. Microsoft Internet Explorer is not recommended because of

memory leaks in it's programming that will cause it to crash after several hours of ASQUARE operation.

Once your broswer is up, you must go to the web page address that you manager gave you and enter in

the "Phone Login" and "Phone Password" that your manager gave you when they setup your remote

account. After entering the phone information you need to enter your user login and password as well

as choose the campaign that you want to login to then click submit.

At this point your ASQUARE.php web page should start loading and after a few seconds the phone, see

next section for phone information, will ring. Pick up your phone and you are logged into ASQUARE.

PHONE ISSUES AND OPTIONS

Using ASQUARE remotely gives you a lot of flexibility, including what kind of phone you use.

Depending on what your manager allows, you will either be able to use your home land line phone, a

computer softphone, a VOIP hardphone or even possibly your cellphone. If you are using your home

phone or cellphone, you only need to give your manager the 10-digit phone number of the phone you

want to use remotely. If you will be using a VOIP hardphone, you should be receiving a phone that is

already setup by your manager and that you just need to plug into a broadband internet connection to

get it to work. If you will be using a softphone, your manager will probably give you a set of instructions

to set it up on your computer and some possible suggestions for microphone headsets to use with

your computer.

No matter what kind of phone you will be using, it is important that you get the Phone Login and

Phone Password from your manager when they have set your phone up so that you will be able to login

properly.

EXTERNAL USER ISSUES

While using ASQUARE from a remote location like your home, another office or a hotel offers a great

amount of flexibility, there are some issues to be aware of. First of all is the quality of your internet

connection. Many home broadband internet connections like DSL or Cable use a shared architecture

meaning that you do not have guaranteed bandwidth or consistent speed at any given time. This means

that if several people in your area are using a lot of bandwidth, you many have problems with your

ASQUARE operations like crackly audio, dropped calls or even the ASQUARE.php webpage failing to

load. When you have that kind of problem, especially in a home environment, there isn't always a lot

you can do aside from calling your internet provider and complaining.

4. MANAGER FUNCTIONS

Managers of a ASQUARE system have a great deal of information that they can look at involving agent

operations, stats and current status. A manager can tell how long an agent was paused, how long they

waited, how long they talked and how long the took to disposition each individual call. They also have

access to login/logout times and the status of every disposition of every call an agent has ever made.

Managers have the ability to listen in on all conversations, barge into those conversations and talk,

hangup an agent at any time and grab the customer they are talking to, and deactivate the agent account

at any time. Also, in some setups a manager will have access to recordings of agents when they are

logged in, including pause, wait, talk and disposition time.

5. CLOSING

ASQUARE is a very flexible contact center solution that is user-friendly and highly configurable. If you

run into any problems while using it, you should contact your manager or system administrator.

6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS(FAQ)

- I logged in and there was already an agent in my session, what happened?

Usually this happens when that other agent did not log out correctly or did not hangup their phone. Tell

your manager what session ID you have and they can lookup who the other agent is and hang up their

extension.

- How much delay is there before a customer gets to my phone?

This depends on several things. If have been waiting for a call for more than 3 seconds, there is a good

chance that there was less than a second of delay while the customer was transferred to you. If it was a

very quick transfer after you just logged in or dispositioned a previous call, then there is a good chance

that the customer may have waited more than two seconds before you(the next available agent) was

able to take their call. The exception to these is if your system has Answering Machine

Detection(AMD) enabled. If that is the case, there is a one to two second delay on all calls getting to

an agent. Your manager should know if you have AMD enabled for your campaign.

- What about Answering Machines and detecting them?

As mentioned in the question above, Answering Machine Detection adds a delay to the customer getting

to you. Some managers may disable this so that there is no delay.

- What Internet web browsers work with ASQUARE?

We recommend Firefox as our browser of choice, although we have tested successfully with Mozilla,

Netscape and Opera. Microsoft Internet Explorer has a flaw in it's coding that causes ASQUARE to die

after a few hours of usage. With Firefox, we have had ASQUARE sessions running for severaldays successfully

in the same web browser window.