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<TITLE>RE: [Asterisk-Users] app_queue input needed...</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>There is one thing you have to look out for. Wait time is affected only by the number of calls in front of you, not total calls, the number of agents answering, and the length of calls.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I say this because if you are going to update the announcer x seconds, depending on the calculation the caller may experience, "your wait time is 5 minutes", "your wait time is 25 minutes", "your wait time is 7 minutes". That makes me want to hang up as well. On our (non Asterisk) phone system we avoid this by just announcing the average wait time once, when the caller enters the queue.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I think the proper calculation should be a running average of time to answer over the last X period, with a factor taking in to account average agents logged in over that period. Something like average wait time per agent per period. Then factor that against your current queue position (calls entering behind you have no affect on your wait time) and current number of agents (more could log in to help out or drop off). What the proper period factor is I don't know. 30 seconds, 1 minute, after each hang up? Too frequently it will fluctuate wildly. Too infrequent it will show residual affects.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Steven Critchfield [<A HREF="mailto:critch@basesys.com">mailto:critch@basesys.com</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 02:25</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] app_queue input needed...</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>On Fri, 2003-09-05 at 14:05, Brian West wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> A friend and I have recently added the ability to announce the callers</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> position in the call queue every x seconds.. or even just inject an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> anouncement every x seconds. All setup in queues.conf and can be setup</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> per queue.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> My next project is to add the ability to announce the callers estimated</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> wait time. I want some feedback to see whats the best method to calculate</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> that? What do you want just minutes? or minutes and seconds? Or the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> option to use one or the other?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I'm thinking (totaltime / totalcalls) - (now - qe->start) = current</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> estimated wait time. Which would update after each call is hungup.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I do not use queues, so accept my comments as only an opinion of how I</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>would like to experience them if I where a person in a queue.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Your wait time is not very accurate unless you have sufficiently large</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>enough pools of people to service them to offset little abnormalities.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>So I would say it would be good to define an acceptable list of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>announcements, then round up to the first available announcement and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>play from there. Have to look up be something like...</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 3 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 5 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 8 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 10 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 15 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>under 20 minutes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>If I ever heard a time over 20 minutes I'd hang up and call back later,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>or stop doing business with the company. This limits down your number of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>prompts and lowers the expectation of wait time accuracy.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-- </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com></FONT>
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