Basics: Getting Started

Getting Started: CCAI Platform Portal & Environment Set Up Guide

Overview

Once you have received access to the CCAI Platform Portal, check out these steps for the initial setup.

Steps to take before using CCAI Platform

  1. Use a full WebRTC browser:

    You need the most up-to-date version of a full WebRTC browser. We support Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, but recommend the most recent version of Chrome.

  2. Allow CCAI Platform notifications, permissions and cookies: more details can be found in Granting Notification and Microphone Permissions.

  3. Confirm proper network configuration: Firewalls can the potential to block agents from receiving incoming support inquiries and other critical functionality.

Initial setup steps and resources for your CCAI Platform environment

All of your initial set up will be done in the Settings menu. We broke each section out for you and provided links that show detailed information about each.

1. Enter your Support Center/Environment Details

2. Customize messages and set up other languages

3. Get your operation management settings in order

4. Add Users and teams

5. Create queues and assign agents to queues

6. Establish your settings for handling calls

  • Call recording, call timers and displays, and default call routing settings: Settings > Calls > Call Details

  • Setting outbound numbers.

  • Caller announcements and various deflection settings.

7. Establish settings for handling chats

  • Enable chat, create proactive web triggers, establish chat channel settings like chat threshold for agents and timeout settings at Settings > Chat

  • Create chat shortcuts for agents to use.

8. Grab info from the developer settings as needed (Settings > Developer Settings)

This area is strictly for developers - you will need to supply information from this page to your developers if you are setting up any SDKs or making any custom CRM configurations.

About the CCAI Platform SDKs

Overview

Today's customers expect to contact support agents when they need them directly and seamlessly from any device - including when they're on the go.

Our SDKs make it easy for you to provide voice and chat support to your customers on your website or right inside your app on iOS and Android.

Web SDK

With the CCAI Platform Web SDK, your customers will be able to get in touch with your support team directly on your website.

  • Instant web calls: Provide visitors with an estimated wait time and automatically initiate an outbound call to a site visitor when their place in the support queue is reached

  • Scheduled calls: Allow site visitors to schedule a time to talk with your support team

  • Queue deflection: Automatically route end users to a message or page on your site

  • Chat support: Provide live chat support directly from your website

  • Proactive triggers: Display a contact bubble for web calls and chats automatically based on visitor behavior. Proactive triggers can be configured based on:

    • Specific page URL

    • Time spent on page

    • Number of visits to a particular page

  • Mobile Web Support: Customers on mobile devices can also access your Web SDK

  • Direct Access Points: Decide which queue, language, or channel am end-user should reach when on a particular page or with pre-defined account details

iOS SDK

With the CCAI Platform iOS SDK, you can create seamless voice and chat support experiences for users of your iPhone and iPad apps.

  • VoIP calls: Allow users to make voice calls using data instead of minutes

  • PSTN Fallback calls: When the end-user doesn't have a strong enough data connection for a VoIP call, CCAI Platform will fallback to a PSTN call while still sending the important custom data packet to your CRM record.

  • Scheduled calls: Allow users to schedule a time to talk with your support team; AI-powered algorithms predict and provide 15-minute time slots based on agent availability, ensuring your users never have to wait on hold

  • SmartActions: Instantly verify users with Touch ID and Face ID, and request photos, videos, screenshots and text input

  • SMS SmartActions: Send an SMS to activate SmartActions inside your app

  • Call deflections: Configure call deflections based on volume and business hours, and, if needed, to:

    • Allow the user to schedule a call for another time

    • Provide an email address

    • Forward the call to another number directly

    • Forward the call to voicemail

  • Provide unique visual queue configuration settings

    • Direct queues to a particular website, like a help center article for a common question

    • Direct queues to a visual message

  • Direct Access Points: Decide which queue, language, or channel am end-user should reach when the SDK is invoked in various parts of your app based on pre-defined contact details

Android SDK

With the CCAI Platform Android SDK, you can create seamless voice and chat support experiences for users of your Android apps.

  • VoIP calls: Allow users to make voice calls using data instead of minutes

  • PSTN Fallback calls: When the end-user doesn't have a strong enough data connection for a VoIP call, CCAI Platform will fallback to a PSTN call while still sending the important custom data packet to your CRM record.

  • Scheduled calls: Allow users to schedule a time to talk with your support team; AI-powered algorithms predict and provide 15-minute time slots based on agent availability, ensuring your users never have to wait on hold

  • SmartActions: Instantly verify users with their fingerprint, face or passcode, and request photos, videos, screenshots and text input

  • SMS SmartActions: Send an SMS to activate SmartActions inside your app

  • Call deflections: Configure call deflections based on volume and business hours and if needed:

    • Allow the user to schedule a call for another time

    • Provide an email address

    • Forward the call to another number directly

    • Forward the call to voicemail

  • Provide unique visual queue configuration settings

    • Direct queues to a particular website, like a help center article for a common question

    • Direct queues to a visual message

  • Detects calls to your main support number from the device's dialer and converts the call to a Mobile call

  • Direct Access Points: Decide which queue, language, or channel am end-user should reach when the SDK is invoked in various parts of your app based on pre-defined contact details

Troubleshooting Steps & Common Solutions

Troubleshooting steps

We recommend users perform the following steps if there's an issue:

  1. Update to the latest version of your browser. You need the most up-to-date version of a full WebRTC browser.

    We support Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, but recommend the most recent version of Chrome. If you are using another browser you may see unexpected behavior.

  2. Try to reproduce the issue in Chrome before contacting support. If the issue is resolved using Chrome, provide this information when contacting support

    If the issue is resolved using another browser, provide this information when contacting support.

  3. Check and approve all permissions: CCAI Platform requires permission for browser and microphone permissions. See Access the CCAI Platform portal and Granting Notification Permissions for more info.

  4. Clear the cache and refresh the browser: Often if a browser and computer have been running for a long time it's a good idea to clear the cache and restart the browser. Steps for clearing a cache in Google Chrome (for example) can be found here.

  5. Ensure that third party cookies in your browser are not blocked.

  6. Sign out of CCAI Platform and the CRM: CCAI Platform software works very closely with a user's CRM software. When these systems become out of sync (i.e. expired tokens) simply signing out and back into both helps reset the configuration.

  7. Make sure you are signed into CCAI Platform and the CRM with the same account: To prevent any mismatches in information transfer, you need to login to your CRM call/chat adapter with the same login credentials.

  8. Change hardware (headsets & speakers)- Headsets and speakers can fail due to age, outdated drivers, or because they are incompatible with CCAI Platform or CRM software. We recommend trying different hardware, especially when audio problems are present.

  9. Hardwired vs wireless: CCAI Platform recommends that all agent computers be hardwired to the network using ethernet. We understand this is not always possible, but when troubleshooting is necessary, move from wireless to wired connectivity and attempt to reproduce the issue.

  10. Change workstation: Since not all workstations share identical configurations, an easy way to check whether an agent's workstation is faulty is to simply move the agent to a known working computer. This will also help to identify if the problem is software or hardware-based.

  11. Reduce demands on network & CPU by other users & software: Agents (especially work from home agents) need their networks free of latency and resource-intensive processes. We recommend all unnecessary software that could potentially hog resources (video/music streaming, torrenting software, etc) be shut off. Agent's cell phones should not be connected to shared wireless networks.

    NOTE*:* Remind WFH agents that someone else in their home may be using resource-intensive products on the same network.

Common occurrences and solutions

  • All outbound calls failing for one User

    • When dialing outbound, Agent gets an error "Oops, something went wrong with the call" and when the consumer picks up a call, they hear "Your call has ended". In "Previous Calls," the call gets marked "Failed (Customer Busy) Customer party was busy".

    • Solution: Only use the CCAI Platform adapter in one browser window or tab, including incognito windows.

  • Chromebook audio conflict

    • Problem: While using a Chromebook, when a chat alert comes in during a call, the call audio is disrupted.

    • Solution: Navigate to chrome://flags/#enable-audio-focus-enforcement and change the Audio Focus Enforcement setting to Disabled.

Troubleshooting Network Issues

Steps you can take to help troubleshoot network issues

  1. Set up HTTPS connection monitoring from inside of packet loss, round trip duration, and other monitoring details for your CCAI Platform URL.

    It is entirely up to you to choose the monitoring services that are most suited to your needs.

  2. Monitor your bandwidth use on your network to ensure that it is not saturated.

    There should be no packet loss and a Round Trip-time of less than 200 milliseconds* (*this may need to be adjusted).

  3. Confirm the issue is not with network hardware and/or cabling.

  4. File a ticket with your Internet service provider (ISP) indicating you are seeing high latency/packetloss and other pertinent details with our service and the other services. Other services are listed in our IP Address Allowlisting.

Domestic Phone Number Porting Process

Overview

When implementing IVR, if you are coming from a previous provider, there are likely phone numbers owned by your company that you wish to retain. Porting those numbers allows you to maintain consistency in customer experience and fewer updates to marketing materials like your website, app, and printed materials.

Transferring a phone number to CCAI Platform, commonly referred to as porting, generally takes between 2-4 weeks for a US phone number. We've outlined the process below in a few easy steps.

The following steps apply to US numbers only as to be used as a guide as processes can vary. If you are interested in transferring a non-US phone number, contact your CS team member for more information.

Notification of Intent to Port Numbers

If you wish to transfer a number from another provider, it's important to let your CCAI Platform point of contact know as early as possible to ensure your desired timeline for porting is achieved.

Documentation gathering for US number porting

CCAI Platform needs two pieces of documentation to initiate a port on your behalf.

  1. Letter of Authorization

Your CSM will provide you with a letter of authorization form. This form must include the following information:

  1. Billing statement

To prove ownership of the numbers you intend to port over to CCAI Platform, you must submit the latest billing statement from your provider. The statement should show the following information:

Processing

Once the port request and documents are submitted, our provider will notify your current provider of the request to port the phone number(s).

This is the least predictable part of the process, as your current provider must approve the port request before moving forward with a date. CCAI Platform will have regular updates from our provider and will update you with the progress.

Confirm Date of Port

Once the port request has been approved by all parties, our provider will set a date and time for the phone number(s) to be "cutover" to CCAI Platform. If the date and time set is not favorable, you may have the flexibility to change cutover to a later date, but in most cases the cutover cannot be sooner than the original date offered. If a date change is available and your support center operation is already live on CCAI Platform, we suggest choosing a low-volume day and time, as this will be a change to your live production environment.

Once the ported phone numbers have cutover to CCAI Platform, these numbers can be configured within the Admin Portal to reach any queues or direct access points.

Remote Workers: Monitoring and Adherence

Overview

CCAI Platform is set up so that managers and supervisors can manage from their desk, from an office, or from home. That also means managers can ensure quality and adherence for remote workers.

Monitoring & Adherence

  • Review CSAT scores: When utilizing Web or Mobile SDKs, use the CSAT measure through CCAI Platform to ensure that agents are providing quality service, regardless of their location. To make comparisons on a large scale with many agents, look at aggregate metrics such as CSAT for remote versus in-house agents.

  • Listen to live calls or view live chats: Utilize monitoring features to actively listen to read active support sessions. Use the Monitor feature to hear live calls and view a live chat to monitor connected chats.

  • Monitor or change agent statues: Use the Agents tab to view the real-time status of agents and how many calls they've taken and possibly missed.

  • Reporting: Use the Agent Activity - Timeline Report to view a detailed report of where an agent spent their time. You can compare this to a schedule to determine adherence.

Security

In order to remain PCI-compliant even with remote workers, check out Secure Payments.

Granting Notification and Microphone Permissions

Overview

In order for agents to be able to place calls, receive calls, and see incoming call and chat notifications, permissions need to be granted in the browser.

Below you will find how to grant permission for notifications (using Chrome v62+) as an example browser.

Blocked adapter due to insufficient permission settings

Since these permission settings are critical to proper CCAI Platform functionality, the Adapter will show a warning message and block the usage until the permissions have been granted. Follow the steps below, and check the Troubleshooting steps if you are still having issues.

  1. If proper permissions are not allowed, the CCAI Platform adapter will be blocked from use. Follow the link on the adapter or instructions below to enable.

  2. After following steps to enable, click the Refresh button.

Granting notification and microphone permissions to websites in Chrome

There are 2 ways to grant access, one through the Chrome UI in the navigation bar, and also through your Chrome settings.

Chrome navigation bar

  1. From the page of your CRM where you access the CCAI Platform adapter, click on the lock icon next to the URL in Chrome.

  2. Change the dropdowns for Microphone and Notifications to "Allow."

Chrome settings via URL

  1. Navigate to chrome://settings/content.

  2. Click Notifications.

  3. Click Add.

  4. Enter https://yourcompany.domain.co/:443

    yourcompany is your CCAI Platform environment name while CCAI Platform is the domain.

  5. Click Add to update.

  6. Repeat above steps for Microphone permissions.

Granting Microphone permissions at the OS level

Troubleshooting steps

If you have followed the above steps and the adapter is still blocked by warning messages, use the below steps one by one to see which removes the warning messages in Chrome.

  1. Ensure your browser is up to date. We recommend using the latest version of Chrome, though Safari and Firefox are also supported. If you are using another browser you may see unexpected behavior. Once the update is done, restartyour system.

  2. Try clearing your history, cache and cookies (Ctrl+Shift+Backspace). Ensure both cache and cookies are checked. Start by clearing from the time period you started facing the issue then, if needed, expand to "beginning of time".

  3. Try using incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N). If it helps, disable the extensions temporarily and re-enable them one at a time to determine which extension is misbehaving.

  4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration (Menu> Settings> Show Advanced Settings > System menu).

  5. Sign out of your account and sign back in.

  6. Reach out to Support.

Working From Home

Overview

CCAI Platform is the perfect tool to empower agents to work from home. By following a few guidelines outlined below, agents will be up and running in no time from the safety of their own homes.

Ideally, agents will be using the same laptops that they used in the office which retain control over allowlisting/denylisting and applications the device uses such as AdBlock, mic permissions, etc. If agents don't have access to a work laptop, it's possible for them to use their personal computers if they follow the best practices outlined below.

Network requirements

Bandwidth

  • We recommend that you have the bandwidth for 2 Mbps upload and 2 Mbps download per agent. At a minimum, you should have at least 1 Mbps of network bandwidth per agent.

  • If agents are sharing an internet connection with roommates or family members, agents need to work to prevent others from streaming or downloading large files during working hours.

Firewalls

  • Make sure home firewalls do not block access to the CCAI Platform application.

  • If agents have customized security or firewalls setup with IP allowlisting (as opposed to denylisting), configuration of the router and possibly your firewall is needed to allow CCAI Platform IP addresses.

  • See IP Address Allowlisting for a list of URLs and IP addresses.

Workstation requirements

Programs & physical requirements

  • Agents should use a hard-wired connection as WiFi connectivity cannot guarantee the support of proper voice quality.

  • Running any network or CPU intensive applications on the same computer, like streaming music or large uploads/downloads, will compete with bandwidth for audio from CCAI Platform and is highly discouraged.

  • Agent computers should have a Core i5 hardware processor or higher. The recommended RAM is at least 8 GBs.

  • Make sure the most recent version of CCAI Platform supported browser has been installed and browser notifications have been enabled for CCAI Platform. We support Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, but recommend the most recent version of Chrome.

  • Disable any 3rd party browser extensions that may block 3rd party integrations. Examples are: AdBlock, Ghostery, AdBock Plus, etc.

Supported browsers

CCAI Platform is supported by the latest version of Google Chrome. Please visit the Google Chrome update page for more information.

Headsets

CCAI Platform customers have been most successful with the following standards for headsets. Headsets should have a wired connection to the computer. Wireless headsets suffer from signal congestion, delay, and can run out of battery power, possibly during a call.

  • Binaural - Audio in both ears cuts down on background noise

  • Noise-canceling microphone

  • Noise-canceling headset

  • USB connection

Brands of headsets our customers use

  • Jabra

  • Logitech

  • Plantronics

  • Sennheiser

Security and Compliance

Consult your compliance team to ensure that your policies allow for remote work or personal device use.