Switchvox Call Logs allow you to see details about every call that enters and leaves your system. It is the first place one should look to answer questions about any call and is easily accessible via the Web User portal and the Admin Portal.
Accessing Call Logs
Call logs can be accessed under the Reporting > Call Reports > Call Logs menu of both the user and admin portals. (The user portal will only show the users call log)
It is also available programmatically by API, this allows for easy integration into the external system such as custom databases, CRM/ERM's, trending and BI tools such as Grafana, Datadog, Zabbix, Tableau,
Microsoft Power BI. You can even use tools like Integromat and Zapier to transform your data and manage workflow automation. If it has an API you can ingest data from your Switchvox and inject it into any of the other tools and services you already use for making business decisions. Our API also allows you finer control over pulling reports and logs which is lacking in the Web interface.
Tracing calls / Troubleshooting
One of the most used features for administrators of call logs is to troubleshoot or trace a call. The call log will show you the details, of where a call originated, where it terminated, and each step it took in between.
Keep your date range small. If you need to pull a larger date range, schedule doing so after-hours during non-peak times to avoid causing performance issues and potential call quality issues.
You can add filters to your results by selecting a 'type'. Each type has different additional options.
Some entries, such as "Call Queues" and "IVRs" may not show all calls, as it depends on how calls were routed to those endpoints.
In most cases, you will be using "Phones" and "Caller ID".
When using the web interface, you may be limited to the number of additional fields you can filter on. If you need more filtering options, you must use the API.
In the web interface, each log will have 7 columns
The first 4 should not need an explanation. Call Time and Talk time however seem to always confuse staffers.
Call Time = The total time a call was active on the phone system.
Talk Time = The total time there was a conversation going on.*
Actions = Details about how the call was routed. <- This is the most critical for understanding how a call was routed.
* You should not rely on just this value when looking at the time an agent may have talked to someone. Talk Time is the total talk time over the length of the call. If the call was transferred there may be other agents' talk time included in this total. To isolate individuals' talk time you should look at the actions, or use the APIs to perform programmatic calculations. Pay attention to this detail, as many report managers and data analysis regularly ignore this small but critical detail, and end up with incorrect results due to this small oversight.
Actions
When we look at the Actions we see the critical steps. The most common event types:
- Incoming Provider
- Internal
- Incoming
- Talking
- Queue Exit
- Hang up
Incoming shows the provider DID that your call arrived over. Useful for determining what number a caller dialed to reach you.
You may have many 'Internal' entries, depending on your IVR and call routing. In this case, we see that the caller arrived at extension 800, and then went to extension 620.
Internal is only logged if the IVR logic 'dials' an extension. It is for this reason that searching call logs by IVR and Call Queues may not show all results, as it is possible to program IVRs to not need to perform a 'dial' function. This is often done to improve system performance.
Talking shows us that a call was answered, and by whom. It also tells us the duration of this specific person talking to the end-user. (4 minutes, 29 seconds).
If the call was transferred, you may see other users listed for 'talking' and that individual's talk time. If you are needing to know each agent's talk time, per call, this would be the most reliable way of calculating this value.
Queue Exit, as extension 620 was a queue, we now see that the call exited the queue. You may see multiples of this if a caller was transferred to other queues.
Hang up, this can be helpful to determine what side of the call hung up first. In this case, our agent at 1202 hung up before the caller.
You may see additional events such as TRANSFER or Parked depending on your IVR Logic and the way the call was routed. The ones listed above are the most common event types but new ones may be added based on new features and improvements. In almost all cases the event type is self explanatory as to the action it is logging, and the details are typically more descriptive and may contain additional details.
Inspection
Reviewing call logs and understanding the call flow is a required skill to properly understand how and why something has happened. When VOICE1 provides managed services, local administrators are restricted from making changes to IVRs and Call Queues, without consulting with VOICE1 to make those changes. This is because VOICE1 will create a call flow diagram and review its interactions before making any changes. This allows local admins to have a printable call flow diagram to allow them to understand the call flow interactions of different parts of their system. Very helpful for when you review a call log and do not understand it based on just words.
If you are not on a managed service plan, you will have access to modify your own call queues and IVRs', and it is your responsibility to create your own call flow diagram, and keep it up to date whenever you make a change. Often times this is overlooked by admins rushing to add or fix a routing issue. Don't take this approach or you will end up having to rediscover your system every time you make a change that is not productive.
If you are on a managed service plan with VOICE1, you can reach out to your account manager and request the current call flow diagram. If you want to obtain a call flow diagram, and are not on a managed service plan contact sales, and one of our engineers can generate a call flow diagram for you based on your system, and provide suggestions for improvements for call routing to fit your business goals.