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Transfer Recall

Posted by bansal.ojasvi on Fri, 10/09/2009

Couple of our 'old school' customers on our MTE want to stay away from voicemail (hence voicemail to email). They don't believe in IVRs either.

What they want is "transfer recall" feature. When a receptionist transfers a call to another extension (say extension 800). If extension 800 doesn't answer, the call should come back to the receptionist.

We tried call forwarding from extension back to the receptionist. It worked fine, one issue though. The receptionist doesn't have an idea if the call is a new call or the same call that she transferred 30 seconds ago.

I think, this could be resolved by:

1. Creating numbered 'Hunt lists'
2. Creating an actual 'transfer recall' feature.

Can we expect any one of above mentioned changes in near future?

OJ


Submitted by eeman on Fri, 10/09/2009 Permalink

No

That's simply not a feature of asterisk. You are asking for something that Dial() does not support. If your customers are that friggen retarded, make them use call parking. Its the only way you are ever going to get a ring-back. Better yet, MAKE them use attended transfer ... if the -im-too-retarded-to-use-email recipient doesnt answer, the receptionist will know immediately.

I bet dollars to donuts these 'old school' people have PDA's and iphones with all those features. Its AMAZING how they can learn a new cell phone every 6months but pretend like learning something new for their employer is the end of the world.

frankly i get tired of hearing these excuses. We have 12% unemployment, some cities as high as 50%. If they don't want to learn new technology I say they can go retire or fire these fossils and let someone willing to learn have the job :) .. just my 2c after a day of hearing similar BS 3 times.

Submitted by bansal.ojasvi on Tue, 10/13/2009 Permalink

Hey Erik,

I completely agree with you on this.

That is what I said to them "use an attended transfer"

There are companies out there which are run by two generations of management. The younger management off-course want to save money, like technology and implement it. The older one want to keep everything same as it is since ages. Unfortunately in most of the cases, older guys have all the financial decision making power.

Asterisk has developed so many applications in last 2 years which is beyond imagination. When we walk into a customer's site to sell system, the customer compares the features between their existing and the new phone system. When we tell them "Oh!! the new phone system cannot do this as compared to your old system" that is what breaks the deal. However, when we say that "we can do this, we can do that and bla bla bla" The customer says "when you can do advance things with your system, why can't you do basic stuff"

With your point of ringing back a parked call, tells me that the feature is there somewhere. We just have to find it out.

Your thoughts?

Submitted by mattdarnell on Tue, 10/13/2009 Permalink

You will _never_ get away from that. I remember a time when I replaced a 1A2 phone on the CEO's desk with a digital Comdial phone. He wanted to know how to buzz his secretary...not intercom...he wanted a button that when pressed would buzz his secretary's phone to let her know to come into his office. His 35 year old system had it, why didn't this modern system have it.

Line up the positives and the negatives...the positives will outnumber the negatives 10-1....that works as long as they are not emotional.

Submitted by eeman on Tue, 10/13/2009 Permalink

wheres the crank on the front of his mercedez? where is his 8track player or his reel-to-reel tape deck? Why is he using a new fangled washing machine and not a washtub basin? he use a refrigerator instead of an ice box? Why on earth is he using email when western union worked so well? Is his cell phone one of those large bricks with a rubber antenna? Does he still use one of those 3ft x 2ft x 1ft VHS players? Everyone evolves in technology, work phone systems are no excuse.

It's selective pig headedness.

as far as parking, it still looks like a new call. Its not like there's some indicator that says its your parked call ringing back.