Sharpen Q: Agent Readiness

The first step of an agent's day is to login to Sharpen and make sure he/she is configured properly and prepared to take interactions.

Among other things, this means ensuring you're logged into the right queues, have your calls routing set up appropriately, are in the proper status, and are ready to receive and pause inbound interactions when they begin coming in.

Sharpen Q makes it easy to communicate with your customers in the way easiest for them—and you—without the need for separate systems. It's been designed with the agent experience in mind, helping to empower agents with what they need in order to resolve customer issues efficiently and effectively.

A complicated, cumbersome system doesn't benefit customers—because it doesn't benefit the agents who want to help them. In contrast with the window-juggling that occurs in all too many contact center operations, Sharpen collects all communication channels together in a true omni-channel platform, with up-to-date customer information and interaction history available-and accessible-in real-time, right at the agent's fingertips.

This article covers the preparation items that get an agent to begin taking interactions for the day.

This article contains two main sections. It will first cover how to access the Sharpen Q Dashboard, and an "Agent Readiness" checklist follows, which includes the following steps:

Make sure you're in a Receiving Calls state

Verify Active status 

Check call routing options

Manage which queues you are logged into

Accessing Sharpen Q

Within Google Chrome, navigate to http://app.sharpencx.com or app.iz1.sharpen.cx  (your admin will let you know which link applies to your organization), and log in with your Sharpen credentials or Single Sign-On.

Then, click the drop-down menu in the upper left corner and select Sharpen Q.

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This will transition you to the main Sharpen Q Dashboard—a dynamic window that will display different components according to the interaction type.

There are three main sections you will interact with on a regular basis:

• the Top Bar is where you can quickly manage active queues, routing options, and pause status;

• the Activity Side Panel is where you can view current and historical interactions related to your user or queue(s); and

• the Q Phone is where you can make an outbound dial and send messages from a specified queue number.

These three components are highlighted below:

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Agent Readiness Checklist

Once logged in to the Sharpen Q dashboard, there are a few basic details worth checking, in order to ensure you're ready to accept incoming interactions.

Double-checking these items is a process that takes very little time, and can help prevent confusion and other issues throughout the day.

Most of the items you'll want to check can be found in the top bar, which is shown below:

These items include toggling between Calls Paused and Receiving Calls, verifying "Active" status, checking call routing options, and managing which queues you are logged into.

Receiving Calls

The importance of the "Receiving Calls" state should be self-evident. Note that the term "calls" here refers to all interaction types-not just calls.

In the upper-left corner of the Sharpen Q dashboard, you'll see a toggle button. The two options are set to "Receiving Calls" or "Calls Paused."

In order to begin receiving interactions, toggle to the Receiving Calls state.

To remove yourself from receiving interactions (e.g., for a break or meeting), toggle the switch to Calls Paused. When in this state, you will still see interactions listed in the Q, but they are not routed to you (and you will not be actively rung).

While you can click on the toggle to quickly switch between Receiving Calls and Calls Paused, hovering over the toggle reveals additional options—including your pause reason and the volume of alerts. You can also turn auto-answering functionality on and off.

Active

The next step in preparation is a quick one-simply verify that you are in an "Active" status.

If you went into Calls Paused at the end of your shift, and then logged out (which is common), when you next launch Sharpen Q that will still be your status. You'll need to flip the toggle to Receiving Calls.

If you are in a status other than Active during your preparation, logging out of the dashboard entirely and then logging back in should fix it.

Call Routing

Next, choose where you'd like to route your calls.

You won't often deviate from your default routing option, but it is beneficial to be aware of the menu. In the case that you need to work remotely and/or from a teammate's desk, you'll want to make the right adjustment.

In the middle of the Top Menu, you'll see a Route Calls drop-down menu.

This drop-down menu shows you the available options for your queue calls. In other words, where do you want your phone to "ring"?

As shown above, you can choose between Connect Phone, Sharpen Q Phone, Desk Phone, and Hot Desk.

Regardless of which routing option you use, you can see what's going on in all of the queues you are logged into via the Side Activity Panel.

When an interaction rings you, you'll see a pulsating notification (if you're using the Connect Phone, Q Phone, or Hot Desk options).

When interactions enter the Activity Side Panel, answering, ignoring, and rejecting the interaction all happen the same way-across all routing types.

Manage Queues

Finally, it's important to be logged into the appropriate queue(s) for the day. Depending on your settings, you may be logged into a particular queue (or set of queues) automatically.

View the queues available to you by clicking the Manage Qs button in the upper-right corner of the Sharpen Q dashboard. Note that the available queues (including those you may be set to be auto-logged into) are set by your administrator.

Clicking the Manage Qs button will open a pop-up window that enables you to quickly and easily log in to or out of your available queues via the toggle switches.

Note that you can click the down-arrow icon next to any of the listed queues to view basic statistics, which might help you get a better idea of whether you are needed in a particular queue.

While your admin or manager decides which queues you are logged into, within the My Queues window you can see which queue(s) you are logged into (and simply flip toggle switches to log into and out of specific queues). If you're logging out a particular queue and want/need to specify a reason why, you can do so by clicking the little down arrow next to the words Logged In Status.

Below, you can see what managing queues looks like.

Once you have the right Qs logged in, click the X to exit the My Queues window and return to the Sharpen Q dashboard.

Performance Tiles

If you’re seeing the tri-colored tiles on your SharpenQ dashboard, your manager has turned on a new Sharpen feature, Performance Tiles. These three tile metrics (and corresponding goals) have been selected specifically for your group with the goal being quick access on how you’re performing for your most important metrics.

Don’t worry, this isn’t meant to “grade” every interaction--your tiles are representative of all calls over a rolling 7 or 30 day timeframe (whatever your manager has decided). If you have more questions about Performance Tiles, click here to view a basic FAQ