Using the Log by Voice Button
Log by voice lets you log a call for a customer by talking instead of typing. You describe the job to Fiona, ABM Service's voice agent for the office, and she logs the call for the customer you have open. The button is in the header at the top of the customer screen, straight after Log a call, and it is there only when your system administrator has switched Fiona on.
What is Log by voice on the customer screen?
Log by voice is a button in the header of the customer screen, beside Log a call, that opens a conversation with Fiona, the office's voice agent, about a new call for the customer on screen. Pointing at it shows "Log a call for this customer by talking to Fiona". You talk; Fiona writes the call and saves it in ABM for that customer, under your own name, without you filling in the call form.
It is for the moment when talking is quicker than typing: a customer has just rung with a fault, you have the customer open, and you would rather tell somebody what is wrong than fill in the type, the contact, the comment and the details yourself. Fiona already knows which customer the call is for, because you opened her from that customer's screen, so you never have to spell the customer's name or code to her.
When the conversation ends and ABM Service has found the saved call, a bar appears at the bottom of the screen saying "Call", the new call's number, and "logged by Fiona", with Open call to look at it. The customer's Calls card on the Overview picks the new call up at the same moment.
Log by voice does not replace Log a call. Both log a call for the same customer; Log a call opens the call screen for you to fill in yourself, and Log by voice has Fiona do it from what you say.
Note: Log by voice appears only when your company uses Fiona. Whether she is switched on, and which kinds of call she may log, is decided by your system administrator on the AI agents screen.
What are the three ways in the Log by voice menu?
Selecting Log by voice on the customer screen opens a small menu headed "Log a call by voice", "with Fiona, for" and the customer's name. It offers three ways to reach Fiona:
- Talk here — "Talk to Fiona in this browser. Uses your microphone" (in the ABM Service desktop app it says "in this window"). You talk to Fiona through your computer's microphone and speakers or headset.
- Call me back — "Fiona rings your paired phone". Fiona phones the phone you have paired, and you talk to her on it.
- Pair a phone — "Scan a code once to carry on from your phone". This makes no call: it shows a code to scan with your phone, so that Call me back has a phone to ring.
Choose one and a voice panel opens over the window, in ABM Service's own colours; the menu shows "Opening…" under the way you chose while it loads. In the desktop app the menu also says "In the desktop app, the microphone is allowed for ABM’s own pages, so there is no prompt." In a web browser, the browser may ask once whether ABM Service may use your microphone.
You can use the menu from the keyboard: the Up and Down arrow keys move between the three ways, Home and End jump to the first and last, Enter chooses, and Escape closes the menu and puts you back on Log by voice. Pressing anywhere outside the menu closes it too.
A way that cannot work for you stays in the menu with a warning sign and a line saying why you cannot use it; see Why Is Log by Voice Missing or Not Working?.
What happens after Fiona has logged the call?
After a voice call ends, ABM Service checks what was saved and says so in a bar at the bottom centre of the window, in the same place and look as the customer screen's save bar. The usual bar reads "Call", the call's number, "logged by Fiona", with the call's type and comment under it, and Open call to open the new call on the call screen.
The bar stays until you open the call or dismiss it with the Dismiss button (the small cross at its end). It follows you if you move to another screen in the same tab or window, such as the Calls list, the Scheduler or the Customers list, so you can carry on working and open the call later. Up to three bars can be on screen at once, newest on top.
If Fiona could not save the call, the bar says so instead, "Fiona couldn't log that call", with Log a call to type it in yourself. If ABM Service could not confirm whether the call was saved, the bar says "Fiona couldn't confirm the call was saved" with Check calls, which opens the customer's calls so you can look before logging it again. If you end the conversation before anything was logged, no bar appears.
On the customer screen itself, the Calls card on the Overview reads its calls again when the bar announces a call for that customer, so the new call appears among the five most recent ones. Anything you were in the middle of changing on the customer is left exactly as it was.
Where can I log a call by voice in ABM Service?
You can log a call by voice only from the customer screen, with Log by voice in its header. Open the customer first, from the Customers list or by selecting the customer's name wherever ABM Service shows it, then select Log by voice. The call Fiona logs is always for that customer.
Log by voice is not on Home, the Calls list, the Scheduler or the call screen; the first three have their own button for logging a call by typing. On the customer screen it is also not shown:
- on a new customer that has not been saved yet, for the same reason Log a call is not: a call needs a customer that already exists;
- while you are customizing the Overview's arrangement, when the header shows the layout buttons instead; select Done to get it back;
- when your company has not switched Fiona on, or her set-up is not finished.
It works the same in a web browser and in the ABM Service desktop app. The desktop app needs no permission for the microphone, and Talk here and Call me back work there even where a browser opening ABM Service at a plain, unsecured address would block them.
Log by voice on the customer screen is not the same thing as the voice note in the Details toolbar of the call screen, which writes what you say into a call you have open and are filling in yourself; see How to Record a Voice Note on a Call. With Log by voice, Fiona logs and saves the whole call.