Call Queueing
About
Call Queue, also known as automatic call distribution (ACD), is an application that routes incoming calls to a specific group of users. Before connecting to a user, callers are placed inside a queue, allowing users to deal with incoming calls without losing other callers to a busy signal or unanswered phones. While waiting, callers will hear music and/or pre-recorded announcements.
Call queues are often found in offices that handle high-volume customer calls from callers who do not need to speak with a specific person but who require assistance from any of multiple persons, like sales representatives and or support staff. Call queues have a wide range of features.
By default, agents are logged into the queue. They can log themselves in and out. While they are logged out, they are still agents of the queue and will show for example in reports, but the system will not route calls to the agent. When an agent puts herself on do-not-disturb (DND), this agent is logged in however the system will also not route calls to the agent.
Agents are organized in pools. The agents in the primary pool are included unconditionally. The agents in the other pools are included when the condition for the pool is true. This makes it possible to add additional agents for example when waiting times are getting too long or all of the primary agents are logged out.
Creating a Call Queue
Instructions
1. Navigate to the Call Queue menu
2. Click on Create Call Queue
3. Account Number - Enter the virtual extension number that you would like to assign to this hunt group. This must be a unique number (eg. 123)
4. Display Name - Enter a descriptive name you would like to call this group (eg. NSW Sales Team)
5. CLI - The CLI that will be used by the hunt group when sending calls to an external number
6. FROM Label - This allows you to set the display name that call queue members will see when someone is calling. There are several options to select from:
Calling Party - In this mode, it just displays the calling party like on a regular incoming call. An example would be "John Doe".Group Name - If you select this mode, the system will put the name of the hunt group into the display of the phone. An example would be "Sales Group".Group name (Calling Name) - In this mode, the system will use the name of the group in the fron with the display name of the calling party in brackets behind it. Fro example, if the calling party is "John Doe" and the group name is "Sales Groups", the system would send "Sales Group (John Doe)" to the phone.Group name (Calling Number) - This is similar to the previous mode, but the system puts the username into the brackets. For example, if the calling party is "John Doe" and the group name is "Sales Group", the system would send "Sales Group (61283176200)" to the phone.From (To) - Displays the incoming caller followed by the called destination in brackets.Original caller-ID - Displays the original caller-ID without adding the Call Queue name.Anonymous - Hides the original caller identity and displays the call as anonymous.7. Click on Create to create the call queue
Configuring a Call Queue
Once a Call Queue has been created, you can customise and configure your Queue
Instructions
- Navigate to the Call Queue menu
- Click on the Manage button for the corresponding call queue you would like to configure
Call Queue Details
You can edit your Call Queue details like the Account Number, Display Name, CLI, label name, Dial Plan and Music on Hold directly in this panel.
Greeting and Music
Ringback Tone
This setting controls what the caller hears when the agent is being called:
- Regular ringback tone when agent rings: The caller will hear the agent ringing.
- No ringback tone, continue playing music: Instead of hearing a ringback tone, the caller will hear music. If an agent is no longer at his desk but has not logged out of the agent group, the caller will hear music on hold instead of ringback.
Background music volume
This setting enables you to continue playing music on hold while playing messages.
Announce call recording preamble
This is an automatic preamble notifying the caller that the call is being recorded. If call recording is turned on is selected, the preamble will only come on if Call Recording for the queue is turned on.
Initial greeting
You can upload a customised mp3 file that will greet callers that initially arrive to this call queue.
Announcement
You can upload a customised mp3 file that will play in intervals based on the duration set in Announcement Gaps. The messages can be used to provide additional information about your company, or they can be used to provide the caller with additional options and/or way to exit the queue.
Announcement gaps
This is the gap that the system will wait before replaying the Announcement message to the caller.
Queue position announcement
You can select if you want to announce to the caller their position in the queue.
Minimum number of callers needed for position announcement
You can set a trigger on when the position announcement will play by entering the minimum number of callers to be in the queue before the queue position annoucement is played.
Announce estimated waiting time
This settings controls whether the caller gets an estimated waiting duration. The value for the waiting time is calculated by average of the last three callers that were connected. Depending on the amount of calls, this value can be only a rough estimate of the actual time.
Call Answering
Agents
Select the users that you want to belong in the call queue. You can only assign user’s to belong to this group. Depending on the Agent Selection algorithm (described below), you can also drag and drop users based on the priority of who receives the call first.
When to calssify as missed call (secs)
This setting specifies the time that a caller needs to be in a queue before the system classifies it as a missed call. This is measured in seconds.
Call Diversion
If this setting is toggled on, users can use their device to deflect an incoming calls to another destination. Do note that some phones will send call redirections by themselves, for example because a local call redirect after a timeout or a call redirect for all calls was set on the device.
Call Recording
When toggled on, calls will be recorded in the queue.
The user can turn off call recording on the behest of callers by dialling a star code. For more information, please refer to the below article:
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Agent Selection
Routing method
Ring longest idle first - is designed to balance active call time amongst all users. The queue keeps a list of the users and moves the users to the end of the list when a user connects a call. This ensures that the user with the longest idle is at the front of the list.Use preference from Agents setting - This will instruct the system to notify the agent from the top of the list and will make its way down the list.Random - This selection randomly selects the next user. This is a reasonable algorithm in environments where it is not that important as to which agent processes the call.Number of agents to ringIn every scheduling interval, the system adds only a limited number of users from its pool of available users to its list of ringing users. For large user groups, a typical value would be one or two, as this will ensure that not all users receive calls at the same time.
Agent recovery time
Agents typically need some time after a call to take notes, take a breath or log out (this is also sometimes called wrap-up time). During this time, none of the queues will route a call to the agent. In some environments, a recovery time is also needed for the phone to settle the last call.
Ring stage duration
At regular intervals, the system checks agent availability and determines whether the next caller should be pulled out of the waiting state. The ring stage duration setting establishes this interval. For larger queues, shorter intervals are recommended, as it is quicker to get callers out of the queue and into a ringback state. The default value for this setting is 5 seconds.
Use the login status for agents
Before considering an agent, by default the system checks if this agent is logged in. This option allows to ignore the login status for additional agents or for all agents.
Automatic log out for agents
This setting automatically logs an agent out of the call queue when the system detects that the agent is unavailable during a call attempt. This helps prevent calls from continuing to be routed to agents who are unable to answer.
- Default: Uses the account-level setting configured under Call Queue > Settings.
- None: Disables automatic logout for this call queue.
- When agent is on DND during a call attempt: Logs the agent out when Do Not Disturb is enabled.
- When agent has no device available during a call attempt: Logs the agent out when no device is available to receive the call.
- When a device of the agent returns a busy code: Logs the agent out when their device returns a busy response.
- When a device of the agent returns an error code or timeout: Logs the agent out when their device returns an error or does not respond in time.
- When a device of the agent is not registered for one minute: Logs the agent out when their device remains unregistered for one minute.
- All of the above: Applies all supported automatic logout conditions.
Note: This setting is separate from Logged in agents required to allow log out and Log Agents Out at Midnight.
Logged in agents required to allow log out
This setting controls the minimum number of agents that must remain logged in to the call queue. Agents can log out while the number of logged-in agents is higher than the configured threshold.
For example, if the threshold is set to 2, agents can log out while more than two agents are logged in. Once only two agents remain, further logouts are blocked.
- Enter 0 if no logout restriction is required.
- Enter 2 to ensure at least two agents remain logged in.
- Set the threshold to the total number of agents or higher to prevent all agents from logging out.
Note: This setting does not automatically log agents out. It only controls whether another agent is allowed to log out.
Position for adding agent
Depending on your setting, newly logged in agents will be positioned at the front of the queue or at the back.
Allow additional calls on agent - even if in a call
This setting allows a call to be sent to an agent even if agents are busy. This will cause a call waiting for the agent. This breaks the rule that one call is routed after another and makes the queue behave more like a ring group, while retaining other options of the queue, like logging in and out.
Allow multiple calls to Agent in Parallel
When this flag is set, the queue will proceed ringing more agents even if there are more calls ringing up agents. This generally makes sense when there are only one or only few agents added in each stage or there are a lot of agents available for accepting calls.
Routing based on
This allows you to queue a caller based on the entry time or pull out the caller from a queue when the agent they last spoke to becomes available.
Log agents out at midnight
When turned on, agents belonging to the queue will automatically be logged out from the queue at midnight.
Post Call Survey
After the call is over, the system can collect a feedback from the caller. In that case, the agent needs to disconnect the call and the caller needs to stay in the call. There are two ways to receive a feedback. The first one is to redirect the call to an external survey number, for example survey services outside of the system.
The second possibiity is to use the built-in feedback mechanism that asks for a 1 to 5-star rating of the call. The rating will be logged along with the CDR for the call and is available throughout the various reporting mechanisms for the call queue.
If the caller leaves a low rating this may trigger a follow-up with the caller. For this the system offers a redirection number, which is typically a manager that will check what went wrong.
Call Overflow Handling
Maximum calls in a queue
If you want to limit the number of active calls on this queue group, you can use this setting.
When the maximum number of calls is reached
This setting determines what the system should do when the maximum calls have been reached. The system can either Disconnect the call or Redirect the call to another destination number.
Callers in Queue
If the users within this call queue are all busy on the line, you can get the system to redirect the call to another destination number, queue, hunt group, voicemail or extension. This is only applicable when the user is busy on the line (and not ring no answer).
If caller waited longer than >
If a caller has waited for the specified time in the queue, this will immediately redirect the call to another destination. Note: The caller is classified as waiting when all users are busy with other customers and the new caller is waiting for a free user.
Redirect to
Enter the destination where you would like to redirect the caller.
After hearing ringback for (s)
If the caller hears ringback for longer than the indicated time (in seconds), you can divert the caller to a specific agent assigned to the queue. This is typically the case if none of the primary agents pick the call up.
Callback
Instead of having callers wait in the queue, the system can instead call waiting callers back when it is their turn.
In order to enable this, the queue needs to offer a call back key which will be annouced to the caller. The queue will annouce the callback possibility when entering the queue either always, never or depending on the expected waiting duration of the caller. Typically only callers that are facing a significant waiting time will use the callback feature.
When the user presses the selected key, the system will play an IVR that asks the caller to confirm the caller-ID or enter a different caller-ID. For numbers that are not on the dial plan, the system will immediately ask for a different caller-ID until it matches the dial plan. This ensures that only numbers which are on the dial plan will enter the callback list.
When the system calls the number, the system will play back an annoucement to the user about the callback and then puts the caller into the queue at the position where the caller would be when just holding the call. The number of attempts and the waiting duration between the attempts is set with the general outbound calling parameters below.
5 of 5 rows
| Offer call back key | The digit on the users keypad that they need to press to register for a callback. |
|---|---|
| Announce callback possibility when entering queue | How long the user will need to have waited before the possibility of a callback option is offered |
| Add missed calls to outbound call list | Automatically send the callers number to the outbound calling list |
| Send email when caller was added to callback list | The email address to send the information to |
| Wait duration for callback after missed call (secs) | The duration to wait before an attempted callback is placed |
Daily Reports
The system can send emails about the usage of the queue at the end of each day. This setting contains the email address or the email addresses of the recipients, seperated by semicolon (e.g.
adr1@domain1.com; adr2@domain2.com).Call Legends for User Portal
This setting enables specific calls that meet the defined condition to be more visible in the User Portal by assigning a color to the call.
This also enables the addition of additional agents that are not categorised as primary agents within the queue when a specific condition is met.
Redirection
Redirection allows you to redirect calls to other extensions during off-hours, meetings, etc. You can use a Service Flag or set it to Always.
Service flag - Once you have created the account, enter the number of the Service flag account.
Always - This rule will always redirect calls. This can make sense if this is the last rule in a list of other rules.
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You may specify more than one redirection flag.
Outbound Calling
The queue's Outbound Calling page allows the queue admin to set up outbound numbers for agent dialing. Once the outbound numbers have been configured for the queue, users can initiate calling using a star code or have the system start the calling (see below).
Settings
The following settings control how the outbound calling works. Some settings also affect the automatic callback feature (see above).
Call outbound numbers up and then queue When this flag is set to on, the system will call the numbers up without the agents having to dial the star code. Otherwise the agents need to trigger the call.
Required number of available agents In order to make sure that the call will get to an agent, there needs to be a certain number of agents available. This settings controls that.
Maximum number of retries If the call fails, the PBX will reschedule the number for later and try again. When the number of retries has reached the maximum number the number will be marked as failed.
Maximum number of waiting callers As with the number of available agents, the number of waiting callers will slow down the calling until the queue has capacity to take an additional call.
Timeout for connecting calls This setting controls how long the PBX will keep the call ringing until giving up and considering this call attempt failed.
Key for connecting the call In many cases it is useful to ask the called number to confirm the call in order to rule out that the call has not reached a mailbox. This setting controls what key to ask for or whether to ask for a key at all.
Duration between call attempts for a number If a call fails, the system will wait a certain time before trying to call again.
Adding outbound numbers
- From the queue's Outbound Calling page, enter a phone number into the Add a number for outbound call field.
- Click Add. The number shows up under the table below. This number will be available for agent calling.
- Repeat these steps for additional numbers.
You can also import numbers through the CSV import dialog.
Initiating outbound calls
To initiate dialing, agents can dial
*55xx (where xx is the number of the queue).The system will play a few prompts to help the agent navigate during the calling process.
Managing the outbound call list
After a successful call, the Status changes to Ok for the dialed number. This means that the number will not be attempted again. If you want the system to attempt that number again, you have to reset the Status for that number. This can be done by clicking on the
Reset Status button. If you do not want to keep the number in the outbound call list, you can select the number and click Delete . This removes the number from the list.Agent Login/out
Extensions may be listed as agents of a call queue. In order to receive calls from the queue, they need to be logged in. After adding an agent to a call queue, the agents is logged in by default.
Agents can be logged in to one queue and logged out from another queue. Login and logout is only available for call queues, not for ring groups or other account types that might send calls to an extension.
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Login Status
When an agent logs out, the extension is still available for receiving calls from other sources, e.g. ring groups or direct calls to the extension. In order to stop receiving calls, the extension should use the do-not-disturb (DND) feature.
Agents can use one of several methods to control their login status:
Phone Buttons
This method allows users to use a button on their phone to log in and out of queue. The busy lamp field on the phone will show if the extension is logged in or not.
Buttons can be configured to toggle login for all queues or for a specific queue. When a queue is used in the button definition, the button toggles the login status only for that queue. Otherwise it will toggle the status only for that queue.
WebRTC - User Portal
When using the WebRTC, the system will prompt the user after logging in or logging out from the user front end for the desired queue status.
The login status can be set in when clicking on the queue symbol.
Star Codes
While phone buttons are only available on devices that support busy lamp fields, dialing star codes is available for any device. Unless changed by the administrator, the code for logging in is
*64 and the code for logging out is *65.In order to log in or out of a specific queue, the queue number needs to be appended to the star code. For example,
*65447 will log the agent out from queue 447. If there is no queue specified, the code will log the agent in or out from all queues.