Introduction.
Queues are the logical, geographical groups of your agents or a mixture of both.
This is where most of the incoming calls will end if answered.
Queues include multiple settings that may be used to distribute the calls evenly among the team or else set more complicated call distribution.
To start you will need to add the desired agents to the queue.
Please note a queue must have agents that are online to distribute calls, otherwise, a backup scenario will be executed.
To check out your queues click here.
How to add or remove agents from a queue.
Queue settings overview.
“Agent priority”.
Agents assigned with the lowest priority receive calls first.
Priorities are used to prioritise calls to particular extensions, the agents with the lowest priorities will receive the calls first and when they are busy (on a call or set to DND (“busy”- Nuacom Softphone app)) the agents with the next priority will be receiving calls.
Please avoid using priorities when the queue calling strategy is set to "Linear".
Instead, set the agents in the order you wish the calls to be distributed.
How to set priorities for the agents.
“Display queue name”.
The “display queue name” is a setting where the name of the queue name will be displayed (on the phone screen, app) on incoming calls in case if you have multiple queues and you may want to know what queue your caller is ringing to.
Examples:
Sales, Accounts, Support, Google ad number, Website number etc.
How to enable “Display queue name”.
“Callee Announcement”.
Is an option where an audible system announcement is played to the agent immediately before connecting the caller to the agent on an incoming call.
This setting is similar to the “Display queue name” but audible.
Example:
A message like “Sales call”, “call to Company name A,B,C” in case of the multiple companies on the same account.
How to set callee announcement.
“Wrap-up time”.
Is a queue setting where it will let the agent have some time to make notes, etc before getting the next incoming call.
In other words, the agent will not receive a call for the period specified after the last answered call.
How to enable “Wrap-up time” for your agents.
“Queue ring strategy”.
There are multiple queue ring strategies available on the system.
Possible Actions
“Ring-all” **Most popular**
All incoming calls will be distributed to all agents in the queue, (the agents with higher priority will be excluded).
Please note if priorities are used “ringinuse” option on the queue is disabled.
“Least-recent”.
The incoming calls are distributed to the agents that have answered a call least recently,
the call will not jump to another agent until answered.
“Fewest-calls”.
The incoming calls are distributed to the agents that have answered the fewest calls,
the call will not jump to another agent until answered.
“Random”.
The calls are randomly distributed among the agents within the queue.
Please pay attention to the “Ring agent timeout” value.
“Round-robin memory”.
Calls are distributed in turn to every agent within the queue.
Please pay attention to the “Ring agent timeout” value.
“Linear”.
Calls are distributed the way the agents set within the queue, starting from the top (first) to the bottom (last).
Please pay attention to the “Ring agent timeout” value.
Avoid using priorities when the queue calling strategy is set to "Linear".
Instead, set the agents in the order you wish the calls to be distributed.
“Ring Agent Timeout”.
Is a time value in seconds, to control how long the call will ring to the agent until moving to the next if not answered.
This setting is not available for the queues where the “Ring-all” call strategy is used.
“Total Ring Time”.
It is how long the call will stay in the queue if not answered until a timeout action, if configured.
“Timeout action”.
Possible Actions
“Ring Out Number / Forward Out Number”
Use this option if you wish to dial out to a mobile number after the total ring time has been exceeded.
“Continue” is an option that will trigger an option set within the current IVR settings as a second linear option.
“Backup Call” will trigger backup action set within the queue.
“Hangup call”
this option will hang up the call when the “total ring time” timeout is reached.
“Periodic message + option to VM”.
This option will periodically play the desired system message, with hardcoded option 1 to go to voicemail.
“Dial Extension / Shortcode”
This option will dial a specified number within the field “Timeout value”,
it can be an internal/external extension/number, a shortcode.
“Voicemail”
This option will trigger Voicemail, please specify the voicemail box in this case.
“Queue”
The option will trigger the action to send a call to another queue.
“IVR”
The option will trigger the action to send a call to the desired IVR.
“Config” - is an additional option set available on the queue.
**Leave it as is**
“Do not show missed call if answered” on another extension.
“Transfer by ##” is the option to the calls into the queue and if phone handset is used (older) where transfer button is not available, you then can transfer the call using ##number, press dial, get to speak to the person you are transferring to, complete transfer by pressing #.
The other two options are self-explanatory.
“Music on hold” - “MOH”
Music on hold/commercial can be used for the incoming calls to play to your callers instead of a ringing tone.
Every queue could have is unique MOH, even multiple files.
If you wish to play a ringing tone for your callers then set this setting to “No”
“Ringinuse”
Enable this option if you wish to be notified on the incoming call while on a call,
it will beep into your ear while on a call.
Set it to no unless you need to be notified.
“Transfer bounce back”
This setting is used for the incoming calls to the queue,
which were transferred, subsequently not answered, to come/bounce back (within the specified value) to the extension that transferred the call.
“Notify caller position”
This is used to notify the caller of their position in the queue to give them an idea of when the call may be answered.
If enabled the announcement period can be set as per the screen below.
In this example, the caller will be announced their position number every 1 minute.
“Backup type”.
And finally, the last option on the queue is “Backup type”,
This is usually set up for back up where if your internet is down and the queue will execute this scenario,
Examples:
You can forward all incoming call to the queue out to a
mobile number,
voicemail,
another queue or “none” which in turn if configured, no action will be taken.
Please note, after making any changes on a queue please update it.
I would really stress that you test after that.
Save the queue settings to take effect by pressing “Update queue” button at the bottom of the queue interface.
Wait for 3-5 seconds.
Saved!