How does a business phone system decide who answers a call?
Summary
You set up a path in the admin portal, and every call to the main number follows it. An auto attendant checks the time of day and plays a menu, a ring group or call queue rings the people behind each option, and anything nobody answers overflows to voicemail, another team, or an outside number. Extensions and transfers are the pieces that let callers and staff reach a specific person along the way.
The four building blocks
An auto attendant answers with a recorded menu ("press 1 for sales") and sends the caller wherever that option points. In Microsoft Teams, an option can lead to a specific person, a call queue, an outside number, another auto attendant, or a shared or personal voicemail box, and business hours, after hours, and holidays can each have their own routing.
A ring group or call queue is the team behind a menu option. A queue also holds callers with music until someone is free. Teams queues have no separate after-hours routing of their own, so time-based rules live in the auto attendant in front of them.
Extensions are short internal numbers for people or departments. Forwarding and transfers move a call to another user, a cell phone, or an outside number.
Who rings first
Zoom Phone call queues offer five distribution methods. Simultaneous rings every available member at once. Sequential rings them one at a time. Rotating changes the order with each call so the load evens out. Group rotating rings a set-size group together, then moves on to the next group. Longest idle sends the call to whoever has gone longest without answering a queue call. A single Zoom queue holds up to 50 members, and larger teams overflow into a second queue.
Teams offers attendant routing (everyone at once), serial, round robin, and longest idle. Microsoft recommends round robin or longest idle.
When nobody picks up
Every queue needs a limit and a fallback. In Teams, the maximum number of calls waiting ranges from 0 to 200 with a default of 50, and the maximum wait runs from 0 seconds to 45 minutes. A third exception covers the case where no agents are signed in. Each exception can disconnect the call or send it to another destination.
Zoom Phone has the same two limits, max wait time and max calls in queue. By default, calls over either limit go to the queue's own voicemail box, and you can point them instead at a user, an auto receptionist, another queue, an outside number, or a message followed by a disconnect.
Which plans include routing
Zoom Phone includes unlimited auto attendants and call queues on every plan, and Nextiva includes an auto attendant on every plan, though dial-by-name starts at Engage. Ooma Office has a virtual receptionist and ring groups from Essentials but keeps call queuing for Pro Plus. Google Voice starts auto attendants at Standard, with ring groups on the Workspace version of Standard. Quo adds phone menus and custom ring orders on Business.
Teams works through licensing. The organization needs at least one Teams Phone license, and each resource account that answers calls gets a free Teams Phone Resource Account license. If the auto attendant or queue forwards calls to outside numbers on a Microsoft number, that resource account also needs a pay-as-you-go license or Communications Credits.
Sources
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/aa-cq-plan-overview
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/aa-cq-reference-prerequisites-licensing
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/aa-cq-setup-call-queue
- support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0064844
- support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0065370
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone
- nextiva.com/nextiva-pricing
- ooma.com/small-business-phone-systems/plans
- ooma.com/office
- knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/voice/compare-voice-subscriptions
- quo.com/pricing
Related on this site
- What does a business phone system actually do for a small company?
- When does a business need call center software instead of a regular phone plan?
- What happens behind the scenes when someone calls a cloud phone number?
- Do business phone providers charge by the user, the line, or the company?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.