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When everyone is busy, a ring group rings once and gives up. A call queue holds the caller instead: they hear hold music and their place in line, and the next person to come free takes the caller who has waited longest. This guide makes a Wholesale orders queue for Northwind with two phones answering it.

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Make the queue

1

Open Call queues

Click Communications in the left rail, then Routing at the top, then Queues. Click New queue.
2

Name it and choose who gets the call

Type a Name. Under Who gets the call, pick how a waiting caller is matched with someone free. Longest idle, the person free the longest, shares calls out fairly; Ring all rings everyone who is free at once.
New queue: Name Wholesale orders, outlined; and Who gets the call with Longest idle, The agent free longest takes the call, chosen and outlined, next to Round robin, Top down, Least talk time, Random and Ring all

The name, and Longest idle

3

Decide what callers hear while they wait

Give up after is how long a caller can wait before the queue sends them on. Tick Tell callers their place in line to have it announced, here every 30 seconds. Hold music plays the standard music unless you choose your own clip.
Give up after (minutes) 10, outlined; Target answer time 20 seconds; Tell callers their place in line, ticked, every 30 seconds, outlined; and Hold music, System default, with Choose

Waiting up to 10 minutes, with their place in line

4

Choose where unanswered calls go, and who answers

Under If nobody answers, choose where a caller goes when the wait runs out, such as Voicemail of an extension. Under Agents, tick the phones that answer the queue. Then click Create queue.
If nobody answers: Voicemail of an extension, 1001 Desktop, outlined; Agents (2) with 1001 Desktop and 1002 Mobile App ticked, outlined

Voicemail at the end, and two phones answering

5

Check the queue

If the list still says No queues yet, reload the page. The card shows the queue’s own extension, what callers hear while waiting, who answers and where unanswered calls go.
The Wholesale orders queue card, extension 5000, Longest idle, max wait 10m, outlined; While waiting: Hold music system default, Position announced every 30s, Give up after 10 min; Agents (2): 1001 and 1002; If nobody answers: Voicemail of an extension

The Wholesale orders queue

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Send a number’s calls to it

Click Routing, then Numbers, and the pencil on your number’s row. Set Inbound routes to to Queue and pick your queue under Which queue?, then click Save changes. Note what the number rang before, so you can set it back.
Edit number: Inbound routes to Queue, outlined, and Which queue? Wholesale orders (5000), outlined

The number's callers wait in the Wholesale orders queue

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Good to know

  • Ring once, or wait in line? For calls that should just ring a few phones together, use a ring group.
  • Change or remove a queue with the pencil or the bin on its card. Callers routed to a deleted queue stop being queued.
  • More detail: Call queues.