Queue

Hold callers and send them the first adviser who frees up, rather than letting the phone ring into the void. The queue keeps the order of arrival, plays your music and announcements, and hands out calls by the rule you choose. It replaces 'call back later' with an orderly wait, and it tells you how many people hung up before anyone took them.

How it works

The caller enters the queue and hears your hold music, with the announcements you slipped into it.
The system looks for a free adviser among those signed in to the queue.
Calls are handed out by the rule you chose: every extension rings at once, or one after another, or the one whose last call is furthest in the past.
The first to answer takes the call, and the other extensions stop ringing.
If nobody answers, the caller stays on the line and the round starts again, without losing their place.
Advisers sign in and out of the queue as they start and end their shift, without going through you.
After the delay you set, the call can go elsewhere: voicemail, another department, an offer to call back.
Every pass leaves its trace: how long the wait, who took the call, and who hung up first.

Use cases

Customer service: three people share one number, and the caller never has to decide whom to ring.
Reception at peak times: the queue absorbs the lunchtime rush without anyone hearing a phone ring unanswered.
Technical support: calls are taken in order, so a persistent caller does not jump the queue.
A team split across two sites: the queue ignores geography and sends the call to whoever is free.
On-call duty: a queue with one person signed in, falling through to voicemail after thirty seconds.
Measuring load: how many calls, how much waiting, how many abandoned, to size the team with figures.

What you configure

Distribution rule: How the call is offered: every extension at once, one after another in a fixed order, or first to whoever took their last call longest ago. Seven rules are available, depending on how your team works.
Advisers: The extensions attached to the queue. Each signs in at the start of a shift and out at the end, without going through the admin screen.
Music and announcements: What the caller hears while waiting: your music, and the announcements you choose to slip in.
Way out: What happens when the wait runs long: voicemail, another department, an offer to call back. The delay is set in seconds.

Examples

Customer service with three people: all three ring together, the caller hears the company's music, and after two minutes is offered a call back.
Technical support: calls go first to whoever has served least in the past hour, spreading the load without anyone counting.
A practice reception: a queue of two during the day, one on Friday afternoon, and voicemail beyond forty seconds.
Seasonal switchboard: four temporary staff sign in to the queue in July and out in September, with no change to the phone system.

Modules in the same category

Call RecordingKeep a record of what was said. Recording starts automatically by your rules, or by hand during the conversation when it turns into something worth keeping. The files are found from the call history, with the number, the date and the person who answered. Always tell the caller: it is a legal requirement, and the module can play the announcement for you.Webhook / API IntegrationAsk your own software during the call and decide with its answer. Before the phone even rings, your business tool can say who is calling, whether they have an open case, whether they are behind on payment, or whether they should go straight to their usual contact. The phone system stops treating everyone the same, with nothing to retype.ConferenceBring several people into one call, with no link to send and no software to install: everyone dials a number and enters the room. An access code can protect the meeting, and the host keeps control of who speaks. This is the answer when not everyone is in front of a screen, on a site or in a car.Set Caller IDChoose what the person you call sees. By default an internal extension shows its short number, which means nothing outside the company and cannot be called back. This module presents the company number instead, or a department's, or a readable name. It is the difference between a call that is answered and one that is ignored.Set VariableRemember something during the call and use it further along. The option the caller chose in a menu, the department concerned, the campaign they came from: these are set here and turn up later in the call history or in the data sent to your business software. It is what lets you know not only that a call happened, but what it was about.

This module is part of the BreizhVoIP phone system. Discover hosted telephony