Customer support with several agents
A support desk with six operators uses the Longest idle strategy: work is shared out fairly, and callers hear how many people are ahead and the estimated wait.
Phone system
Callers wait in line and the first free agent answers
A call queue keeps customers on hold with music and messages and hands them to free operators, in the order you choose. When the wait gets too long, you have already decided where they go.
Support queue
+44 7700 9004120:12
+44 7700 9008570:29
+44 20 7946 01930:46
101Emma
102James
105Sophie
What it is for
A call queue holds the calls that arrive while your operators are busy. Callers hear a welcome message and hold music, and as soon as one of the queue’s operators is free, their phone rings.
You choose how operators ring: all at once, one at a time starting with whoever has been idle longest, whoever answered the fewest calls today, or in a priority order. Operators who are paused, already on a call, offline or in wrap-up are skipped.
For every situation you decide what happens: queue full, maximum wait reached, closed hours, a caller pressing 1 to leave, a customer still on the line after the conversation. Each exit has its own message and destination, and when the wait times out you can send the caller an SMS.
Use cases
Leave a number instead of waiting
After a minute on hold the message offers “press 1 to be called back”: callers who press 1 go to a callback and are called back without staying on hold.
First and second line
With Priority order the junior agents ring first; if none of them answers within the ring time, the call moves to the senior agents lower in the list.
Call peaks
An online shop turns on Queue boost during sales: every waiting caller looks for an operator at the same time and the queue empties faster.
Nobody available, no pointless waiting
A small team turns on Leave at once if no operator is available: if everyone is paused or on a call, the customer goes straight to an AI answerer instead of listening to music.
A queue answered by outside agencies
A company hands part of its calls to an agency: with Agency queue, for every call one of the agency’s operators answers, the agency pays its per-call price.
How it works
Create the queue and pick a strategy
In the General tab name the queue, choose the strategy, the ring, wrap-up and maximum wait times, and the music on hold.
Add the operators
In the Operators tab choose who answers the queue’s calls; with Priority order you move operators up and down to decide who rings first.
Set messages and exits
In the Messages, Hours and Exits tabs write the welcome, the messages played while waiting and what happens when the queue is closed, full or the wait is over.
Connect the queue
Choose the queue as the destination of a number or of an IVR menu key, and try it with a test call from your browser.
How a call goes
The caller enters, hears the welcome and, if enabled, the position and estimated wait, then music. Available operators ring according to the strategy; if nobody answers within the maximum wait, the call takes the Timeout exit.
What you can set
Strategy
- Ring all
- Every available operator rings at once and the call goes to whoever answers first.
- Longest idle
- Rings one operator at a time, starting with whoever ended their last queue call the longest ago.
- Fewest calls today
- Rings one operator at a time, starting with whoever answered the fewest queue calls today.
- Priority order
- Rings one operator at a time in the order of the list in the Operators tab: the first free one always gets the call.
Options
- Ring per operator
- How long each attempt rings before moving on, from 5 to 300 seconds.
- Wrap-up
- For how many seconds after a call the operator gets no queue calls.
- Maximum wait
- After this time, from 10 seconds to 2 hours, the call takes the Timeout exit.
- Music on hold
- None (silence, and ringback while operators are called), Default music, or a file uploaded in Hold music.
- Queue boost
- Off keeps arrival order and only the first in line rings; on, all waiting callers look for an operator together and the queue empties faster.
- Leave at once if no operator is available
- If no operator is logged in, free and not paused when the call arrives, it takes the Timeout exit straight away.
Display
- Name shown to the operator
- The text on the operator’s phone while a queue call rings, built from tags for caller number, phonebook name, time in queue, queue name and ID, and number called; empty shows the phonebook name.
- Leave out of the internal chat groups
- Each queue is an internal chat group for its operators in the panel: when on, this queue is not.
- Agency queue
- When an agency’s operator answers, the agency pays you its per-call price for this queue; you can see what each agency pays.
Operators
- Queue operators
- Who receives the queue’s calls: add them one by one or all at once, and move them up and down for priority order.
Messages
- Welcome message
- What the caller hears on entering the queue.
- Announce position
- On entry the system says how many people are waiting, only if someone is ahead.
- Announce estimated wait
- On entry it says the estimated wait, based on the average of the queue’s latest waits and never less than one minute.
- If a caller entered now
- A box refreshed every 10 seconds shows the position and estimated wait a new caller would hear.
- Message while waiting
- A message repeated every so many seconds while the caller waits.
- Exit with key 1
- A message repeated every so many seconds, such as “press 1 to be called back”, and the destination for callers who press 1.
- Voice and reading speed
- The text-to-speech voice and speed, from 1.0x to 1.5x, of all the queue’s messages.
Hours and queue full
- Time condition
- The hours the queue is open; outside them the caller hears the out-of-hours message and goes to the out-of-hours destination.
- Maximum waiting calls
- How many callers can wait at once, from 1 to 1,000; empty means no limit.
- Queue full message and destination
- What callers hear, and where they go, when the queue is full.
Exits
- Timeout
- Message and destination for callers who passed the maximum wait, or who leave at once because no operator is available.
- SMS to the caller
- On a timeout the caller gets an SMS with the sender and text you choose; it goes to mobile numbers only and the portal shows its cost.
- After the conversation
- Where a caller still on the line goes when the operator hangs up, for example a Feedback survey; with Hang up the call ends.
Queue list
- Tag
- A label for the queue: the dashboard totals queue calls by tag.
- Actions on several queues
- Applies the same time condition or the same tag to all selected queues.
- Test call
- Call the queue from your browser: operators really ring, but the call is not billed and stays out of the reports.
Frequently asked questions
What is a call queue?
An organised wait: when operators are busy, callers stay on the line with music and messages and are passed to the first free operator, following the queue’s strategy.
Which operators get called?
Only the queue’s operators who are logged in, free, not paused and past their wrap-up time. An operator can also step out of a single queue from their panel.
Can callers find out how long they will wait?
Yes. With Announce position and Announce estimated wait, on entry the system says how many people are ahead and the estimated wait in minutes. The first in line hears nothing.
What happens when the wait is too long?
Past the maximum wait the caller hears the timeout message and goes to the destination you chose, such as a callback or an AI answerer. You can also send them an SMS. While waiting they can leave earlier by pressing 1, if you turned on the exit with key 1.
Can I change settings while calls are waiting?
Yes. The system reads the settings again during the wait, so changes apply to callers already in the queue.
Can I use queues for a call center with outside agencies?
Yes. Agency operators can sit in your queues, and with Agency queue every call they answer is charged to the agency at its per-call price, with hourly limits and credit rules per agency.
Related features
Try it on your own phone lines
Sign up free and try this feature with your numbers, or message us on WhatsApp and we’ll show it to you.