Call queues

From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, go to Services, and choose Calling > Features.

Click Call Queue > Create Call Queue.

On the Basics page, enter the following information, and then click Next.

• Location—Select a location from the drop-down menu.

  A location is a container with location-specific calling configuration. See Configure Cisco Webex Calling for Your Organization, for more information.

• Call Queue Name—Enter a name for the call queue.

• Phone Number—Assign a primary phone number and/or an extension to the call queue.

• Allow queue phone number for outgoing calls—Enable the toggle to allow the queue phone number for outgoing calls.

• Number of Calls in Queue—Assign the maximum number of calls for this call queue. Once this number is reached, the overflow settings are triggered.

  Do not set the Number of Calls in Queue to 0. Incoming calls are not allowed if the Number of Calls in Queue is set to 0.

• Caller ID—Assign the caller ID for the call queue. The caller ID assigned here, along with the calling party caller ID name and number, will show when the call queue agents are receiving an incoming call from the queue. The caller ID is also used for calls that are forwarded outside of this call queue.

  This field is mandatory to navigate to the next screen.

  • Direct Line—The primary phone number and extension from this queue.

    Direct line option does not appear if you do not specify a phone number.

  • Location Number—The number assigned to the location.

  • Assigned Number from the Call Queue’s Location—Select a number from the location.

• Language—Select the call queue language from the drop-down menu.

  

On the Call Routing page, choose one of the following options, and click Next.

• Priority Based

  • Circular—Cycles through all agents after the last agent that took a call. It sends calls to the next available call queue agent.

  • Top Down—Sends calls through the queue of agents in order, starting from the top each time.

  • Longest Idle—Sends calls to the agent that has been idle the longest. If they don't answer, proceeds to the next agent who has been idle second longest, and so on until the call is answered.

  • Weighted—Sends calls to agents based on percentages you assign to each agent in the call queue profile (up to 100%).

  • Simultaneous—Sends calls to all agents in a call queue at once.

• Skill Based

  When you select skill based call routing, by default routing will happen only based on the skill level. If there are more than one agents, with same skill level, then the selected routing pattern(Circular/Top Down/Longest) is followed to resolve the contention to choose the next agent for call routing.

  • Circular—Cycles through all agents after the last agent that took a call. It sends calls to the next available call queue agent.

  • Top Down—Sends calls through the queue of agents in order, starting from the top each time.

  • Longest Idle—Sends calls to the agent that has been idle the longest. If they don't answer, proceeds to the next agent who has been idle second longest, and so on until the call is answered.

On the Overflow Settings page, determine how overflow calls are handled. Choose one of the following options from the drop-down menu:

• Perform busy treatment—The caller hears a fast-busy tone.

• Play ringing until caller hangs up—The caller hears ringing until they disconnect.

• Transfer to phone number—Enter the number where you want to transfer overflow calls.

You can also enable the following overflow settings:

• Enable overflow after calls wait x seconds—With this option you can enter a wait time (in seconds) for callers. Once this wait time is reached by the caller, the overflow treatment is triggered.

• Play announcement before overflow processing—If this option is disabled, callers will hear hold music until the call is answered by a user.

Click Next.

On the Announcements page, you can determine the messages and music that callers hear while waiting in the queue. You can enable any of the following options:

• Welcome Message—Play a message when callers first reach the queue. For example, “Thank you for calling. An agent will be with you shortly.” It can be set as mandatory. If the mandatory option is not selected and a caller reaches the call queue while there is an available agent, the caller will not hear this announcement and is transferred to an agent.

• Estimated wait message for Queued Calls—Notify the caller with either their estimated wait time or position in the queue. If this option is enabled, it plays after the welcome message and before the comfort message.

• Comfort Message—Play a message after the welcome message and before hold music. This is typically a custom announcement that plays information, such as current promotions or information about products and services.

• Comfort Message Bypass—Play a shorter comfort message instead of the usual Comfort or Music On Hold announcement to all the calls that should be answered quickly. This feature prevents a caller from hearing a short portion of the standard comfort message that abruptly ends when they are connected to an agent.

• Hold Music—Play music after the comfort message in a repetitive loop.

• Call Whisper Message—Play a message to the agent immediately before the incoming call is connected. The message typically announces the identity of the call queue from which the call is coming from.

Click Next.

On the Select Agents page, click Add User or Workspace or Virtual Line drop-down, then search or select the users, workspaces, or virtual lines to add to the call queue.

Assign a skill level (1 being the highest skill level and 20 being the lowest skill level) to each user or workspaces added to the call queue.

You can assign a skill level only when you select skill based routing type else you will not have the option to set the skill level. By default, agents with skill level 1 (Highest skill level) are added.

(Optional) Select the check box if you want to allow agents on active calls to take additional calls.

(Optional) Select the check box if you want to allow agents to join or unjoin the queue.

Click Next.

Depending on which call routing option you chose previously, you may need to add extra information such as adding percentage weighting to users or workspaces, or in the case of circular or top-down call routing, drag and drop users and workspaces in the order of their queue position.

On the Review page, review your call queue settings to make sure you've entered the correct details.

Click Create and Done to confirm your call queue settings.

Once a queue is created, you can enable or disable the queue using the toggle beside Enable Call Queue in the side panel.