Queues

Information

Queues allow you to manage a large number of incoming calls, as you would expect to have in a Call Center. This is very intelligent application, and as such, it has a lot of configuration options.

Queue Setup

Queue Number

This is the number that can be dialled from any extension to be put into the queue. This is also the same number you use when selecting a destination. Agents (eg, the people receiving the call) log in and out of the queue by dialling the number then a single asterisk to log in, or two asterisks to log out (eg, 700* to log in, 700** to log out)

Queue Name

A short name for the queue. This is only used in the web interface for ease of identification.

Queue Password

If you are concerned about security, you can put a password on the queue to stop just anyone from logging into it. After the Agent tries to log in, he or she will be prompted for the password here.

CID Name Prefix

As an agent may be logged into more than one queue, it can be useful to have a prefix on the Caller ID seen on the agent's phone, so he or she knows which queue the call is coming from - eg, 'Sales:' or 'Tech:.

Static Agents

These are devices that are always logged into the queue. This is useful if you have an agent that is not directly connected to the FreePBX PBX, but is telecommuting. You can put their number in as it would be dialled from an internal extension. (Note that his has changed from AMP — You used to need to prefix the number with a #. This is no longer needed). The number will be routed as if it was dialled from a normal extension, so dial rules in Outbound Routing and trunks are matched as per normal.

Queue Options

Agent Announcement

This is an announcement that is played to the Agent prior to connecting in the caller. An example could be: "the Following call is from the Sales Queue" or "This call is from the Technical Support Queue". This is useful when agents don't have Caller-ID on their phone, or don't look at it for the CID Name Prefix. These recordings are managed by System Recordings.

Hold Music Category

This is the category of Music (or Commercial) played to the caller while they wait in line for an available agent. Categories are set up in On Hold Music

Max Wait Time

The maximum number of seconds a caller can wait in a queue before being pulled out and set to the destination beow. Set to 0 for unlimited, but that's not recommended.

Max Callers

The maximum number of people permitted to wait in the queue. If this number is reached, any further people will be sent straight to the destination below.

Join Empty

If you wish to allow callers to join queues that currently have no agents, set this to yes. This is not recommended.

Leave When Empty

If you wish to remove callers from the queue if there are no agents present, set this to yes. If you have agents logging in and out all the time, you may wish to set this to 'no', otherwise a good idea is to set this to yes - everyone's gone home, and didn't get around to answering the customer.

Ring Strategy

There are 6 ring patterns to chose from:

• ringall: ring all available agents until one answers (default)
• roundrobin: take turns ringing each available agent
• leastrecent: ring agent which was least recently called by this queue
• fewestcalls: ring the agent with fewest completed calls from this queue
• random: ring random agent
• rrmemory: round robin with memory, remember where we left off last ring pass

Agent Timeout

The number of seconds an agents phone can ring before we consider it a timeout.

Retry

The number of seconds we wait before trying all the phones again

Wrap-up-time

After a successful call, how many seconds to wait before sending a potentially free agent another call. The default is 0, or no delay. You'll probably have grumpy agents with that. Try setting it to 30 seconds.

Call Recording

Incoming calls to agents are recorded. They are saved to /var/spool/asterisk/monitor.

Caller Announcements

Frequency

How often to announce queue position, estimated holdtime, and/or voice menu to the caller. Set to 0 to Disable Announcements totally.

Announce Position

Set to 'Yes' to announce position of caller in the queue.

Announce Hold Time

Should we include estimated hold time in position announcements? Either yes, no, or only once; hold time will not be announced if it's estimated to be less than 1 minute.

Voice Menu

After announcing Position and/or Hold Time, you can optionally present an existing Digital Receptionist Voice Menu - eg If you'd like to leave your name and number for a call back, please push * now. This will not effect your position in the queue. This voicemenu must only contain single-digit 'dialed options'.

Join Announcement

The announcement played to callers once prior to joining the queue. These recordings are managed by System Recordings.

Fail Over Destination

This is a standard destination that is used in an overflow/timeout condition, which is configured above.

Changelog

• 1.0.4
  • Fixed inability to delete queue with ID of '0'