Overview
A Queue is a destination for Inbound calls. Inbound calls go through Queues before going to Agents. This article refers to PBX Queues, which route calls to the Phone System; these are different from Call Center Queues.
Contents
Edit PBX Queue
1.) Click the Phone System main menu.
2.) Click the PBX Queues menu option.
The Show Queues page will open.
3.) Click the Description or ID to open a PBX Queue's settings.
The Queue Settings page will open on the General tab.
General Tab
Configure Edit Queue fields (A-G):
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(A) Description:
Enter a short descriptive title for the Queue. This is how it will appear throughout the Account. -
(B) Password:
(Optional) Enter a password for Agents when logging into this Queue.- Note: The password is only used when logging in with the legacy queueno* code. When using the toggle codes, you must use the Restrict Dynamic Agents option in conjunction with the Dynamic Members list to control access.
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(C) Generate Device Hints:
When enabled, individual hints and dial plans will be generated for each SIP and IAX2 device that could be part of this Queue. These are used in conjunction with programmable BLF phone buttons to log into and out of a Queue and generate BLF status as to the current state. The format of the hints is *45ddd*qqq where *45 is the currently defined toggle feature code, ddd is the device number (typically the same as the extension number), and qqq is this Queue's number. -
(D) Call Confirm:
When enabled, any Queue Member that is actually an outside telephone number, or any Extensions, Follow-Me, or Call Forwarding that is pursued and leaves the PBX will be forced into Call Confirmation mode, where the Member must acknowledge the call before it is answered and delivered. -
(E) Call Confirm Recording:
Announcement played to the Queue Member announcing the Queue call and requesting confirmation prior to answering. If set to Default, the standard call confirmation default message will be played unless the member is reached through a Follow-Me and there is an alternate message provided in the Follow-Me.
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(F) CID Name Prefix:
(Optional) Enter a prefix for the CallerID name of callers to the Queue.- For Example: If you prefix with 'Sales:', a call from John Doe would display as Sales: John Doe on the Extensions that ring.
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(G) Wait Time Prefix:
When enabled, the CallerID Name will be prefixed with the total wait time in the Queue so the Agent is aware of how long they waited. It will be rounded to the nearest minute in the form of Mnn, where nn is the number of minutes.
Configure the remaining Edit Queue settings (H-K):
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(H) Static Agents:
Static Agents are Extensions that are assumed to always be in the Queue. Static Agents do not need to 'log in' to the Queue and cannot 'log out' of the Queue.- Note: If your Agent Restrictions is not set to Extension Only, you will have problems with subsequent transfers to Voicemail, and other issues may also exist.
- Highlight Agents with your mouse and move them between the Added Agents and Not Added Agents groups.
- Move individual Agents by clicking the < or > buttons.
- To move all Agents, click the << or >> buttons.
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(I) Dynamic Members:
Extensions or callback numbers that can log in and out of the Queue. When a Member logs into a Queue, their penalty in the Queue will be as specified here. Extensions included here will not automatically be logged into the Queue. -
(J) Restrict Dynamic Agents:
When enabled, only Dynamic Members specified above will be able to log into the Queue. All Members not listed will be denied access. -
(K) Agent Restrictions:
- Call as Dialed: The Queue will call an Extension as if it were another user.
- No Follow-Me or Call Forward: All Agents with Extensions on the system will be limited to ringing their Extensions only. Follow Me and Call Forward settings will be ignored. Any other Agent will be called as dialed.
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Extensions Only: The Queue will dial Extensions as described for No Follow-Me or Call Forward. Any other number entered for an Agent that is not a valid Extension will be ignored. No error checking is provided when entering a Static Agent or when logging on as a Dynamic Agent, the call will simply be blocked when the Queue tries to call it. For Dynamic Agents, see the Agent Regex Filter to provide some validation.
- Note: The Agent Regex Filter will be on the Additional Configuration Queue Settings tab once the Queue is completed.
Configure the settings in General Queue Options (A-F).
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(A) Ring Strategy:
- Ringall: ring all available Agents until one answers (default).
- 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.
- Rrordered: same as rrmemory, except the queue member order from config file is preserved.
- Linear: rings agents in the order specified, for dynamic agents in the order they logged in.
- Wrandom: random using the member's penalty as a weighting factor.
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(B) Autofill:
If this is enabled and multiple Agents are available, the PBX will send one call to each waiting Agent (depending on the Ring Strategy). Otherwise, it will hold all calls while it tries to find an Agent for the top call in the Queue, making other calls wait. -
(C) Skip Busy Agents:
- Yes: Agents who are on an occupied phone will be skipped as if the line were returning Busy. This means that Call Waiting or multi-line phones will not be presented with the call, and in the various hunt-style Ring Strategies, the next Agent will be attempted.
- Yes + (ringinuse=no): Sets Queue configuration flag ringinuse=no in addition to the phone's device status being monitored. This results in the Queue tracking remote Agents (Agents who are a remote PSTN phone, called through Follow-Me and other means) as well as PBX-connected Agents, so the Queue will not attempt to send another call if they are already on a call from any Queue.
- No: No action will be taken.
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Queue calls only (ringinuse=no): The Queue configuration flag 'ringinuse=no' is set for this Queue also but the device status of locally connected Agents is not monitored. The behavior is to limit an Agent belonging to one or more Queues to a single Queue call. If they are occupied by other calls, such as Outbound calls they initiated, the Queue will consider them available and ring them since the device state is not monitored with this option.
- Note: When using the settings that set the Ringinuse=no flag, there is a negative side-effect. An Agent who Transfers a Queue call will remain unavailable by any Queue until that call is terminated, as the call still appears as Inuse to the Queue unless Agent Restrictions are set to Extensions Only.
- (D) Queue Weight: Assign a Weight in this drop-down to ensure calls waiting in higher priority Queue will deliver their calls first if there are Agents common to both Queues.
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(E) Music on Hold Class: Music played to the caller while they wait for an available Agent.
- MoH Only: Play music until the Agent answers.
- Agent Ringing: play MoH until an Agent's phone is presented with the call and is ringing. If they do not answer the music will return.
- Ring Only: Callers hear a ringing tone instead of MoH ignoring any MoH Class selected as well as any configured periodic announcements.
- (F) Join Announcement: Announcement played to callers prior to joining the Queue. This can be skipped if there are Agents ready to answer a call (meaning they still may be wrapping up from a previous call) or when they are free to answer the call right now.
Finish configuring General Queue Options (G-K).
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(G) Call Recording:
Determines if incoming calls can be Recorded. -
(H) Recording Mode:
Determines when the recording starts.- Include Hold Time: The recording would start when the caller enters the Queue.
- After Answered: The recording would start once the caller is bridged with a Queue Member.
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(I) Caller Volume Adjustment:
Adjust the recording volume of the caller. -
(J) Agent Volume Adjustment:
Adjust the recording volume of the Agent. -
(K) Mark calls answered elsewhere:
When enabled, all calls are marked as Answered Elsewhere when canceled. The effect is that missed Queue calls are not shown on the phone ( if the phone supports it).
Set the Fail Over Destination.
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(A) Destination options include:
- Announcements: Plays a pre-recorded audio file.
- Call Center Queues: Routes to any of your Call Center Queues.
- Callback: Routes to a Callback which has a destination of its own.
- Conferences: Routes to one of your PBX Conferences.
- Conversational AI: Routes to a Virtual Agent.
- Directory: Routes the call to a User Directory.
- Extensions: Routes the call to a specific Agent's extension.
- External Numbers: Routes the call to an external number.
- IVA (Virtual Agent): Routes the call to a Voso.ai Campaign.
- IVR: Routes the call to an IVR.
- PBX Queues: Routes the call to one of your PBX Queues.
- Queues Priority: Routes call to one of your PBX Queues Priorities.
- Ring Groups: Routes to one of your Ring Groups. Which are used to ring multiple Extensions simultaneously or in sequence.
- Terminate Call: Ends the call as Busy, Congestion, or Hangup.
- Time Conditions: Routes to one of your Time Conditions.
- Voicemail: Routes to a specific Agent's Voicemail box.
- (B) The options in this drop-down are depend on the selection in (A).
Timing and Agent Tab
Configure the Timing & Agent Options as needed.
- (A) Max Wait Time - The maximum number of seconds a caller can wait in a queue before being pulled out. (0 for unlimited).
- (B) Max Wait Time Mode - PBX timeout priority. In 'Strict' mode, when the 'Max Wait Time' of a caller is hit, they will be pulled out of the queue immediately. In 'Loose' mode, if a queue member is currently ringing with this call, then we will wait until the queue stops ringing this queue member or otherwise the call is rejected by the queue member before taking the caller out of the queue. This means that the 'Max Wait Time' could be as long as 'Max Wait Time' + 'Agent Timeout' combined.
- (C) Agent Timeout - The number of seconds an agent's phone can ring before we consider it a timeout. Unlimited or other timeout values may still be limited by system ring time or individual extension defaults.
- (D) Agent Timeout Restart - If timeout restart is set to yes, then the time out for an agent to answer is reset if a BUSY or CONGESTION is received. This can be useful if agents are able to cancel a call with reject or similar.
- (E) Retry - The number of seconds we wait before trying all the phones again. Choosing "No Retry" will exit the Queue and go to the fail-over destination as soon as the first attempted agent times-out, additional agents will not be attempted.
- (F) Wrap-Up-Time - You can also set the 'Honor Wrap up Time Across Queues' setting on the Advanced Settings page so that this is honored across queues for members logged on to multiple queues.
- (G) Member Delay - If you wish to have a delay before the member is connected to the caller (or before the member hears any announcement messages), set this to the number of seconds to delay.
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(H) Agent Announcement - Announcement played to the Agent prior to bridging in the caller
Example: "the Following call is from the Sales Queue" or "This call is from the Technical Support Queue".
To add additional recordings please use the "Recordings" MENU to the left. Compound recordings composed of 2 or more sound files are not displayed as options since this feature cannot accept such recordings. - (I) Report Hold Time - If you wish to report the caller's hold time to the member before they are connected to the caller, set this to yes.
- (J) Auto Pause - Auto Pause an agent in this queue (or all queues they are a member of) if they don't answer a call. Specific behavior can be modified by the Auto Pause Delay as well as Auto Pause Busy/Unavailable settings.
- (K) Auto Pause on Busy - When set to Yes agents devices that report busy upon a call attempt will be considered as a missed call and auto paused immediately or after the auto pause delay if configured
- (L) Auto Pause on Unavailable – When set to Yes agents devices that report congestion upon a call attempt will be considered as a missed call and auto paused immediately or after the auto pause delay if configured
- (M) Auto Pause Delay - This setting will delay the auto pause of an agent by auto pause delay seconds from when it last took a call. For example, if this were set to 120 seconds, and a new call is presented to the agent 90 seconds after they last took a call, they will not be auto paused if they don't answer the call. If presented with a call 120 seconds or later after answering the last call, they will then be auto paused. If they have taken no calls, this will have no effect.
Capacity Settings
Configure the Capacity Settings as needed.
- (A) Max Callers - Maximum number of people waiting in the queue (0 for unlimited).
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(B) Join Empty - Determines if new callers will be admitted to the Queue, if not, the Failover Destination will be immediately pursued. The options include:
- Yes: Always allows the caller to join the Queue.
- Strict: Same as Yes but more strict. Simply speaking, if no Agent could answer the phone then do not admit them. If Agents are inuse or ringing someone else, caller will still be admitted.
- Ultra Strict: Same as Strict plus a Queue Member must be able to answer the phone now to let them in. Simply speaking, any Available Agents that could answer, but are currently on the phone or ringing on behalf of another caller will be considered Unavailable.
- No: Callers will not be admitted if all Agents are paused, show an invalid state for their device, or have penalty values less than QUEUE_MAX_PENALTY (not currently set in FreePBX dialplan).
- Loose: Same as No except Callers will be admitted if there are Paused Agents who could become available.
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(C) Leave Empty - Determines if callers should be exited prematurely from the Queue in situations where it appears no one is currently available to take the call. The options include:
- Yes: Callers will exit if all agents are paused, show an invalid state for their device or have penalty values less than QUEUE_MAX_PENALTY (not currently set in FreePBX dialplan)..
- Strict: Same as Yes but more strict. Simply speaking, if no agent could answer the phone then have them leave the queue. If agents are in use or ringing someone else, caller will still be held.
- Ultra Strict: Same as Strict plus a queue member must be able to answer the phone 'now' to let them remain. Simply speaking, any 'available' agents that could answer but are currently on the phone or ringing on behalf of another caller will be considered unavailable.
- Loose: Same as Yes except Callers will remain in the Queue if there are paused agents who could become available.
- No: Never have a caller leave the Queue until the Max Wait Time has expired.
- (D) Penalty Members Limit - A limit can be set to disregard penalty settings, allowing all members to be tried, when the queue has too few members. No penalty will be weighed in if there are only X or fewer Queue Members.
Announcements Settings Tab
Configure Caller Position Announcements and Periodic Announcements as needed.
- (A)Frequency - How often to announce Queue position and estimated hold time (0 to Disable Announcements).
- (B) Announce Position - Yes or No toggle determines if the system will announce position of caller in the Queue.
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(C) Announce Hold Time - Determines if the estimated hold time is included in the Position Announcement.
- Yes, No, or Once; hold time will not be announced if <1 minute.
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(D) IVR Break Out Menu - You can optionally present an existing IVR as a 'break out' menu.
This IVR must only contain single-digit 'dialed options'. The Recording set for the IVR will be played at intervals specified in 'Repeat Frequency', below. - (E) Repeat Frequency - How often to announce a voice menu to the caller (0 to Disable Announcements).
Additional Configuration Tab
Configure Events, Stats and Advanced and Reset Queue Stats settings as needed.
- (A) Event When Called - When this option is set to YES, the following manager events will be generated: AgentCalled, AgentDump, AgentConnect and AgentComplete.
- (B) Member Status Event - When set to YES, the following manager event will be generated: QueueMemberStatus
- (C) Service Level - Used for service level statistics (calls answered within service level time frame)
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(D) Agent Regex Filter - Provides an optional regex expression that will be applied against the agent callback number. If the callback number does not pass the regex filter then it will be treated as invalid. This can be used to restrict agents to extensions within a range, not allow callbacks to include keys like *, or any other use that may be appropriate.
- An example input might be: ^([2-4][0-9]{3})$ This would restrict agents to extensions 2000-4999.
- Or ^([0-9]+)$ would allow any number of any length, but restrict the * key.
WARNING: make sure you understand what you are doing or otherwise leave this blank!
- (E) Run - Determines how often the the Queue Stats are Reset.
- Never: Queue stats will never reset automatically.
- Hourly: Run once an hour, beginning of hour.
- Daily: Run once a day, at midnight.
- Weekly: Run once a week, midnight on Sunday.
- Monthly: Run once a month, midnight, first of month.
- Annually: Run once a year, midnight, Jan. 1st.
Reload PBX
Anytime changes are made to the phone system, you will need to reload the PBX for those settings to take effect.
Once all settings are configured. Click the Apply Changes button at the bottom left of the tab.
A notice will open, prompting you to reload the PBX to activate your changes.
10.) Click the Close button.
11.) Click the Phone System main menu.
12.) Click the Reload PBX menu option.
A Confirmation window will open.
13.) Click the Reload button.
The Reload PBX page will open. Changes may take up to fifteen minutes to take effect.
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