Freshcaller enables you to configure wait queues for each call queue and designate them as a fallback action. If customers call a queue with wait queues configured and no agents are available to assist them, they will be placed in the wait queue immediately.
This ensures that no calls are missed when all agents assigned to a call queue are busy attending other calls or not available (not answering or offline). With wait queues, you can:
Improve customer experience
Reduce missed calls/abandoned calls
Manage call queues efficiently
Improve call center performance
Example:
Consider that you have a team of five agents assigned to a “Travel Desk Call Queue”. Let’s say, all 5 agents in the team are busy attending to other customers or unavailable to take calls. Now, assume that a sixth customer calls.
Now since all agents are busy, you may have to route this customer to another call queue or play a prerecorded voicemail message. Instead, you can make the customer wait in the queue until an agent is available to take the call again. Also, within the wait queue settings, you can enable the callback option that lets you return the call to the customers who were waiting in the queue. This way, you can ensure that your callers are not left unattended.
When can you configure wait queues?
You can configure wait queues as a fallback action for the following scenarios:
- When agents are available but not answering
- When agents are online but busy
- When agents are offline
Calls will be assigned from wait queues when one of the following conditions occur:
- Once an agent is available again to answer calls
- When a new call is received
- An existing call ends
By default, calls from the wait queue are assigned to agents based on when they entered the wait queue. However, as an admin, you can choose how you want to prioritize and assign the calls. The options are:
- Assign calls from wait queues based on the wait queue entry time (default behavior)
- Assign calls from wait queues based on the call received time
You can also decide if you want to include calls from all wait queues or individual wait queues for prioritization. For more details, see Customize and Configure Wait Queues.
Callouts to note
- What happens when agent receives calls from multiple queues?
If an agent receives multiple calls from different queues, all three calls ring to the agent simultaneously. The agent can choose to answer any of the calls based on priority.
- What happens when wait queue contains multiple calls from the same queue
If the wait queue has multiple calls from the same call queue, the call will ring to the agents based on the wait time. Only one call will be assigned per agent as the calls are from the same call queue. For example, if a wait queue has 3 calls from Queue 1 and agent A is a part of Queue 1, then, once agent A is available to take calls, only one call will ring to the agent, depending on the wait time.
- When are calls not assigned to available agents from wait queue?
An agent may sometimes not attend calls for various reasons. The agent could have ignored the call by clicking on the Ignore button, or the call could have timed out.
In this case, calls will not ring to the same agent again even though the agent is available to answer calls and the call will be assigned to a new agent if one of the following events occurs:- Another agent is online
- A new call was received in the same queue
- The first call from the queue was dequeued
If the queue to which the call belongs has only one agent, the agent can answer the same call again from the Live Dashboard.