Note: If you have signed up for your account after 24 April 2023, please visit the following article: Setting up call queues

The call queue is a call flow management feature that can be assigned to any number in your account. All calls made to that number follows the routing behavior specified in the call queue. By default, you will have a global call queue in your Phone Settings. You can also configure multiple call queues according to your business requirements. With call queues, you can route the inbound calls to a particular agent, team, or an external number.  

In addition, the call queue has the following additional capabilities:

• Smart Escalation (Pro+): Allows you to route a caller from one call queue to another call queue. You can use this when your team or agent is unavailable or busy to take calls. For more information, see How to set up smart escalations?

• Wait Queue (Growth+): Lets you place your callers in a queue when all agents are busy taking other calls. For more information, see Configuring Wait Queue Settings.

• Callback (Enterprise): Allows your customers to opt for callback instead of waiting in queues. For more information, see Configuring Wait Queue Settings.

With call queues, you can:

• Distribute and manage calls evenly so that no calls are missed or abandoned

• Set easy fallback actions for each call center scenario (example, what should happen if an agent is offline)

To set up a call queue:

1. Login to the web application.
   
   

2. Go to Admin Settings > Channels > Phone > Call Workflows.

3. Click on the New Call Queue option.
   

4. Call Queue Name: Enter a name for the call queue.
   
   

5. Play Message: Select a message to initiate the call queue. Freschaller provides a set of default voice messages. You can either choose to select this message or create a custom message.
   
   

6. Caller Will Be Attended by: Select who should attend the calls coming to this queue. You can choose to send the call to:

   • All agents in your account

   • A specific team in your account

   • A specific agent

   • External number
     
     

7. Route Calls By: If you select a team in the previous step, you can choose how you want to route the calls within that team. The options are:

   • Calling all agents simultaneously: The call will ring to all agents in your account or team simultaneously.

   • Calling the most idle agent first: This routes the call to the agent who is not busy and is available to take calls.
     You can also set how long you want the phone to ring for each agent before trying the next agent.
     
     
     

8. Call Rules: The call rules let you decide how to handle the call if the following conditions occur:

   • If (agent) not answering

   • If agent is online but not answering

   • If agent is offline
     
     

9. For each rule mentioned above, you can take appropriate fallback actions:

   • Send to another call queue: Select this option to send the customer to another call queue. You can select from the list of call queues that available in your account or create a new call queue.
     Note: This option is available from Pro+ plan.

   • Send to Voicemail: Select this option to play a prerecorded voice message to your customers. You can select from the list of messages that are already available in your account or create a new message.

   • Place Caller in Wait Queue: Select this to hold your caller in the wait queue. If you select this option, you can configure the wait queue settings. For more details, see Configuring Wait Queues.
     Note: This option is available from Growth+ plans.

   • Hangup: Select this to hang up. Select the message to play before hanging up or create a new message.
     
     

10. Click Save
    
    

11. Once you save the call queue, you can assign the queue to any phone number in your account.

Configure Wait Queue Settings

1. To activate a wait queue, select "Place caller in Wait Queue" and scroll to the "Wait queue settings" drop-down at the bottom of the page.
   
   

2. Queue Size: Define the maximum queue size (i.e., number of callers waiting in line) and add the message to be played to any caller placed in the wait queue. You can select one from a list of your saved messages or create a new one. 
   
   

3. Play Wait Message for Caller: Select the message to play when the caller enters the wait queue.
   
   

4. Append Queue Position to Wait Message: Enable this option to communicate the queue position to callers along with the welcome message. 
   
   

5. If the Queue is Full: Specify what happens to the call if the maximum queue size is exceeded.
   For example, if the maximum queue size is 5 people, you can direct the 6th caller in that queue to leave a voicemail, hang up, or be attended to by another queue (Smart Escalation).
   
   

6. For Max Time (Secs): Set a maximum wait time within a wait queue. This prevents customers from waiting on the line endlessly even if they're within the maximum queue size for that queue.
   
   For example, if you set the maximum queue size to 5 people, you may not want the 6th caller to wait for 3 hours until your agents have finished speaking to the other 5 people. You may not want them to hang up and create a missed call either.
   
   For this reason, maximum queue size and wait time work together to create a better experience for your customers. For example, if you have a maximum queue size of 19 and a maximum wait time of 10 minutes, if any of these 19 callers have been waiting for over 10 minutes, they will be redirected to the secondary action you specify. The option “If the customer waits longer” lets you choose whether you want to be directed the callers to another queue (Smart Escalation), leave a voicemail, or hang up. This way, the maximum wait time serves as a cutoff mechanism.
   
   

7. Callback: Toggle the callback option to allow the customers to opt for a callback. The customers can use this instead of waiting for the queue.
   
   

8. Play Callback Message For Caller: Select the callback message to play.
   
   

9. Play Callback Confirmation For Caller: Select the message to play to confirm the customer's confirmation for callback.
   
   

10. If Callback is Unsuccessful: Select the action to take if the callback was unsuccessful.
    

    Note: The callback option is available only for Enterprise customers.
    

    
    

           Considerations for wait queues:

• The maximum queue size is 20 for Growth plan. Pro and Enterprise customers can have a maximum of 500 callers in the wait queue.

• The default minimum and maximum waiting time values you can set are 30 seconds and 15 minutes (900 seconds) respectively. However, for Pro and Enterprise customers, the maximum wait time can be extended to 4 hours (on request only).