Basic queue problem 1

[AirGibson]

IP Office 406
VM Pro

I have a basic queue situation that I'm having trouble getting resolved. The company I am setting this up for has a hunt group for four salesmen named "Sales". It has another hunt group named "SalesOverflow" that will be triggered if the Sales group doesn't answer.


Here are the requirements and problems:
- "Group" ring cannot be used. The users are annoyed by how they go to answer their phone only to find someone else in another room beat them to it. Assume "Circular" must be used.
- Each station in the Sales group needs to be rang for 3 rings to give them a chance to get to the phone (about 14 seconds).
- The client calling in cannot hear more than 3 rings. Many people psychologically start hanging up if they hear the phone ring 5 times or so. So the call *must* be fielded by something quickly.
- The Salesmen are often away from their desks and would have trouble remembering to turn on / off any kind of busy / DND status.


So basically, I need some way to get the call into a queue immediately regardless of if there is an available Sales extention ringing or not since it may be upwards of 40 or 50 seconds before it finally gets to someone who is at their desk. Clients aren't going to listen to the phone ring in their ear for that long.

I tried to do this in VM Pro auto-attendant. Suppose they press 1 for "first available salesman". I tied a "Goto" function to that choice which is supposed to send the call to the "Queued" entry point for Sales. However, when I do this, all I hear is dead air and the group never gets rang.

Surely something like this can be done. I've searched the forum, but it's like a needle in a haystack with my search terms :/

 

[1A2toIP]

Would setting up 1 person in the group and all other phones to cover this extension work?

 

[yeehaababy]

I think the sales men, if you can call them that need some serious attitude adjustment, that is if they wanna sell anything

 

[mforrence]

I recently had a similar situation and here's what we did:

- Hunt group named "sales" with queue enabled.
- Second hunt group names "salespage"
- All sales phones are members of the "Sales" hunt group, however they were disabled.
- All sales phones are members of "Salespage" hunt group.
- All sales phones have a "group" button configured for "sales"

When a caller is transferred to the hunt group, all of the "group" buttons begin to flash. Since there are no active members in the group, the call queues immediately (so the caller is hearing music on hold, not ringing). The first queue message is one second of silence. Then - using the Voicemail Pro "post dial" function we automatically page (using Salespage hunt group) all of the sales phones with pre-recorded words such as "There is a Sales Call". This causes sales folks to look at their telephone and pick the call from queue by pressing their blinking "group" button twice (or group button + "answer" soft key).

This scenario requires digital or IP phones (won't work with analog)

At this location - first one to pick up the call wins. Doesn't allow for even call distribution - but callers don't languish on hold.

Hope that helps.
Mike

 

[AirGibson]

That helps, but still has the "group" issue where several people may race to the phone only to hear dial tone (or nothing) when someone else beats them to it. Plus, it seems overly complicated for something that, IMO, should be pretty simple.

I figured there had to be a simple way to do this, but I guess not. All I really want is a circular hunt group that is ringing the salesmen without the customer to hear the phone ringing since 5 or 6 rings makes many people psychologically want to hang up. That's how long you normally wait when calling a friend on a normal phone if they don't answer.

 

[ronromano]

Why don't you front end the incomming call with an AA greeting then transfer the call to the acd group. Psycologically, people will wait longer once the call has been answered by an AA. I do this for all my call center customers, it also adds a layer of flexibility. Once the AA transfers the calls to the group, a salesman better be ready to answer. The system can't be penalized for doing its job, the salesmae should do thiers too.

 

[AirGibson]

The system does have a basic AA. "Thank you for calling XXX. To speak with the first available sales agent, press 1."

They press 1, and some of them will just hang up if they hear 5 or 6 rings with no answer. Then they'll call back, hit 0 for the operator, and complain that nobody is answering

The salesmen are doing their job, but unfortunately it requires them to leave their desk often meaning an unanttended phone is ringing. I believe the only solution would be for them to start remembering to set thier Away / DND status before leaving the desk, but they come and go so much that I can understand how it would be annoying to constantly change that status. I was hoping I could tailor the phone system to better suit their needs rather than tailoring their jobs to fit the phone system :/

I'm surprised, though, that there is no easy way for a client to ring a hunt group without the client hearing it continuously ring on their phone while they wait.

 

[ronromano]

If that's the case, why don't you set the overflow timer so that after 4 or 5 rings the call gets covered to another group that has the operator in it. I would set the group to most idle so everyone gets a chance. If the salesman whose turn it was to get the call doen't, then the operator will direct the call.

 

[bwilch]

If they're away from their desks frequently, have you thought about wireless handsets such as the 3910?

 

[5thmsstech]

Wireless headset with remote lifter would solve this problem no?

 

[NewNic]

What ever happened to when the phone rings....pick it up and say hello....talk and listen at the right places, hang up pay bill