Setting up a Call Queue

A Call Queue places incoming calls in line to be answered while agents are busy with other calls. Queued calls are distributed to the next available agent in the order they are received. After a Queue has been created, it can be assigned to a specific Team (or multiple Teams) and configured to feature greetings, in queue options, and hold music.

Step 1: Creating a Team for your Call Queue

The first thing you'll need to do is create a Team of agents to assign to your call queue (if you have not already done so). 

Step 2: Creating a Call Queue

Once you have created your Team, you can start to build your Queue. To create a Queue, follow the steps below:

• In the menu on the left side of your Kixie Dashboard, navigate to Manage > Inbound > Queues
• On the Queues page click the blue "+ ADD" button in the top right corner of the page
• The “Add New Queue” window will open
• Inside the Queue window there are four sections: Settings, Queue Hours, Messages, and Members. Below are more details on each section:

Settings:

1. Queue Name: Displays in the PowerCall dialer on incoming calls
2. Email/Send Voicemail to: Indicates the email(s) you would like voicemail emails sent to (separate multiple email addresses with a comma and a space)
3. Max Hold Time: Indicates the maximum amount of time a caller will wait in the queue before it is routed to the "No Answer" action 
4. Agent Ring Time: The amount of time (in seconds) a call will ring to an agent before moving on to the next available agent in the queue
5. Options:
   • Play Est. Wait Time: Toggles on/off a recording that tells the caller their place in the queue and estimated wait time (Note: estimated wait time is an average based off of the last 5 calls)
   • AutoAnswer Calls: Instead of receiving a prompt to accept/reject incoming calls, available agents will immediately be connected to the next caller in the queue
   • In Queue Options: Toggle on/off the in queue IVR options.
     • • Leave a voicemail: Allows the caller to press 2 to navigate directly to leave a voicemail
       • Request Callback: Allows the caller to Press 1 to request an automatic callback instead of waiting on the line. (Example: If caller number 10 in the queue requests a callback, the call will disconnect on the caller’s end but will remain in the Queue. After the 9 other callers in front of caller #10 are served, an available agent will be prompted to automatically place an outbound call to the caller)
   • Auto-answer Callbacks: Instead of receiving a prompt to initiate a callback, the dialer of the next available agent will immediately start calling
   • Turn on DND After Missed Call: If an available agent misses a call or rejects a call, their Do Not Disturb (DND) will be toggled on
   • Auto-subscribe to Queue on Login: Agents on Team(s) assigned to the Queue will automatically be subscribed to the Queue when they login to the dialer. If this is off, agents will have to subscribe to the queue manually each time they login to the Kixie dialer.
   • Assign Ownership on Answer: If a contact is not in a connected CRM, or if the contact has no owner in the CRM, the contact will be assigned to whoever answers the call
   • Override Owner on Answer: If an agent who is not the contact owner in a connected CRM answers a call from a contact owned by somebody else, the contact owner for that contact in the CRM will be changed to the agent that took the call
6. No Answer Action: The action that will occur after the caller reaches the Max Hold Time
7. Initial Attempt Behavior: 
   • Ignore Ownership: The call will route to the next available agent, regardless of contact ownership in your connected CRM
   • Route to Owner Only: If the CRM contact owner of the inbound number is in the queue, then the call will route only to that contact owner / Kixie agent. If the contact owner / Kixie agent does not answer, it will not route to other available Kixie agents in the queue.
   • Route to Owner then Proceed to Add to List: If the CRM contact owner of the inbound number is in the queue, then the call will route to that contact owner / Kixie agent. If the contact owner / Kixie agent does not answer, it will route to other available Kixie agents in the queue.

Queue Hours

In the Queue Hours section, you can set the hours during which incoming calls to the Queue will ring to available agents. The “Outside Queue Hours Action” determines how calls will be routed outside of the Queue Hours.

Messages

The Messages section allows you to configure the different messages you can use for your queue:

1. Queue Greeting Type: Sets the greeting for callers coming into the queue. This allows you to choose the type of greeting you would like (None, Text-to-Speech, MP3, Record Now)
2. Queue Greeting: Allows you to type in your greeting or upload an MP3 file
3. Queue Voicemail & Voicemail Type: Allows you to setup the voicemail greeting for your queue
4. Queue Hold Music: Allows you to upload an MP3 of your hold music that the caller will hear while waiting in the queue

Members:

This is where you assign a Team of agents you would like to assign to the queue:

After selecting a team, click “ADD” and then click “SAVE” before closing the window. If you like, you can add multiple teams before clicking “SAVE”.

Step 3: Adding your Queue to an IVR or Assigning a Phone Number

The final step is to decide how callers will get to your queue. You can either have you queue assigned to an IVR or attach a phone number to your queue.

Assign to an IVR

1. Navigate to the IVR menu (Manage > Inbound > IVRs)
2. Select your desired IVR or create a new IVR
3. In the selected IVR settings either add a new option or edit a current option
4. In the Action Type select "Queue" and then select your Queue

Assign a Phone Number

1. Navigate to the "Numbers" menu (Manage > Numbers > Kixie Numbers)
2. Select your desired Number or purchase a new Number
3. In the "Number for" field select "Queue" and then choose your Queue

To learn more details about how calls behave in a Queue, please visit the Call Queue FAQ article.