Ring Everyone or Let Callers Wait in Line?

If your team is small and calls come one at a time, ring everyone at once. If several calls often arrive together, let callers wait in line so nobody lands in voicemail while you are busy. Many businesses use both.

Every business has a busy season. For a heating and air company, it is the first cold week of fall. For a retailer, it is the holidays. For an accountant, it is spring. Setting this up before the rush is much easier than doing it in the middle of it.

What Is the Difference Between Ring Groups and Call Queues?

A call group (some providers call them ring groups) rings several phones for one call, and whoever is free answers. A call queue lets callers wait in line when everyone is busy, then hands each caller to the next person who is free, using a method you choose. A group suits normal days; a queue suits peaks.

When Does Ringing Everyone Work Best?

When a customer calls your main number, a call group rings the front desk, the office manager and the owner, and the first person free picks up. It works best when:

• You have a small team, usually two to six people.
• Calls come in steadily, but not several at a time.
• Anyone on the team can handle most calls.

Do All the Phones in a Group Ring at Once?

Yes. A call group rings everyone in it at the same time, and the first person to pick up gets the call. That is the fastest way to get a call answered. If you want calls handed out in a set order, or spread evenly across the team, that is a job for a queue.

When Should Callers Wait in Line?

A call group has a weakness. If everyone is already on the phone, the next caller has nowhere to go but voicemail. A queue holds callers in line with hold music and gives the caller who has waited longest to the next person who is free. A live board shows who is waiting and which staff are ready or on a call. It works best when:

• Several calls often come in at the same time.
• Callers would rather wait a minute than leave a voicemail.
• Part of your team's day is mainly answering the phone.

Tax preparers know this pattern well; we covered their setup in our post on phone systems for accounting firms. Contractors see it on the first hot or cold day of the year, which is why queues come up so often for home services businesses.

How Should the Queue Hand Out Calls?

• Taking turns (round robin) shares calls evenly across the team.
• Longest idle sends the next call to whoever has been off the phone longest.
• In order tries people in a fixed order, so your front desk answers first and others back them up.

How Do You Make the Wait Pleasant?

Custom hold music is a good start. You can upload your own recording, such as music with a short message that mentions your website or a seasonal offer. Keep any message short, so it does not wear on callers who wait a while. Your phone menu script should match the tone.

What Happens When No One Answers?

• Go to voicemail after a set time, with the message emailed to the people who will call back.
• Send calls to another group, such as a backup team or the owner's cell.
• Let callers press a key to leave a message instead of waiting.

It is better to offer voicemail with a promise of a quick call back than to leave someone on hold for a long time.

How Do You Know If Your Setup Is Working?

Check the call analytics in the customer portal. You can see answered, voicemail and missed calls by day or hour, your busiest times, the most calls you had at once, and which missed callers you reached later. Look for the hour when most calls are missed, then adjust: add a person to the queue at lunch, or change how calls are handed out.

Busy Season Setup Checklist

• List who should answer which calls.
• Create a call group for your main line.
• Add a queue if several calls often arrive at once.
• Choose hold music and an optional short message.
• Decide where calls go when no one answers.
• Review call analytics after the first busy week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do Several Employees Answer One Business Number?

Point the number at a call group that rings everyone at once, or at a queue that hands calls out one at a time. Everyone answers on a desk phone, computer or cell phone.

Can a Call Group Include Cell Phones?

Yes. Anyone with the Telonium app on a cell phone can be part of a group, along with desk phones and computers.

Are Call Groups and Queues Extra?

No. Both are included with every Telonium phone system.

Call us and we will help you set up groups and queues for your team.