Admin & setup
Advanced Group settings
These settings have a big impact on what happens when calls come into a Group. Here is a breakdown of what each setting does.
Warning
There is a limit of 10 calls at any one time, so if you put more than 10 people into either Call first or Call second, we may not be able to call all of the people who are available.
Call distribution mode
Simultaneous Distribution
If you choose Simultaneous distribution, calls will ring all available people in Call first at the same time. If nobody answers, the call rings everyone in Call second. The people in each box will be called for the Ring time per person. People who are away, idle or out of office are moved down one box (idle and out of office stay in their box if Treat Idle as Available is on). People who are busy, on a call or offline aren't rung.
Balanced Distribution
If you choose Balanced distribution, calls will ring one person at a time. The first person will be the person from Call first who is currently available and has waited for the longest time since they were on a call. If this person doesn't answer, the person with the next longest wait time will be called. Once all of the people in Call first have been called, those in Call second will be attempted. Call attempts will be made to each person in turn until the Total ringing time has been reached. Calls are not automatically distributed to people whose status is currently Red (on a call or busy) or Grey (offline or invisible).
Total ringing time
Depending on the Call distribution mode that you have selected, this setting decides how long the call will ring before it is sent to voicemail.
If you choose Simultaneous distribution, the total ringing time will be the Ring time per person multiplied by how many boxes you wish to ring. For example, if your Ring time per person is 9s and your Total ringing time is 18s, we will ring people in Call first and Call second before sending the call to voicemail.
If you choose Balanced distribution, this setting will limit the number of people that we’ll attempt to call before sending the call to voicemail. This prevents the call having to go through all of your people before getting the opportunity to leave a voicemail.
Ring time per person
This setting changes the time that the people in each box (Call first and Call second) will be called before rolling to the people in the next box. Ring times go up in steps of 3 seconds. Many callers hang up within 15 to 25 seconds of ringing, so make sure Call second starts ringing well before 25 seconds, and don't make callers wait much past 30 seconds for voicemail.
Try people more than once
If you turn on this setting, people in Call first will be tried again on the second attempt while we're also calling people in Call second. This means the boxes are cumulative: everyone already tried rings again on every attempt, which interrupts the whole team. Be careful turning this on, as it can be quite annoying for larger teams.