Solved Busy / Engaged Tone for busy queues

[Complex Nurd]

Hello All

I am looking for a solution to the busy tone, for a queue that has reached maximum callers in the queue.

Looking at the Hosted instance of 3CX I see no way of returning busy to the caller for when the queue hits it's limit, the "End Call" option just cuts the caller off which would be confusing to the caller. I see a work around whereby I could set up a Digital Receptionist and record busy tone as the greeting and then configure the queue to point to that in "Destination if no answer". That could be limiting if the customer wants busy when they are busy and either overflow of voicemail on no answer from the group (as my customer does). On this basis does anyone know if the Call Flow Designer would be able to acheive this for a non-hosted 3CX linux instance?

Thanks in advance!

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Hi @Complex Nurd,

Why not have the IVR message mention that they are busy and if you'd like to leave a voicemail press 1 etc? If I understood you correctly you want the Destination if no answer of the queue to route to the IVR (good idea) play the prompt and then offer them a 'leave a voicemail' option?

 

[Complex Nurd]

Thanks for coming back to me so quickly.

I did look at that option. The customer in question is actually a busy medical vertical, so whilst they have calls in the queue they would like the initial receptionists to handle the calls but if a caller has been waiting in the queue for longer than 3 minutes then they would expect the calls to overflow to other admin staff and this would ring untill answered or the caller hung up and called back outside of the peak time. They have to manage the peaks appropriately. What they don't want is for the SIP trunk to max out at peak times such that no one else can make outgoing calls so they have to limit the main number queue and if they give the option for callers to leave a message then the poor receptionists would be overwelmed and there are so many other complications with voicemails in these type of environments. I'm thinking a simple busy when busy would be the most logical option for this, and in any environment for that matter. Hope that makes sense.

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Right @Complex Nurd,

Then I think the initial idea of having the destination if no answer pointing to an IVR that plays the busy message, then forwarding that to a the Voicemail extension of a Failover Queue (for other admin staff) would work here. This means the receptionists wouldn't receive the VMs, instead the failover staff can check them out while the receptionists just deal with calls.

If you had it go from Reception >> IVR >> Failover Queue, it would be using more SC to sit in the 2nd queue, whereas if you got it out the way as a VM it would shorten the time SCs are in use. In either scenario there is no way to dodge the SC bullet but you can limit the amount of time spent using a SC.

 

[Complex Nurd]

Thanks for your suggestion, unfortunately that just would work in this scenario and my customer would throw it out. In their original PBX this is simple, set a queue limit and decide what you want to do when the limit is reached, if you want busy you get busy. Queuing timeout once you are in the queue is a different set of options and should be so.

Does this mean there would be no way around this, even with CFD, would I end up with the same result when it comes to returning busy signal?

 

[Complex Nurd]

Would this work? Check the queue and if there are 4 or more play a busy.wav and disconnect, 3 call or less transfer to the queue?

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Hi @Complex Nurd,

With a bit of experimentation, this could be a solution for you. If you place it before the queue it should do what you're intending - move anything greater than the limit to the IVR and anything less than the limit, should pass to the failover queue. Note that this won't count the calls already moved over to the admin queue, but instead it will count how many are in the queue right now. Play with it and see if you can get it working and let me know.

Greater than calls can be routed to the IVR, have a prompt played and end call.

 

[leejor]

Reaching a busy signal after someone has been waiting for 3 minutes, expecting their call to be answered, only causes frustration. How would you feel if that happened, when calling a company? That's why most businesses don't do that.

As suggested, you need to deal with this before they have to wait, or at the very least, route to a recording (IVR?), that explains why they can't speak to someone at this time, even if you don't give an option, to leave a message.

 

[Complex Nurd]

Reaching a busy signal after someone has been waiting for 3 minutes, expecting their call to be answered, only causes frustration. How would you feel if that happened, when calling a company? That's why most businesses don't do that.

Agree, you want busy tone on detecting the queue is at it's limit first. Ideally there would be 2 options within a queue for this - An option for busy / max callers and another option for no answer within the queue.

 

[Complex Nurd]

Play with it and see if you can get it working and let me know.

It works! so I get busy when the calls waiting in the queue are at max and I still have no answer to play with

Note that this won't count the calls already moved over to the admin queue

Perhaps skills bassed routing for this? Is that an option for our admin staff, just set a skill level higher?

 

[Complex Nurd]

Perhaps skills bassed routing for this? Is that an option for our admin staff, just set a skill level higher?

Just checked, hmm, perhaps not.

However, I think I can work something out from here I'm sure. Thanks for your help all!

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Sure thing @Complex Nurd, if you get stuck finishing off the project, you can always post in our CFD section of the Forum.