Day/Lunch/Night ring groups

[jakthree]

3CX v15
I need to put a Day/Lunch/Night (DLN) key on the receptionist's phone.
When the user arrives in the morning, the phone system will (should) be in night ring mode.
The user will press the DLN key. The system should reply with a voice message 'Press 1 for Day, Press 2 for Lunch, Press 3 for Night'
As you can probably guess, upon pressing '1' sets all inbound calls to ring the Day Ring Group of extensions.
Pressing '2' sets all inbound calls to ring the Lunch Ring Group of extensions.
Pressing '3' sets all inbound calls to ring the Night Ring Group of extensions.
The system will remain in its last mode until changed by the user or closed business hours toggle system to Night mode.

Creating the Day/Lunch/Night ring groups is easy. What I don't know is...

1. how to get the system to play the message.
2. how to set inbound rules 'Route calls to - Destination for calls during office hours - Extension -> Day or Lunch ring group.

(Destination for calls outside office hours can remain -> Night ring group)

Thank you,

 

[JohnS_3CX]

There may may be another way to achieve this. You can create an extension that will receive the inbound calls, and then use Statuses to divert the calls to each of the 3 ring groups.

You can then change modes automatically on a schedule, or you can have the receptionist change the status of the extension manually via the webclient

 

[jakthree]

JohnS_3CX,

Is this what you had in mind?
I have multiple inbound routes
DID: 7776661111
Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999
Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999

DID: 7776662222
Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999
Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999

DID: 7776663333
Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999
Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999

extension to catch inbound calls: 1999
name: Inbound Calls
voicemail: disabled
Forwarding Rules

Status: Available (Day)
Internal Calls:
Time out: 0 second
Forward to: End Call
Busy: End Call
External Calls:
Forward to: End Call
Busy: End Call
Options:
Mobile: no
Accept multiple calls: yes
Queues: no
Ring groups: no
Greeting: none
Auto Switch:
Available during office hours: ???
Exceptions:
CID: 7776661111 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group
CID: 7776662222 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group
CID: 7776663333 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group

Status: Lunch (Lunch)
Internal Calls:
Time out: 0 second
Forward to: End Call
Busy: End Call
External Calls:
Forward to: End Call
Busy: End Call
Options:
Mobile: no
Accept multiple calls: yes
Queues: no
Ring groups: no
Greeting: none
Auto Switch:
Available during office hours: ???
Exceptions:
CID: 7776661111 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Lunch Ring Group
CID: 7776662222 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Lunch Ring Group
CID: 7776663333 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Lunch Ring Group

Status: Away (Night)
Internal Calls:
Time out: 0 second
Forward to: End Call
External Calls:
Forward to: End Call
Busy: End Call
Options:
Queues: no
Ring groups: no
Greeting: none
Auto Switch:
Available during office hours: ???
Exceptions:
CID: 7776661111 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Night Ring Group
CID: 7776662222 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Night Ring Group
CID: 7776663333 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Night Ring Group

If not then can you provide example of how to setup the extension?
What happens is if there is a second inbound call before the first call is picked up by an extension in the ring group?
Can extension 1999 be hidden from all extensions contacts/directory except for the receptionist's?

Thank you,

 

[JohnS_3CX]

So here we always send all inbound calls to our inbound extension:

DID: 7776661111​

Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999​

Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999​

​

DID: 7776662222​

Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999​

Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999​

​

DID: 7776663333​

Route calls to - during office hours -> extension: 1999​

Route calls to - outside office hours -> extension: 1999​

​

Next we go to extension 1999 and set it up as follows to switch automatically according to schedule:

Forwarding Rules as follows​

​

Status: Available (Day)​

External Calls - Forward to: Day Ring Group​

If I am busy or my phone is unregistered, forward calls to: Day Ring Group​

Auto Switch: ON - Set to Available during office hours and it will switch according to the Global office hours and break times, and will cycle between Available/Away/DND automatically every day.​

​

Status: Away (Lunch Time)​

External Calls - Forward to: Lunch Ring Group​

If I am busy or my phone is unregistered, forward calls to: Lunch Ring Group​

​

Status: DND (Night or Outside Office Hours)​

External Calls - Forward to: Night Ring Group​

If I am busy or my phone is unregistered, forward calls to: Night Ring Group​

​

The Exceptions bypass the Statuses, and you won't be able to switch DLN as you described.
Exceptions:
CID: 7776661111 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group
CID: 7776662222 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group
CID: 7776663333 (set to above route)
Received During: All Hours
Forward to: Extension -> Day Ring Group

As for the ring group behavior, it will depend according to the strategy you have set: If ring all, and nobody has yet picked up, then a second call will be sent to the Busy forwarding scenario (i.e End Call or whatever you choose). If Prioritized hunt, the next call will reach the next agent that is available. You could consider looking into Call Queues in this case so that callers can stay in a queue when all agents are busy.

The extension cannot be hidden per se, you can create a new user group (with Publish group information to all members unticked) and only add this extension and the receptionist there so only they can see each other. Under the receptionist's rights, pick the hidden group created and you have the ability to make the receptionist change the status of 1999 by ticking "Perform Receptionist Operations". Now the receptionist can manually switch status on the 1999 extension at any time via the webclient.

 

[jakthree]

JohnS_3CX,

I worked with your suggestions and made some changes. I have shortened the details for readability.

ext 1999 - forward rules
time out: 1 second
available (day): Day Ring Group Immediate (DRGImd)
away (lunch): Lunch Ring Group Immediate (LRGImd)
DND (night): Night Ring Group

ring groups
DRGImd time out (20 seconds) forward rule: Day Ring Group Delayed

An incoming call is routed to ext 1999 (available).
Ext 1999 times out (1 sec) and sends call to DRGDelayed.
DGRDelayed times out (20 sec) and sends call to Night Ring Group.

This is working reasonably well. An extension in DRGImmedidate is 2003 (Yealink T23G).
The display on 2003 shows
"WIRELESS CALLER:InboundRuleNameay Ring Group Immediateay Ring Group Delayed"
The 3CX call log shows
WIRELESS CALLER:InboundRuleName (xxxyyyzzzz)
The web client shows
WIRELESS CALLER:InboundRuleNameay Ring Group Immediate xxxyyyzzzz

xxxyyyzzzz is place holder for calling number
WIRELESS CALLER is the CID of the calling number

Why is all the routing info displayed?
How do I prevent InboundRuleName, Day Ring Group I, Day Ring Group D route info from showing up on the IP phone or webclient or andriod client?

Thank you,

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi jakthree,

I'm glad it got sorted. You can go to the Contacts menu of your management console, click on Options and you will see the Add Group, Queue or DID/DDI Names to Caller ID section which allows you to remove the additional info from the caller ID or change its order and see which display mode works best for you.

 

[jakthree]

JohnS_3CX,
I un-selected Add Group...to Caller ID and that fixed the additional info. Thank you

An incoming call is routed to ext 1999 (available).
Ext 1999 times out (1 sec) and sends call to DRGI (Day Immediate).
DRGI times out (20 sec) and sends call to DRGD (Day Delayed).
DRGD times out (40 sec) and sends call to NRG (Night Ring Group).
NRG times out (60 sec) and send call to ext 1000 voicemail.

In this example,
Ext 1000 is a member of DRGI, DRGD and NRG.
Ext 1001 is a member of DRGD and NRG.
Ext 1002 is a member of NRG.

When a call comes in, only ext 1000 rings (DRGI).
If ext 1000 answers and hangs up then call is ended.
else
If ext 1000 rejects (or ignores) the call then
The call is forwarded to DRGD and ext 1000, 1001 rings.
This is probably expected behavior upon reject but
Because 1000 rejected the call then 1000 should not ring again. (obviously if the call ends the 1000 won't ring)
If ext 1000 or 1001 rejects (or ignores) the call then
The call is forwarded to NRG and ext 1000, 1001, 1002 rings.
Same issue as above
Because 1000 and 1001 rejected the call then 1000 and 1001 should not ring again.

Trying to explain what the previous KSU did is helpful for me to understand what I should do.
The previous system (four copper PSTN lines), on an incoming call. the phones in the active ring group (day/lunch/night) ring. The options were, 1. answer (lift handset or press speaker button) 2. let the line ring until the standalone answer machine picked up on the 9th ring. 3. any ringing phone could end the call (lift handset and hangup). The previous phones did not have Reject, Ignore, Decline, Silence, Forward or Voicemail. Now that the users have 'Reject' ability, I don't know how to handle it. It makes sense that when reject pressed the extension should stop ringing. If all phones it the ring group (RG) reject the call then forward to the next group. I doesn't make sense that the extension(s) that rejected the call in the previous RG should start ringing again... and then again in the next RG. 1000 will ring three times even if it was the one that rejected the call. 1000 does need to be a member of all RG in case the previous RG times out.

Is there a way for 'reject' to stick with the extension when forwarded to the next RG?
Is there a better way to chain immediate, delayed and night ring groups?

Possible feature request.
Is there a way to have just one ring group and 'activate' extensions in the group at defined time out intervals?
The idea would be to add immediate, delay1, delay2 time out (mutually exclusive) selections per extension in a ring group. delay1 and delay2 would be global system time outs. Something like this???


Thank you,

 

[leejor]

If an extension is in more than one ring group, then any time a call moves from from RG to another, because it was unanswered, then the call being presented to the same extension is "new". There is no "memory" that the set rejected a call in the last ring group. At least, that's my understanding. You could set the status to Not available, or perhaps DND.

You might want to post your feature suggestion in the Ideas Forum where it can be up-voted.

 

[jakthree]

Done,
If you like it then please rate it. At least I will have a feedback.
Thank you,

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi jakthree,

Usually I try to think what the users want to achieve, rather than how to achieve it. Maybe there is a simpler solution to achieving their goals rather than replicating the call flow of the old system?

This might be my uninformed opinion (since I don't know what the users want in this installation), but it seems like you may be using a complicated way of achieving something that can possibly be redesigned in a simpler way. 3CX allows you to do a number of things with Ring Groups, and much more with Call Queues so since you are replacing an older system with 3CX, it might be a good idea to redesign the call flow from scratch without so many iterations and overlap while taking advantage of the features at your disposal.

Again, I couldn't say of course since I don't know the needs of the end users in this specific installation

 

[jakthree]

JohnS_3CX,
I see that I have strayed from original question I posted. I jumped on the 'create a dummy extension and use status' suggestion. I have gone back and reviewed your original suggestions. As I study my problem, I am learning about features/abilities/concepts built into 3CX that where not available or not being used in the old system. The implementation of a Call Queue is new to me although I know I have been placed into many queues as when calling tech support. I will study Call Queue as a possible solution. If CQ doesn't work out then at least I will know something about it.

Back to my original message of 'press a button to play a message'... Yesterday I found this post
https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/time-scheduling-and-dial-codes.59952/#post-252261
which vioptoys refereed to using Call Flow Designer. You also mentioned 'it might be a good idea to redesign the call flow from scratch'. It seems great minds think alike. I will study CFD. It may not be the answer but I am curious what it can do.

A headache I have is getting management to understand and buy off on any proposed change/solution. They know that the old system is failing and will need replacement soon. They are spoiled and don't like big changes. OK my ranting is over...

Thank you,

 

[jakthree]

Pulling hair out. After creating/building my first CFD project, I discovery that uploading a CFD project is not supported in the 3CX standard edition.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi jakthree,

There's also another feature you can use but it might not apply in this case study, I will mention it anyway in case you can find use for it in future installations:

Settings>Dial Codes>Force 3CX Phone System to IN or OUT of office

This dial code will put the whole PBX out of office by setting the Trunks (not the extensions) in/out of office mode. It can be used for emergency situations (i.e. you must evacuate the building) or if you just want a quick way to put the PBX out of office from a quick dial. This means nobody will receive any calls from the outside world, so I don't think it applies to this customer.

 

[jakthree]

JohnS_3CX,
I am familiar with usage of Settings>Dial Codes>Force 3CX Phone System to IN or OUT of office (*64x) . I have used IN/OUT to handle day/night and lunch mode where lunch RG was same as night RG.
Thank you for the heads up,