Finish Queue Before Logout

[mikewoodld]

Is there any way that a queue could be set to not allow new calls in after a certain time, while allowing callers that are currently in the queue to be serviced?

For example, our operators leave around 5p each day but stay a bit later to service remaining calls. Yesterday, we had a handful of people in the queue, one of them waiting for 20 minutes. Our (new) operator set their phone to DND thinking that it just wouldn't allow NEW calls to be added to the queue, but of course this instantly kicked the long-waiting calls to voicemail and we had a few angry customers because of it.

So I guess the question is, is there a way to set up a queue to stop accepting new calls at a certain time while still allowing existing queue callers to be finished up?

 

[Alphabetic]

Settings office hours globally, SIP or inbound rules will route new calls to out of hours

 

[VoIPTools]

In 3CX, if you have calls in the queue and you reach the end of the business hours (as defined in 3CX), any remaining callers in the queue will be routed to the destination no answer. There is no workaround for this.

You could route callers to a CFD that routes calls to the queue until 4:40 p.m. and after 4:40 routes new calls to voicemail.

Or, if callers are routed to the queue by using a dedicated DID, you could put different office hours on those inbound rules.

Neither option is ideal, but perhaps these options are a step in the right direction.

 

[NicholasP_3CX]

What @kieferschild mentioned would be the best course of action, as the Inbound rule would for example send calls 10 minutes before closing to the after hours destination, while the agents themselves would switch their status of the queue to logged out on the closing time.

 

[VoIPTools]

Using the inbound rule option assumes callers always arrive at the queue via an inbound rule. But what if the caller came in on a general DID and then selected the queue option from an IVR, or were transferred to the queue by someone else? You really need both solutions. IVRs could route to the CFD rather than directly to the queue, but staff would need to be trained to transfer callers to voicemail rather than the queue after 4:40 p.m. (good luck with that one). As I said, there is not a perfect solution.