Forward all inbound rules

[bashrael]

Hi all,
I have following situation.
We have a receptionist extension who receives a couple of inbound calls.
On some days the reception is closed and other people take over this function from their desk.


So is it possible to forward all calls to the reception extension to a certain extension with a dial code? It's difficult to work with normal forwarding rules since the people who takeover the receptionist are not always the same and the times this is needed also changes.

And second question. I would like to program an Unconditional Call Forward on the fanvil x3s. Anyone knows the dial code for this?
thanks!

 

[JCLloyd]

Can the ones who would be answering the calls for the receptionist hear the console ring? If so, you might be able to set up a BLF with *20*{Ext} to pick up the call.

How about setting the operator extension to ring to a Ring Group when the console is unavailable during business hours? It would mean putting all potential covering extensions in the group and having them all ring no matter who is covering.

These would at least remove the need to manually set and reset the forward rules.

 

[bashrael]

Hi,
no they can't hear the console ring.

The second suggestion is an option but like you said. All the covering extensions would hear the console ring.
With their old pbx they could 'program'the forward with a dial code and also reset it with another dial code.
Not sure it's possible with the 3cx. maybe an option would be to set an unconditional forward on the receptionist console. almost the same except they would have to stand up and walk to the receptionist console.

 

[VoIPTools]

Here is a crazy idea. Create a queue and change the queue's on-hold music to the 3CX ringing wav file. Set the polling strategy to ring all. Then add the receptionist plus all the backup receptionists to the queue. On your inbound rules send the calls that would normally go to the receptionist to this new queue. Normally the backup receptionists would be logged out of the queue. When the primary receptionist is gone, the appropriate backup receptionist can log into the queue.

With this approach, the primary receptionist doesn't have to do anything. You don't need any dial codes, or change presence settings, or alter forwarding rules. You just have the appropriate person log into the queue. From the caller's perspective, they just hear ringing the same way they do now. What's not to like?

 

[JCLloyd]

Absolutely brilliant, Matthew! I like that approach, but can't speak for bashreal. I currently don't have an environment to work with call queues, and you just gave me a reason to...

 

[bashrael]

Hi Matthew,
thats a great idea!

I was making things too complex I guess.
I'll try it tomorrow.
thanks!

 

[telprom_support]

I have an almost exact situation with two different receptionists that forward calls to different people when they are away from their desks.

The problem is that they sometimes FWD their calls to an external number, so the above mentioned Queue idea doesn't work.

I tried setting the call forward on the IP phones (the receptionists use Yealink SIP-T46G IP phones.) but this doesn't work - even after setting Forward All Calls, the phone still rings. I contacted 3CX support and they say that 302 Moved Temporarily is not supported on endpoints. I'm very dissappointed since this is a very basic and a very useful feature.

Anyway, 3CX Support says that there is a workaround:

The only way for call forward to work without using 3CX status is by modifying the template of the phone, however bear in mind that we do not support template customization and we cannot assist with the changes.

Can anyone assist in modifying the template for this to work?