Internal Forwarding with Origin information

[Adam Overberg]

Hello,

I want to preface this post with a note. I will be dealing in absolutes when speaking of the needs of my office. I have the disadvantage of working in a non-flexible environment, where requests are demands, and annoyances are unacceptable. I may not agree with the complaints of my colleagues by I must bend to their wishes. So if I make reference to a problem, keep in mind that I must change the system, not have them change their ways... Yay me.

Also: All incoming calls to our office go to the receptionist and then are forwarded to the intended party.

That being said.

Here is what I am needing help with. The attorneys in my office all have assistants (some share but that is unimportant). When those assistants answer the phone they do so as "the office of their attorney". When they are out of the office another assistant is assigned to be their backup and answer the phone, again as the "Office of the attorney being called", in their stead.

Before we switched to 3CX, they would use a function called "Follow to" which would forward their calls unconditionally but also show that the call was being forwarded from another extension.

Problem 1:
With the 3CX system if they turn on Out Of Office and have the system set to forward, the receiver of the call can't tell it is being forwarded from one phone to theirs. This is important because the need to answer as a specific office depending on where the caller is trying to reach.

Solution:
Currently I have them setup into Call Queues that are labeled with their names. Every call that is forwarded to them (their queue) has their name appended to the caller ID. If they are out, their covering assistant can sign into their queue and get the calls instead and see where they are coming from.

Problem 2:
Unfortunately, by having them in a queue they only receive one call at a time, and do not get any subsequent calls to their phones until they finish the call they are on.

Solution:
I am open to suggestions. Can I make a change to how the system handles caller ID, so if a call is forwarded it includes where it came from (This is the ideal solution as it would eliminate the need for the queue and solve problem 2)? Or can I allow calls set to go into a queue to ring through regardless of whether they are on a call or not?

I have seen other suggest setting up multiple extensions to ring to one phone and then adding them to one queue, but this complicates when one assistant covers another assistant's phone.

Or is their something completely different that I'm not thinking of.

Help me 3CX! You're my only hope

 

[leejor]

I can try to answer part...

can I allow calls set to go into a queue to ring through regardless of whether they are on a call or not?

If someone is already on a call, then as far as I'm aware, the only way for a set to take additional calls from a queue on that set, is to have a second extension appearance, on a second line key, that is a part of the same queue. That sort of defeats the purpose of a queue, to allow the queue member to deal with one call at a time, as they will have to quickly wrap up, or place the first call on hold.

 

[Adam Overberg]

That sort of defeats the purpose of a queue, to allow the queue member to deal with one call at a time, as they will have to quickly wrap up, or place the first call on hold.

But that's exactly what they want. I realize that it defeats the purpose of a traditional "Queue". But a queue isn't actually what I want. It's just what I'm using to replace a function (Follow To) which allowed USER 1 to Forward their incoming calls to USER 2 as well as inform USER 2 that the call wasn't originally intended for them. And if the call went unanswered it would go back to USER 1's phone.

Since I can label Call Queues, if USER 1 is covering USER 2's phone calls they can log into Queue 1 and Queue 2 and differentiate which call is going where and answer appropriately.

Creating multiple extensions per phone and then signing them into the queues would complicate covering someone else's phone because User 1 would need to sign in multiple extensions into Queue 1 and Queue 2.

Ideally I would like to not use Queues at all to fix this problem.

 

[leejor]

Since I can label Call Queues, if USER 1 is covering USER 2's phone calls they can log into Queue 1 and Queue 2 and differentiate which call is going where and answer appropriately.

Creating multiple extensions per phone and then signing them into the queues would complicate covering someone else's phone because User 1 would need to sign in multiple extensions into Queue 1 and Queue 2.

You are also able to label Ring Groups, and a ring group, or multiple groups can be spread across multiple sets, or could be two or three keys on one set. Calls could also pass though a "dummy extension" (an extension with no physical set, only used to allow call forwarding functions), before being passed to a ring group.

 

[Adam Overberg]

Can a DSS key be programed that would sign all extensions on the phone into a queue?

 

[leejor]

I'm thinking...probably not, as each line key (extension number) would be signed in individually, each being considered a separate agent.

 

[jasit]

there are a couple options/tricks that we use.

So receptionist A will be extension 230 as her default, but she has exts setup 230 - 236
receptionist B will be extension 240 - 246
c will be 250 - 256

on your receptions phones, setup 1 ext for each of the receptionists. and blf keys to the other 5 extensions. This way they can see them ring (line will flash) but they won't get all the ringing at the same time.
then create a ring groups, and you can try it a couple of ways.


then create a ring group for receptionist A
Ring Strategy Ring all
then put in the 2nd extension for all the receptionists

then create a ring group for receptionist B
Ring Strategy Ring all
then put in the 3nd extension for all the other receptionists

and so on.

When the reception leaves, have her change her status to be away and forward to her ring group number


when her phone rings, it should then flash on the 2nd ext line on all of the receptionist's phones

you can change your strategy to fit your needs.
you can also create a digital receptionist for each of the laywers with their name and then in your inbound rules have the did name forward, so you know whos calls are going where.