Ring instead on music in call queue

[plugworld2]

Hi,
I have a call queue defined in 3CX.
When users call and are waiting, their call is answered and they hear a music on hold.

Is there a way to disable the music on hold and send a ringing to the user instead of answering the call ?
So, basically, the call will be answered only when the final agent answers the call.

From the caller standpoint, this will then be just like a normal call to a direct user.

Thanks

 

[leejor]

There is a problem with what you are suggesting and the reason most companies don't do this. When callers hear ringback tone, they expect the call to be answered in short order, such as within 7 or 8 rings, they picture a phone ringing on someone's desk. Anything much longer leads people to believe that there is no one to answer their call, or something has gone wrong, and many will hang-up and try (or not) again.

Music lets people know that they are on hold awaiting an agent.

 

[plugworld2]

I can understand that but in our business, we really want the phone to ring instead.
And we want no audio between the caller and the pbx until the phone is answered by the final agent.

So, do you know if this option is supported by 3CX ? Or how can we tweak it to do so ?

 

[leejor]

Someone else may have another, more practical suggestion, but unless the hold music is used elsewhere, you could replace it with a recording of ringback tone.

 

[plugworld2]

Yes. But i also need to prevent the call to be answered which I'm not able to do at the moment.

In fact the callers are automatic systems which need to know when a human really picked up their call. Not when it is waiting.
So, when the call will be Ringing, that means 3CX PBX was reachable and call is waiting.
When the call will be answered, that means a real human agent picked it up.

 

[JonnyM]

You can't have your PBX answer the call without that call being answered. If it's in a queue then it's answered.

If you control both ends of the link you might be able to work something out with sending a DTMF tone when the call is actually answered by a person, but as far as the phone network is concerned that call is connected as soon as it hits your IVR.

 

[tom_ch]

Just get the appropriate ringing tone for your country and set it as music in queue

 

[plugworld2]

You can't have your PBX answer the call without that call being answered. If it's in a queue then it's answered.

If you control both ends of the link you might be able to work something out with sending a DTMF tone when the call is actually answered by a person, but as far as the phone network is concerned that call is connected as soon as it hits your IVR.

What I want is that 3CX send a Ringing to the caller while the PBX is searching for somebody to answer the call.
In other PBX, you have a "Ring instead of MOH" option.

 

[plugworld2]

Just get the appropriate ringing tone for your country and set it as music in queue

But in that case the call will be answered while waiting. Which we don't want

 

[leejor]

tom_ch wrote:Just get the appropriate ringing tone for your country and set it as music in queue


But in that case the call will be answered while waiting. Which we don't want

Unfortunately, that's how a queue works, it answers the call, normally plays a message, then puts a caller on hold until an agent becomes available. If it's a call billed to the caller, then billing starts as soon as the queue answers. it doesn't matter if they are listening to ringback tone or music. There is no way around this.

If the automated system calling in needs to hear ringback tone, then replace your music on hold with the appropriate ringback.

 

[JonnyM]

Is there any reason you can't use a ring group? That will not show the call as connected until a member of the group answers.

 

[plugworld2]

Is there any reason you can't use a ring group? That will not show the call as connected until a member of the group answers.

The problem with the ring group is the fact that, while a call is ringing (before it is answered), all subsequent calls will get a busy signal.
So, customer 1 calls. It rings everybody. During that ring time, every other caller that comes in will get a busy signal...


There is an option where we can ask 3CX to send the others calls even if it is already ringing.
With that option, that means, even if an agent is already on the phone talking to Customer 1, his phone will ring again as soon as another call will comes in. And also, if the agent phone support only 4 lines, we cannot have more than 4 people waiting (in Ring State) for an agent .

So, what we really need is calls to be queued but without the "auto answer" with the music on hold.

 

[leejor]

You could do a ring group with four extensions (as an example). Those four extension numbers could all show up on all of the agents sets. Of course if all four extension were busy.... this could all be limited by the number of calls coming in on the trunk group. You'd probably want one extension number per trunk.

If you had only flashing keys and no audible tone, so as not to be annoying, then as an agent finished with a call they could take any of the other keys. It would not necessarily make for even wait time for callers but would prevent billing until the agent actually took the call.

 

[JonnyM]

So, what we really need is calls to be queued but without the "auto answer" with the music on hold.

That's impossible - you can't have the call answered and unanswered at the same time. As soon as you put it into a queue then it's answered.

Maybe if you said what you were trying to do then people could suggest something?

 

[plugworld2]

So, what we really need is calls to be queued but without the "auto answer" with the music on hold.

That's impossible - you can't have the call answered and unanswered at the same time. As soon as you put it into a queue then it's answered.

Maybe if you said what you were trying to do then people could suggest something?

You mean impossible by 3CX ? Or 3CX doesn't have such option ?
Because the PBX could send a Ringing to the caller (example SIP Ringing if it is a SIP Phone). Then start looking for an agent. When an agent is available, the PBX call the agent. If the agent answers the phone, the PBX answer (with SIP 200 OK) to the caller and bridge the calls.

Asterisk PBX Queue does support it.
r — ring instead of playing MOH.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+cmd+Queue

Here is my context:
We have some embedded SIP phones in hardware that calls the call queue and as soon as they get a SIP OK (call is answered), they starts streaming a message. So, the machine calls 3CX queue or number and as soon as the number is answered, the message is played by the caller.
So, the problem with 3CX is we don't have any option to have the ANSWER only when the final user picks up the phone. But instead, as soon as the call reach the pbx it is "auto answered" and then the other party starts streaming. But at that time, the agent hasn't picked the phone yet.

If we use ring groups, we will be limited by the number of simultaneous calls each agent phone can handle. And also, agents already on phone talking will hear ringings from new callers.

 

[JonnyM]

Are you sure that Asterisk option doesn't just play a ringing sound instead of music, as in the call is still answered it just plays a different audio file?

My suggestion would be that either you know the caller ID of these boxes that are calling you then you can divert them to a voicemail box where they can leave their message and then you can process this however you want (email alert etc), or have them only start playing their message back when they receive a DTMF tone from one of your phone operators.

 

[plugworld2]

Yes I'm pretty sure that asterisk send a telephony ringing.
Here is what the source code :
if (ringing) { // "r" option activated (ring instead of moh)
ast_indicate(chan, AST_CONTROL_RINGING);
} else {
ast_moh_start(chan, qe.moh, NULL); //music on hold here
}

So, with that "r" option you can indicate a ringing to the other party instead of the music on hold and the call is not answered.

Maybe this should be a good feature in the next 3CX versions.

 

[leejor]

Yes I'm pretty sure that asterisk send a telephony ringing.

But, have you confirmed that the call is not actually answered?


The calling party can't be listening to ringback (or music, of course) from any PBX and have the call status as unanswered. Unanswered ringback tone will originate from either the originating or terminating provider, depending on how they have the trunks set-up.

One thing to keep in mind, which may or may not apply in your case, many originating providers will limit how long a call will actually ring from the callers end. It may be two or three minutes, but eventually they will end the call for you.

 

[plugworld2]

Yes I'm pretty sure that asterisk send a telephony ringing.

But, have you confirmed that the call is not actually answered?


The calling party can't be listening to ringback (or music, of course) from any PBX and have the call status as unanswered. Unanswered ringback tone will originate from either the originating or terminating provider, depending on how they have the trunks set-up.

One thing to keep in mind, which may or may not apply in your case, many originating providers will limit how long a call will actually ring from the callers end. It may be two or three minutes, but eventually they will end the call for you.

Yes. I did confirmed that the call is not answered. The PBX just send a 180 Ringing (when using SIP phones) and start looking for available agents.
We do control the originating provider so, we can wait as long as we want.