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--The Queue Manager lets you set queues properties as well as deleting queues or creating new ones.
It is accessed by selecting Queue Manager from the ACD Panel Menu.
Deleting or Adding Queues
Deleting Queues
To select a queue for deletion hover your mouse to the left of it, right under the checkbox in the title bar (as seen above). A checkbox will appear when you click. Click 
on the top-right corner. A prompt will appear asking you to confirm the deletion.
You can select several queues at once to be deleted this way. If you want to delete all queues click the checkbox (
) at the title bar to select them all.
Adding a Queue
click the Plus icon at the bottom right side. This will open the following window:
A Queue Representation Color will be automatically generated for the new queue. If you wish to change it, open a color selection window by clicking on the queue's icon.
Computers are able to display millions of colors. It is impossible to show a windows with all those colors at once. Instead, the color selection window has a color spectrum bar on the right side. Pick a color region on the spectrum and then select a more specific hue from the left side of the window.
Click the queue's icon again to save your selected color.
Next enter the Name for the queue and a Description of its function (optional).
Select a Queue Priority from the drop down menu by the same name. Priorities are ranked from 1 (Lowest) to 10 (Highest).
A queue's Priority is important for call distribution. If an agent is a member is several queues, he will first be assigned an incoming call based on the queue with the higher priority. An additional call will be distributed to queue with the next highest priority, etc.
Click Save to create the new queue. Click Cancel (or press Escape on your keyboard) to scrap it.
Queue Settings
Click the icon or name of any queue (but not on the checkbox area to the left of it) to bring up the queue's specific settings. There are four different tabs, each with a different settings - General, Caller Settings, Agent Settings, and Agents.
GENERAL
We have already discussed Queue Name, Queue Description, Queue Representation Color, and Queue Priority above.
- Exit queue if there are too many calls in the queue - activate this feature from the drop-down menu by selecting a calls threshold between 1-100 calls. When this number is reached, the next call to enter the queue will trigger the Exit Action (see below).
- Exit queue if Maximum hold time is reached - activate this feature from the drop-down menu by selecting the maximum duration that a call is in hold status (that is not yet answered by any agent). The duration can be anything between 5 seconds and 60 minutes. When this hold time is reached by any call in the queue an Exit Action will be triggered (see below).
- Exit queue if no agents are logged in - this is a toggle. You can either Enable or Disable it. Simply, if no agents are logged in the queue than obviously there is no one to answer a call and therefore the call will be removed from the queue while triggering an Exit Action (see below).
- When exiting queue, forward to - this is where we determine what to do with a call when one of the above options causes it to exit the queue. Here we can select an Exit Action from a drop-down menu that is to be performed in such event. By default the exit action is Hang up Call. This may not seem like the most productive action, but it is just initially selected since the system is not aware of your preferences.
You will want to probably change this and choose to forward the call to either another Queue, a Mailbox, or a Telephone Line (literally a specific agent). Either one of this choices will bring up another drop-down menu, allowing you to choose the relevant item or name from a list.
You can also choose to play a Busy Tone or Music or to forward the call IVR Menu - This is the main greeting the customer hears when he initially calls your company - so the customer can choose a different department.
For now here is a description of some the more useful ones:
- Congestion tone - instead of a busy tone, the customer will hear a message advising him there is heavy call volume at the moment and that he should call back in a different time.
- Number - allows you to enter a specific number (unlike Telephone line, where you choose one from a list.)
- Return call - the customer will be asked to leave a phone number where he can be reached once an agent becomes available.
- Feature Code - feature codes act as a proxy to extensions, giving us more flexibility in altering them. For example if Agent Jones is connected to extension 7568, and he has to change an extension, we will enter his new extension, 7515, into the Feature Code associated with him. So if Jones has feature code 201, it will initially hold extension 7568, then we will change it to the 7515.
By using feature codes, you can change extensions in one place instead of having to hunt all references of the extension in your ACD settings. - Hunt Group - hunt Group is very similar to a queue, except it is much more basic and lacks distribution protocols. It is more like a container for users. Calls forwarded to Hunt Groups will ring all users in the group either in a sequence or all at once.
- Queue Message - this is the message the caller will hear upon entering the queue. When you hover your mouse over it, you will see that you can either Download a review of the current message or Add (a new) Message.
When you click Add Message, a new window will open for either uploading an audio file or to provide a phone number to be dialed where you can record the queue's message.
Queue music on hold - choose what music a customer hears while waiting for an agent to become available. Select between a variety of radio stations, music streams, and prerecorded sounds.
Play caller position before entering queue - when activated, will notify the caller how many people are ahead of him in the queue, when he first enters it.
Play caller position in the queue - when activated, will continuously update the caller about how many people are ahead of him as he is waiting. This directly relates to...
Repeat caller's position every (seconds) - this directly relates to the previous option. It determines (in seconds) how often the caller is told about how many people are ahead of him.
Setup call back by pressing * key - if this is enabled, the caller will be notified he has the option to press asterisk and leave a phone number to be later contacted at, instead of continuing to hold.
Call screening - this option is actually meant to help agents deal with problematic customers. By default it is in Disable mode.
You can activate it with Enable, Play caller ID - which will supply the agent with the customer's caller ID, allowing him to decide if to answer or not.
The other choice is Enable, Ask caller to record name - literally asking a caller to record his name before the call is entered in the queue.
AGENT SETTINGS
The agent settings determine the way a queue interacts with agents.
- Auto Login Agents in Queue - it is important to note that you can designate agents to a queue, but they need to be actually logged into it to receive calls. Here you can set automatic schedule for agents to be logged into the system.
Click Select and select the agents to be included in the Auto Login from the list of available agents. You can type a full or partial name of an agent to narrow the list down.
Click Schedule and select the time on each day when the automatic logging occurs for all the agents you selected.
Auto Logout Agents from Queue - this is essentially the same as the Auto Login option above, except that you are determining when to log agents out of the queue. Ideally the agents listed in both options should be the same, otherwise you will have to log them in or out manually.
Ring duration - determines how many rings the customer will hear while in the queue before the the system plays a busy tone.
Auto logout agent if they missed a call - if agents miss answering a lot of calls, it is safe to assume they are probably not present in the office or not available to work for other reasons. In this case, you would want to automatically log them out from the system as to not lose calls. This is disabled by default. To activate simply choose how many calls are missed before this option is triggered. When activated this option will affect all agents belonging to the queue.
Wrap up time - here you can specify how much time an agent is allotted to summarize a call (like CRM entries, placing orders, notes etc.) before becoming available to receive another call.
Call distribution strategy - this determines how the queue distribute calls to agents.
It has a direct relation to Agent Priority ranking which ranges from 1 (Lowest) to 10 (Highest).
There are four choices here:- Linear, Always start at highest - the Queue will send calls to the agent with highest ranking first. Only if those agents are busy, it will send the calls to the agents with the next highest priority.
- Smart Linear, last that answered, then linear - the queue will first send the next call to the agent who has been waiting the longest since he last answered a call, then consecutive calls will be handled in Linear strategy.
- Circular, start at next from previous call - the queue will start at the highest Agent priority, then each call will be given to the agent with the next priority ranking. When reaching the lowest priority, the queue will go back to the highest one. Essentially this is a loop where the Queue counts from ten (or the highest available priority) to one (or the lowest available priority), and then go back to ten.
- Smart circular: Last that answered, then circular - the queue will first send the next call to the agent who has been waiting the longest since he last answered a call, then consecutive calls will be handled in Circular strategy.
- Linear, Always start at highest - the Queue will send calls to the agent with highest ranking first. Only if those agents are busy, it will send the calls to the agents with the next highest priority.
- Call distribution strategy (when two agents are the same priority) - obviously you may have queues with several agents sharing the same priority. In this case here you can let the system know how to distribute calls between them:
- Ring least recently called first only - the next call will always go to the agent who received the least calls for the work day so far regardless of Priority. Basically the system keeps a counter for how many calls each agent received and balance the calls accordingly to involve the less busy agents, system wide.
- Ring least recently called first only, all in priority - the next call will always go to the agent who received the least calls for the work day so far in a specific priority. Basically the system keeps a counter for how many calls each agent received in each agent's priority level and balance the calls accordingly to involve the less busy agents, for each Agent priority separately.
- Ring all destinations at once - all agents in a specific agent priority level will have their phones ring for incoming calls. First one to answer will actually get the call.
- Allow agent forwarding rules when queue calls - agents may have forwarding rules associated with their extensions (such as to forward a call to their mobile phone). If enabled this forwarding rules will be active in the queue for agents that have them, otherwise they won't.
- Ring least recently called first only - the next call will always go to the agent who received the least calls for the work day so far regardless of Priority. Basically the system keeps a counter for how many calls each agent received and balance the calls accordingly to involve the less busy agents, system wide.
These are very straightforward settings to allow you to add, edit, or remove agents from a queue.
Adding an agent to the queue
Click Priority and designate an agent priority (required) and click SAVE.
Editing an agent's details
To edit a new or existing agent detail click his name or 
to expand his details.
). Click it to add or edit a mobile number. You can also change the agent's Priority or toggle his Logged In status to on or off.
There are several ways to change an agent's Logged in status. We have a handy FAQ listing them all.
to close the agent's details.
If you have one or more agents opened for editing, you may not see the REMOVE button as it may be pushed further down. Simply scroll down to see and click it. 