MS Teams Admin - Add a Call Queue
Teams Call Queues provide a method of routing callers to a group of people in your organization. Calls can be distributed one at a time or simultaneously to all people in the queue (who are known as agents).
Call queues provide:
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A greeting message.
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Music while people are waiting on hold in a queue.
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Call routing to agents.
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Handling options for queue overflow and timeout.
Prerequisites / Important Notes:
This document is intended for Office 365 Commercial environments. Office 365 GCC High may not have the same features.
For the user adding the Call Queue in O365 / Teams, they must have Global Administrator privileges or higher.
Make sure you have built a Resource Account to associate with this Call Queue -- see our "Microsoft Teams: Add A Resource Account" article for information on how to build one.
Create a Call Queue
To set up a call queue, in the Teams admin center, expand Voice, click Call queues, and then click Add.
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Type a name for the call queue.
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Click Add accounts, search for the resource account that you want to use with this call queue, click Add, and then click Add. (Agents will see the resource account name when they receive an incoming call.)
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Choose a supported language. This language will be used for system-generated voice prompts and voicemail transcription (if you enable them).
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Specify if you want to play a greeting to callers when they arrive in the queue. You must upload an MP3, WAV, or WMA file containing the greeting that you want to play
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Teams provides default music to callers while they are on hold in a queue. If you want to play a specific audio file, choose Play an audio file and upload an MP3, WAV, or WMA file.
Call Agents
You can add up to 20 agents individually and up to 200 agents via groups.
To add a user to the queue, click Add users, search for the user, click Add, and then click Add.
To add a group to the queue, click Add groups, search for the group, click Add, and then click Add. You can use distribution lists, security groups, and Microsoft 365 groups or Microsoft Teams teams.
NOTE: New users added to a group can take up to eight hours for their first call to arrive.
Call Routing
Conference mode significantly reduces the amount of time it takes for a caller to be connected to an agent, after the agent accepts the call. For conference mode to work, agents in the call queue must use one of the following clients:
- The latest version of the Microsoft Teams desktop client, Android app, or iOS app
- Microsoft Teams phone version 1449/1.0.94.2020051601 or later
Agents' Teams accounts need to be set to Teams-only mode. Agents who don't meet the requirements aren't included in the call routing list. We recommend enabling conference mode for your call queues if your agents are all using compatible clients.
Routing method determines the order in which agents receive calls from the queue. Choose from these options:
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Attendant routing rings all agents in the queue at the same time. The first call agent to pick up the call gets the call.
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Serial routing rings all call agents one by one in the order specified in the Call agents list. If an agent dismisses or does not pick up a call, the call will ring the next agent and will try all agents until it is picked up or times out.
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Round robin balances the routing of incoming calls so that each call agent gets the same number of calls from the queue. This may be desirable in an inbound sales environment to assure equal opportunity among all the call agents.
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Longest idle routes each call to the agent who has been idle the longest time. An agent is considered idle if their presence state is Available or if their presence state has been Away for less than 10 minutes. Agents whose presence state has been Away for more than 10 minutes are not considered idle and will not be eligible to receive calls until they change their presence to Available.
Presence-based routing uses the availability status of call agents to determine whether an agent should be included in the call routing list for the selected routing method. Call agents whose availability status is set to Available are included in the call routing list and can receive calls. Agents whose availability status is set to any other status are excluded from the call routing list and won't receive calls until their availability status changes back to Available.
You can enable presence-based call routing with any of the routing methods.
If an agent opts out of getting calls, they won't be included in the call routing list regardless of what their availability status is set to.
Agent alert time specifies how long an agent's phone will ring before the queue redirects the call to the next agent.
Maximum calls in the queue specifies the maximum number of calls that can wait in the queue at any given time. The default is 50, but it can range from 0 to 200. When this limit is reached, the call is handled as specified by the When the maximum number of calls is reached setting.
You can choose to disconnect the call or redirect it to any of the call routing destinations (Person in your Organization, Voice App, Voicemail, External Number).
Call Timeout: maximum wait time specifies the maximum time a call can be on hold in the queue before it is redirected or disconnected. You can specify a value from 0 seconds to 45 minutes.
You can choose to disconnect the call or redirect it to one of the call routing destinations (Person in your Organization, Voice App, Voicemail, External Number).
When you have selected your call timeout options, click Save.