Telephony over Teams Using Call Queues

Information on Call Queues detailing accepting calls to and dialling out from a Call Queue, opting in and out of handling calls, and voicemail

Notice: Telephony replacement project

In response to BT switching off analogue lines in late 2025, the Telephony Replacement Project is currently coordinating the replacement of centrally managed analogue and critical phone lines.  In future (likely later in 2025) the project will also be reviewing the Chorus VOIP (digital line) service. For more information see the Telephony replacement project webpage.

 

A Call Queue in Telephony over Teams is a mechanism which distributes calls to a single number, such as an enquries line, through to a team to be answered.  Call Queues can be configured to distribute calls in four different ways:

  • Attendant routing - the first call in the queue will ring all of the queue members at the same time. The first person to pick up the call gets the call
  • Serial routing - incoming calls will ring call agents one by one, starting from the beginning of the call agent list.  The first person will always get offered the call first.  The second person is only offered the call if the first person is busy, and so on
  • Round robin routing - The first call will call the first person in the queue.  The second call will call the second person; the third call will call the third person, etc
  • Longest idle routing - calls will be presented to whoever has been 'available' for the longest

Expand All

Call queues are usually configured to present calls to a Teams channel.  This allows the owner of the channel to add and remove members.

  1. Select the Teams icon on the left and then choose the correct Teams channel
  2. Select the Calls tab
  3. This will show a keypad (in order to make calls), who is in the channel, and their presence state.

  1. Select the three dots on the right of the bottom menu labelled More to expand the menu
  2. Select Calls from the menu grid

Accepting Calls

In the desktop app:

In order to accept calls, members do not need to be on the call queue interface:

  1. When the main number of the call queue is dialled each member that is opted into the queue, and is available on their main Teams status will get a pop-up call notification with the call queue team name
  2. Click on the phone icon to accept the call, or on the red phone icon to reject the call
  • The order in which a member of the queue receives calls is pre-set (e.g. ring all at once, one after the other, longest idle) - this can be changed on request
  • If your main Teams status is Unavailable, Busy, or Do Not Disturb, you will not receive notification of the call
  • Users who have made themselves unavailable for the queue will not receive notification of the call.  Please see below for opting in/out of receiving calls

On the mobile app:

In order to accept calls, members do not need to be on the call queue interface:

  1. When the phone number of the call queue is dialled, each member that is opted into the queue and is available on their main Teams status will receive a call notification, which will also show the call queue team name
  2. Accept or Decline the call

Opting in/out of receiving calls

In the desktop app from settings:

  1. In Teams on the top right, click on the three dots next to the user's profile picture to open the settings menu
  2. Select Settings
  3. Select Calls
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the window
  5. Under Call queues, users will find a list of call queues of which they are a member, and a toggle button to control their availability for call answering

In the desktop app from the call queue:

  1. Go to the Call queue user interface
  2. This window will show all teams members in the group and their Teams status.  Users will also see Call Queue status icon - this icon will be greyed out for other team members if they have opted out.  Hover over the icon to show the status, 'In the queue' / 'Not in the queue'
  3. Next to the users name there will be a toggle button to control availability.  Other team members can see who is in the queue or unavailable
  4. This setting is not available on the mobile application

In the desktop app:

  1. Go to the Call queue user interface
  2. On the Calls tab type in a name or number in the box above the dial pad
  3. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the call button to choose whether to  Call as you (from your personal number), or Call as (queue name).  Users dialling out as (queue name) will present the queue's phone number

On the mobile app:

  1. Click on the phone icon on the bottom right, which will take you to the dial pad
  2. Enter the number to call, and click on the phone icon
  3. This will bring up a menu to Call the number on behalf of Myself, or the call queue name
  4. Click the Myself button to call out as the user's University extension
  5. Click the Queue Name to dial out from the Call Queue's phone number

In the desktop app from the call queue:

  1. Go to the Call queue user interface
  2. On the (Call) History view there are three options: All, Incoming, and Voicemail.  Click on Voicemail 
  3. Click on the message and a Details menu will appear
  4. Click 'Play' on the Details menu to listen to the message
  5. Click on the the three dots to the left of the Call button in the details menu.  This gives the option to call back the number, mark the voicemail as unread, delete the voicemail, add the number to speed dial, add the number to contacts, or block the number.

On the mobile app:

  1. Go to the Mobile app - Calls interface
  2. Click on the tape recorder icon to open the voicemail menu
  3. Click on the message to open an options menu
  4. Choose the option to listen to the message, call the number which left the message, block the number, or delete the message

Individual members can manage this via Outlook

  1. On the Outlook Home tab, click on the three dots on the bottom of the left navigation pane
  2. This will pop up a menu, click on Folders
  3. On the left navigation page, this will now show Groups, listing any Call Queues users are members of
  4. To get email notifications with voicemail attached sent to the user's favourites folder, click on the queue, right click, and Add to favourites
  5. To get email notifications when messages are left, click on the queue, click on the down arrow next to Joined (above the search box), and select Subscribe from the drop-down

 

To update the call queue members (add or remove) there are different ways, depending on how the queue is set up.

  • For all additional members added the prerequisite is that the member to add needs to be on Telephony over Teams (in order to handle calls) - this can be done in phoneman by your local phone administrator.

 

Once a member has ToT they can then be added to the queue.  In most cases, this can be done on the Teams desktop app:

 

If the queue is using Attendant, Round Robin, Longest Idle or unordered Serial routing then the team is in the call queue so the member just needs to be added to the team.  To do this:

  1. Find the team tile (this is the team that was put in the queue on set-up) on the Teams desktop app
  2. Click on the three dots on the top right of the tile
  3. Select 'Manage team', then add or remove the member as required

If a team is in the queue as above and a member needs to remain in the team but not in the queue, an alternative is to get that member to toggle out of the call queue (opt-out) so the call is never presented to the member; please see 'How to accept calls and opting in/out of receiving calls' in the section above.

 

If the queue is using ordered serial routing, then the individual members are added to the queue (there is no team in the queue so cannot be done on the Teams desktop app).  To do this:

  1. Raise a Service Request for Call Queues and Auto Attendants 
  2. On the 'I need to' drop-down select 'Make a change to an existing Call Queue or Auto Attendant', and fill in the required entries
  3. In the Changes required textbox, please list the members to add/remove and the requested order of the members 

 

 

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