Voice Queues
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Overview
A Voice Queue is used to route incoming calls to a group of agents.
While waiting in the queue, callers can hear announcements informing them about their estimated waiting time and position in the queue.
Please note:
You must have admin role, or user role with the appropriate permission, to manage queues
Users can only view and access the queues that are explicitly assigned to them.
This page describes the Voice Queues configuration on the New Client Experience, available from version 3.51.0. We recommend using the New Experience web interface to take full advantage of the latest features.
You can access the Voice Queues section from the Voice menu in the main navigation panel.
From the Queues list you can:
search for a specific queue
set and clear filters
manage columns
activate the advanced search for each field
delete queues (single or bulk delete)
export queues, if you select at least one row
see an icon for warnings, if any (for example to indicate that GSM as recording format doesn’t support audio splitting)
Clicking the three dots button (⋮) next to the queue, you can:
edit the voice queue settings
associate teams, agents, profiles or queue groups (or remove)
view realtime panel
delete the queue
To Delete or to Export in CSV one or more queues, you can select the checkbox on the left side and choose Delete or Export to CSV buttons on the right of the upper bar.
Create a Voice Queue
To create a new Voice Queue:
Click on Add button and enter the queue’s details:
Name: assign a name to the queue (mandatory)
Strategy: select how incoming calls will be distributed among agents (mandatory)
Ringall: ring all agents until one answers
RRMemory (Round Robin Memory): ring the agent succeeding the agent contacted during last call
Least recent: ring the agent who was least recently called by this queue
Fewest calls: ring the agent who has recently answered to the minimum number of calls in the queue
Random: randomly routes calls to agents
Linear: ring agents according to the order they are listed in the configuration file
Weight random: randomly routes calls to agents but uses the agent’s penalty as a weight.
Timeout: define how long (in seconds) the devices receiving calls from this queue must ring (Default value=15) before passing to next agent
Description (optional)
Click Add
Once created, the new voice queue appears in the voice queues list.
Edit a Voice Queue
To edit a voice queue:
Go to the Voice Queues list.
Locate the queue you want to edit (you can use the search box to filter the list).
Click the three dots button (⋮) next to the queue to display the menu with available actions.
Select Edit
Modify the settings of interest
Click the SAVE button located at the top-right corner of the web interface to confirm changes.
Edit sections:
General settings, to define call strategy, timeout, queue weight and other general configurations.
Announcements, to play announcements to callers waiting in the queue
Advanced settings, including post-call actions, auto pause rules, recording format
Inbound Routes and Internal Routes
create Dispositions specific for this queue
Associate teams or agents to the queue, with the possibility to define penalty (ONLY for voice channel)
Associate profiles to the queue, with the possibility to define penalty (ONLY for voice channel)
Associate queue groups, with the possibility to define priority and timeout
Access to realtime
Explore the documentation about queues configuration
Edit Voice Queue - Settings tab
Edit Voice Queue - Advanced tab
Edit Voice Queue - Announcements tab
Edit Voice Queue - Dispositions tab
Inbound Routes and Internal Routes
In the Inbound Routes and Internal Routes sections you can find routes associated to the specific voice queue.
The section displays, per each route:
Phone number
Description
Company
Alias
Clicking on three dots button → Show, you can open directly the route configuration panel.
Add Agents or Teams to a Voice Queue
It’s important to assign agents or teams to queues to ensure they can properly receive voice calls. You can also define the Agent Penalty to set prioritiy rules (agents with low penalty value have high priority in receiving interactions).
Agent penalty is applied only on voice channel
You can configure the association between agents and queues in several ways, as well as between teams and queues.
Remember all changes are automatically effective!
When you add an Agent to a Queue, the Agent-Queue association is immediately applied if the Agent is currently logged to XCALLY Motion and remains until the Administrator changes it.
However, suppose the Agent is already logged and is managing a call in a Queue and the Administrator removes the association with the same queue. In that case, the new configuration doesn't affect it and the current conversation can be managed as always (the changes only apply to the next queue calls, which will not be notified to the Agent).
The same realtime Agent-Queue association can be done from the Realtime section: remember that the button will switch you to realtime environment automatically!
On the New Client Experience, the Agents assignment can be performed in three ways:
From the Queue list:
Select the desired queue
Click the options menu (⋮) and choose Associate Agents or Associate Teams
Select the agents or teams from the modal list. You can set agent or team penalty (default is 0) before adding the agent or the team to the queue. Agents/teams with a higher penalty will receive the call notification only if those with a lower penalty refuse to accept the call. So first of all insert penalty value and then click on the agent/team name. The selected agents and teams will be moved in the second column “Selected Agents” or “Selected Teams”.
Changes are applied immediately
→ : right arrow to add the agent/team to the selected column
>> : right shift to add all the available elements
← : left arrow to remove the selected agent/team from the right column
<< : left shift to remove all the selected elements
Click Save
From the edit section of Queue:
Click the three dots button (⋮) next to the Queue or Account
Choose Edit option
Select the button to associate agents or teams
You can set agent/team penalty (default is 0) before adding the agent/team to the queue. Agents/Teams with a higher penalty will receive the call notification only if those with a lower penalty refuse to accept the call.
The selected agents and teams will be moved in the second column “Selected Agents” or “Selected Teams”.
Changes are applied immediately
→ : right arrow to add the agent/team to the selected column
>> : right shift to add all the available elements
← : left arrow to remove the selected agent/team from the right column
<< : left shift to remove all the selected elements
Click Save
From Staff/Agent section:
Search the agent from the Staff list
Click the three dots button next to the agent’s name
Select Edit
Click the Channel button to view the list of available Queue Channels
Click on Voice Channel
Select the agents from the modal list (by clicking on the arrow icon to select the agent which will be visible on right column (selected agents). Before adding them, you can indicate the relative penalty.
Add Profiles to Voice Queue
On the New Client Experience, the Agent Profiles assignment to queues can be performed in two ways:
From the Queue list:
Select the desired queue
Click the options menu (⋮) and choose Associate Profiles
Select the profiles from the modal list (by clicking on the arrow icon to select the profile which will be visible on right column (selected profiles).
You can set profile penalty (default is 0) before adding the profile to the queue. Profiles with a higher penalty will receive the call notification only if those with a lower penalty refuse to accept the call. So first of all insert penalty value and then click on the profile name.
Changes are applied immediately
→ : right arrow to add the profile to the selected column
>> : right shift to add all the available elements
← : left arrow to remove the selected profile from the right column
<< : left shift to remove all the selected elements
Click Save
From the edit section of Queue:
Click the three dots button (⋮) next to the Queue
Choose “Edit” option
Select the button to associate profiles
You can set penalty (default is 0) before adding the profile to the queue. Choose the profiles, clicking on their name.
The selected profiles will be moved in the right column “Selected”.
Click Save
Add Voice Queue to Queues Groups
You can add voice queue to queues groups, also defining Priority and Timeout, if you are an administrator or user with proper permissions.
On the New Client Experience, the Queue Groups assignment to queues can be performed in two ways:
From the Queue list:
Click the three dots button (⋮) next to the Voice Queue
Select Associate Queue Groups
You can set priority and timeout before selecting the queue group. Choose the queue groups, clicking on their name.
The selected queue groups will be moved in the second column “Selected Queue Groups”.
Changes are applied immediately
→ : right arrow to add the queue group to the selected column
>> : right shift to add all the available elements
← : left arrow to remove the selected queue group from the right column
<< : left shift to remove all the selected elements
Click Save
From the edit section of Queue:
Click the three dots button (⋮) next to the Queue
Choose “Edit” option
Select the button to associate queue groups
You can set priority and timeout before selecting the queue group. Choose the queue groups, clicking on their name.
The selected queue groups will be moved in the right column “Selected”.
Click Save
Queue scalability
You can potentially configure any number of Queues with XCALLY, however we strongly recommend you to limit the number of assigned queues per each agent to only what is necessary.
In fact Asterisk processes and sends a device state event for every queue member. As more queues are assigned to an agent, the system will require more processing effort to handle these events efficiently.
The XCALLY real-time dashboards display agent and queue data. The more queues associated with an agent, the greater the processing effort needed by the real-time system. This could result in:
Slower dashboard performance
Event delays
Potential freezing of the real-time interface
To ensure efficient system performance and minimize unnecessary resource consumption, please follow these recommended best practices:
Limit Queue Assignments to 50 per Agent
Avoid associating more than 50 queues with a single agent. If exceeding this limit is necessary, be aware that it will significantly increase processing demands, potentially leading to slower performance and higher resource usage.Remove Unused Queues
Always delete any queues that are no longer in use. Many customers add new queues to agents without removing obsolete ones, resulting in wasted processing resources. Remember, unused queues still consume system resources, so it’s crucial to maintain only the active queues.Add Queues Only When Necessary
Assign new queues to agents only when needed. Having an agent manage calls for an excessive number of queues not only impacts system performance but also complicates contact center management and monitoring. Keep agent workloads manageable and relevant to their actual tasks.
If your goal is to allow agents to differentiate incoming calls for each service or DID, do not create a separate queue for each service. Instead, use XCALLY variables to pass this information directly to the agent’s phonebar pop-up.
Follow the Trigger Guide to customize your Motion phonebar pop-up with the necessary values.
Additionally, take advantage of Templates to further personalize the content displayed in the pop-up.
FAQ
If you want to track the agent’s talk time during inbound call, first of all you need to enable variables in the desired voice queues, by setting yes in “Set variables” fields
Then you can retrieve the variable queuetalktime, obviously obtained after call hangup.