Teams Attendant & Queueing Services

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About Teams Attendant & Queueing Services

Microsoft Teams includes two technologies that may be used separately or together to provide customized call routing for departmental or shared phone lines. There are numerous combinations of how to configure these together or separately, therefore a consultation is required to provide the best experience possible.

A phone number may be attached to either a call queue or an auto attendant and you may mix and match technologies if you want to have an auto attendant that routes to multiple call queues.

  • Available to: Faculty and Staff
  • Where to use: Departmental or shared phone lines
  • Cost: Varies

Get Started

If you believe that attendant or queuing services meet a need of yours, submit a Teams Attendant & Queueing Services Request. Once received, we will schedule a consultation to set up your new attendant services.

NOTES:

  • Owners of auto attendant or call queues must request changes to their service through ITAC. Microsoft does not support management delegation of call queues or auto attendants at this time.
  • Reporting on call queues or auto attendants is limited.
  • Call queue live status can only be seen if the call queue membership is managed by a Microsoft Team.

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Call Queue

A call queue is a group of people that receive calls. There are a few options available for how to manage group membership as well as how the calls should be routed. 

 

Group Management Options

Management Description Supported Routing Methods
Static User Assignment Users may be added by an administrator in any order requested.
  • Attendant
  • Serial
  • Round Robin
  • Longest Idle
Group Assignment A role in .NET may be used to maintain a list of users in the call queue.
  • Attendant
  • Round Robin
  • Longest Idle
Microsoft Teams A Microsoft Team may be used to control membership in a call queue. Additional visibility features are available if you go this route. Visit Microsoft for more information.
  • Attendant
  • Round Robin
  • Longest Idle


Routing Methods

Routing Method Description
Attendant When attendant routing is used, the first call in the queue will ring all of the agents at the same time. The first call agent to pick up the call gets the call. 
Serial* When serial routing is used, incoming calls will ring call agents one by one, starting from the beginning of the call agents list.
Round Robin When round robin routing is used, each call agent will get the same number of calls from the queue.
Longest Idle When longest idle routing is used, the next call in the queue will ring the opted-in call agent that has been in presence state "Available" the longest.

*Please review group management options for support of this routing method.

Opt-In

You may designate whether members of a call queue may opt-in or out of the call queue. This is similar to signing in an out of an ACD on a traditional phone system. This option may be found in each user’s Teams client under manage account settings/calls.

 

Auto Attendant

An auto attendant is an answering service that allows for customized greetings and menu choice options for a caller to choose from. The options for this service are much more customizable and can range in level of complexity.

Greeting Options
Greeting Details
Play an audio file
  • Accepted file formats are MP3, WAV, and WMA.
  • Files must be less than 5MB.
  • You're responsible for independently clearing and securing all necessary rights and permissions to use any music or audio file with your Microsoft Teams service.
Add a greeting message (text)
  • A text to speech engine will read your text.
  • Certain text changes will be needed such as email addresses being "example at T-X-S-T-A-T-E dot E-D-U instead of example@txstate.edu.

Call Routing Options
  • Disconnect
  • Redirect Call*
  • Play Menu
*Redirect Call Options
Option Description
Phone Number Dial a specific phone number
Person in organization Transfer call to a specific Teams user
Voice app

Transfer call to another auto attendant or call queue

NOTE: This is how you would set up nested menu options.
Voicemail Leave a voicemail with a Microsoft 365 Group or Microsoft Team

General Menu Options
Option Description
Operator Transfer call to a call queue of specified operators
Person in organization Transfer call to a specific Teams user
Voice app

Transfer call to another auto attendant or call queue

NOTE: This is how you would set up nested menu options.
Voicemail Leave a voicemail with a Microsoft 365 Group or Microsoft Team
Phone Number Dial a specific phone number
Announcement (audio file)

Play an audio file

NOTES:

  • Accepted file formats are MP3, WAV, and WMA.
  • Files must be less than 5MB.
  • You're responsible for independently clearing and securing all necessary rights and permissions to use any music or audio file with your Microsoft Teams service.
Announcement (typed message)
  • A text to speech engine will read your text.
  • Certain text changes will be needed such as email addresses being "example at T-X-S-T-A-T-E dot E-D-U instead of example@txstate.edu.

 

Call Flow for After Hours

You may specify a different call routing options for after hours calls. The available choices are the same as above for normal business calls.

Call Flow for Holidays

You may specify a different call routing options for calls during a holiday. The available choices are the same as above for normal business calls.

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