question

marcus-mann asked Jul 17, '20 joshua-blackwell5743 commented Jul 17, '20

Four receptionist then answering service after X number of seconds

I have four receptionists that answer our main line. I need them to be able to see the presence of the other receptionist's extensions and be able to forward to an answering service if the call is missed. What is a good solution to make this happen?

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joshua-blackwell5743 answered Jul 17, '20

Could the other receptionists be added to the presence of each receptionist? One receptionist would be able to then look at her phone or HUD in the desktop app to see the status of the other receptionists. For the call to go an answering service, that would be set in the messages and notifications for the main line.

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marcus-mann answered Jul 17, '20

I am a little unclear when it comes to presence. We need to be able to see ALL of the phones's status (not just the receptionist), so I need them all on presence, correct? When a client calls in, I need all four phones to ring simultaneously, if they don't answer, it goes to the answering service. A ring group seems to work best, but we loose the presence feature for the four of them when they pick up from the ring group.

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joshua-blackwell5743 answered Jul 17, '20

You need visibility of all users? How many users do you have? What type of device are the receptionists using? I would recommend your receptionists using the RC phone app (not RC app) so they can use the HUD feature to be able to add/see all users. Have you thought about switching the ring group to a call queue for the 4 receptionists? This would show them as busy on the presence. The difference is that a ring group rings a person's device whereas a call queue ring's a person's extension.

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marcus-mann answered Jul 17, '20 joshua-blackwell5743 commented Jul 17, '20

We have a total of 18 extensions that everyone needs to be able to see who is on a call or not. Everyone is using Cisco CP8611. The app is not the direction they can go because their screen already has 10 other things open. A call queue cannot send the caller to our external answering service.

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joshua-blackwell5743 commented · Jul 17, 2020 at 06:38 PM

There's a feature on the road map that allows call queues to route to extension (user, IVR, CQs, etc.). Once this is released, you would be able send calls from the CQ to an extension that is forwarding out to your external service. You can reach out to your sales rep to see when the feature will be released and the possibility of getting on it early.

You want visibility (presence) of all 18 extensions on the Cisco 8611? It's limited to 8 users on presence unless you are using a sidecar.

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marcus-mann commented · Jul 17, 2020 at 06:44 PM

We use sidecars

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marcus-mann commented · Jul 17, 2020 at 06:46 PM

However, for the time being, we cannot do what I am asking?

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joshua-blackwell5743 commented · Jul 17, 2020 at 07:05 PM

The only workaround I can think of is to have a CQ of the 4 receptionists. If they miss the call, it goes to VM. On the VM greeting, there would be a custom message that says "press 1 to go to support" (or some other extension). 1 would be an extension that connects to the answering service. You're essentially dialing by extension in the VM message. Be sure to leave enough time after the prompt and before the beep to give the caller enough time to key press.

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