Set up queues for phone inquiries (voice queues)

This information is primarily for administrators and/or people who manage Zylinc solutions

When you set up a queue for phone inquiries (many people call it a voice queue), there are many parameters and prerequisites.

If this is the first time that you set up a voice queue, it's a good idea to first go through the procedures without actually applying any of the settings.

That'll give you an idea of the things that you need to have in place, so that you can refer to them when you set up the queue. You'll also get an idea of what you don't need. Then, you can set up what you need, and afterward you can quickly set up the queue itself.

Create a voice route (also called a voice route pattern) on your existing PBX to make sure that the phone number that people should call to reach the queue is routed to the Zylinc solution's Media Server. When the number is routed to the Media Server, a service on the Media Server will pick up calls to the number, and queue them, play welcome announcements, etc.

The format of the number as seen from the Media Server's perspective is important, because the number may have been normalized, and country codes may have been added or removed. The number that you specify when you set up the queue in the following must match the number as the Media Server sees it. To verify how the number looks from the Media Server's perspective, you can look at a log file:

The Media Server uses the Asterisk framework for PBX purposes. That means that, via the Media Server command prompt, you can use the tail command on the Asterisk log files to view how the number looks after being routed to the Media Server switch.

To save resources, SIP logging is normally off, so it's likely that you need to turn it on:

  1. Log in to the Media Server console (AdminCLI) as admin

  2. Type the command asterisk sip start

  3. Type y, to the prompt: This will enable logging on the Asterisk server. Are you sure you want to continue (y/*)?

The Media server will now include SIP traffic in the Asterisk FULL log file, and the asterisk tail command (see the following) will now also show SIP traffic.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select INSTALL > Server Logs

  2. Click asterisk-logs/

  3. Log in as admin with the password for Tomcat instance user admin on Media Server

  4. Right-click full and select Save target as… to save the log file on your computer

  5. Open the file in a text editor that supports text files in Unix line feed format, for example, Notepad++.

You can inspect the bottom part of a log file in real-time to avoid having to download a new copy of the log file every time new information has been written to the log.

  1. Log in to Media Server console (AdminCLI) as admin.
  2. Type the command asterisk tail

Call the queue's number to verify that it's routed correctly, and to view the number's format:

  1. Call the number. If you use the tail command, you can view what's going on in the log in real time.

    If you use Asterisk FULL log, you can download and open the log file it in a text editor.

    If you use Putty: In the Putty menu, select Change Settings… In Window, change Lines of scrollback to a higher value, for example 20000. In the menu, select Copy all to clipboard. You can then use a text editor, for example Notepad++, to search for the phone number.

  2. Verify that the queue's number appears. If it does, you know that the call is able to reach the Media Server.

    Use the text editor's search feature to highlight occurrences of the number.

    Don't worry if the number appears in CatchAll errors, like the one on line 4039 in the example. That's simply because the number hasn't been assigned to a queue yet.

  3. Write down the number exactly as it looks in the log. That's the number format that you're going to use when you add and set up the queue in the following.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues.

  2. At the bottom of the page, click Add Voice Queue.

  3. Under Basic Settings, give the queue a Name and (optionally) a Display Name.

    Make sure that you give the queue a carefully considered name that you're not likely to change later. If you later change the name of the queue, it can affect your organization's statistics. Also, if you change the name while there are calls in the queue, those calls may be left unanswered.

    Tip from experienced Zylinc administrator: “Use a consistent queue naming scheme. When you're an administrator, that helps you maintain a good overview of your organization's queues. You can always change the queues' display names later, if you need them to make more sense to the users.”

  4. Then enter the Number of the queue in the format that you verified with the log as part of the prerequisites.

  5. If required, select a Color Code that agents can use to quickly identify the queue in their clients.

  6. Select whether the queue should be a Public Queue or not. If you make the queue public, it'll be visible in all clients that support queues. If you don't make it public, it'll only be visible to agents who subscribe to it.

    If you're testing your queue setup, you can hide your test queues by not making them public.

    What's the difference between a public queue, a personal queue, and a private queue?ClosedA public queue is a queue that all agents are able to view in their clients, regardless whether they subscribe to the queue or not. If a queue is not public, agents can only view it if they subscribe to it, but that fact doesn't make the queue personal or private.
    A personal queue is only available for phone inquiries: it catches direct calls to a particular agent's phone, so that you get queue features for handling the call in a smarter way than if the call just went to the agent's phone directly.
    A private queue is a type of queue that you can't set up. It's automatically created when necessary, and it simply stores inquiries that wait for a specific agent. An inquiry is typically placed in a private queue if one agent (A) answers the inquiry, and then transfers it to another agent (B). The inquiry will then be in agent B's private queue.

  7. In the Call Distribution section, specify how incoming calls should be distributed to agents:

    • Distribution: Agents can work in manual mode (where they themselves select the calls that they want to handle) or in automatic mode (where calls are automatically assigned to them). This setting controls how to distribute calls to agents who are in automatic mode:

      • Longest idle: Give next call to the agent who has been idle (that is ready to answer calls) for the longest time

      • Round robin: Give calls to each agent in circular order, so that all agents take turns, regardless of how long they've been idle

    • Weight: The weight of a queue decides the priority with which the Zylinc solution distributes calls from a queue to agents who are in automatic mode (where calls are automatically assigned to them).

      Example: Queue A has a weight of 2, and Queue B has a weight of 6. Both queues have a call that's been waiting for 10 seconds. The call from Queue A will have a total weight of 20 (2×10), and the call from Queue B will have a total weight of 60 (6×10). That means that the call from Queue B will be distributed first.

      Calls in queues with no weight are always served last, regardless of waiting time.

    • Historical Routing: Makes it possible to distribute a call from a given number to the agent who handled the previous call from that number, provided that the agent is logged-in and active on the queue.

      You enable this feature in the On Number field. If you select -default-, it'll use the settings defined under CLIENTS > General Settings, in the Queue Default Settings section's Number/Address fields.

      You can specify a Limit for how many minutes back in time the system should look for the agent. A limit of 0 means that there's no limit.

      Calls distributed by historical routing are treated as returned calls, which means that they'll take priority over other calls that wait in the queue.

    • Caller Rated Distribution: Makes it possible to distribute calls based on the priority of the caller's number. Many organizations use caller-rated distribution to offer a fast lane to VIP callers. This setting has no effect if the caller's number hasn't been assigned a priority. You can read more about assigning priorities to numbers in Use A-numbers to change incoming calls' priority.

      If required, you can assign negative priorities (less than 0) to certain numbers. With Low prio expire you can specify how long callers with negative priorities should have a lower priority than callers with priority 0. This way, you can avoid that callers with negative priorities will wait forever.

    • Caller Rated Queueing: Makes it possible to move a call to another queue, if another queue has been defined for the caller. Many organizations use caller-rated queueing to move VIP callers to a special queue. You can read more about this in Use A-numbers to send incoming calls to specific queues.

      The option If available means that the call is moved if the target queue is open and monitored by at least one agent. That's typically a better option than Always, which moves the call regardless of the status of the target queue.

    • Directory ID: The Zylinc solution can look up phone numbers in an internal or external database, directory, or phone book, so that agents can view callers’ names, addresses, company information, etc. in their clients. It's also possible to retrieve caller priority and target queue name so that the system can decide how to prioritize and route calls, in which case this ability can be an alternative to caller-rated distribution and routing. The Directory ID value is used by the ZyCore ID web service to define which directory, database, etc. to look in.

    • Follow Me Priority: Makes it possible to assign calls automatically to agents who are in Follow Me mode, so that calls will be forwarded to a Follow Me agent even if an agent who works in manual mode (where they themselves select the calls that they want to handle) is also available.

      What's Follow Me?Closed It's a feature that makes it possible for agents to answer calls without having to sit by their computers. The agents define a Follow Me number, typically their mobile number, and they can then answer calls (with a limited feature set) on that number.

    • Update Connected Line ID: Decides if the line ID should be updated with the agent's line ID after a call has been distributed and connected. By not updating the line ID, you can hide the agent's caller ID from the caller.

      If you select System Default, it'll use the settings defined under SYSTEM > Switch Settings, in the SIP Settings section's Show Queue Name as Connected Line ID field.

    • Standby User - Calls: Standby agents are agents who'll help out if the call situation on the queue gets critical. Specify threshold values for how many calls should wait in the queue for standby agents to be activated and deactivated. A value of 0 in the Activate field disables the threshold. If no other agents handle the queue, standby agents are always activated, regardless of this setting.

    • Standby User - Sec: Specify threshold values for how many seconds calls must have waited in the queue for standby agents to be activated and deactivated. A value of 0 in the Activate field disables the threshold. If no other agents handle the queue, standby agents are always activated, regardless of this setting.

  8. In the Threshold Values section, specify settings for acceptable queue length and waiting times:

    • Queue Limit - New Calls: The maximum allowed number of calls in the queue. If the number exceeds the maximum, new incoming calls are handled according to the Failover - Queue Open settings (see step 12 in this process).

    • Queue Limit - Waiting Calls: The maximum allowed number of seconds that a call must wait in the queue. If the number exceeds the maximum, calls that have waited longer than the maximum are handled according to the Failover - Queue Open settings (see step 12 in this process).

    • Service Goal: The queue's service goal is used to indicate (for example in clients, on wallboards, and in statistics) if calls in the queue have waited longer than acceptable.

      You can use the Warning Level field to specify a threshold for how many calls should exceed the service goal before clients display a warning. If you specify 0, clients will not display a warning. If the warning level is higher than zero, and there's no limit on Queue Limit - New Calls, the queue limit is automatically set to twice the warning level.

  9. In the Timers section, specify how long calls and callbacks should be kept under specific circumstances:

    • Public: The amount of time that calls should be kept in the queue after the last agent has logged out of the queue.

    • Private (Moved): The amount of time that calls that have been placed in an agent's private queue should be kept in the private queue before being made publicly available to other agents on the queue. A call is typically placed in a private queue if one agent (A) answers the call, and then transfers it to another agent (B). The call will then be in agent B's private queue.

    • Private (Callbacks): The amount of time that callbacks that have been placed in an agent's private queue should be kept in the private queue before being made publicly available to other agents on the queue. A callback can only end up in an agent's private queue if it's been transferred from another agent before calling.

    If you select - default -, the Zylinc solution will use the global timers that you can manage under CLIENTS > Global Timers.

  10. In the Announcements section, specify settings for those of the queue's audio announcements that aren't position-related:

    To learn more about the different types of audio announcements, see Set up audio announcements.

    • Language, Primary: The queue's primary language, that is the language in which the queue will play audio announcements. You may also offer other, secondary, languages on the queue; see Audio announcements in multiple languages. If you select Autodetect, the Zylinc solution can automatically detect which language to use, based on the country prefixes in callers' numbers (defined under SYSTEM > Switch Settings).

    • Music on hold: Music that's played while callers wait in the queue. You can specify different music to be played if callers wait after their calls have initially been Answered by an agent. To learn more, see Set up music on hold.

    • Welcome announcement: An announcement that's played when calls first enter the queue.

    • Adhoc announcement, Welcome: Specify any announcement to be played immediately after the welcome announcement. Ad-hoc announcements are designed for temporary use, for example when you need to inform callers about longer-than-usual waiting times.

    • Adhoc announcement, Queue: Specify any announcement to be played when callers enter the queue. Again, ad-hoc announcements are designed for temporary use, for example when you need to inform callers about longer-than-usual waiting times.

    • Custom announcement, New Calls: An announcement that's played repeatedly while new calls wait in the queue, and the Frequency with which it's played.

      If you enable position announcements (see next step), the custom announcement for new calls will be played after the position announcement.

    • Custom announcement, Returned Calls: An announcement that's played repeatedly while returned calls wait in the queue.

    • Private announcement: Specify any announcement to be played repeatedly if calls wait after they've been answered by one agent who has then decided to transfer the call to another agent.

  11. In the Position Announcement section, you can enable, and specify settings for, audio announcements that repeatedly inform waiting callers about their position in the queue:

    • Pre-Position announcement: An announcement that's played repeatedly just before the position announcement itself.

    • Position announcement #1: The position announcement for callers who are number one in the queue.

    • Position announcement #n: The position announcement for callers who aren't number one in the queue. If required, you can combine two announcements for this purpose, Part 1 and Part 2.

  12. In the Estimated Wait section, you can enable the ability to inform callers about the estimated time that they need to wait before an agent answers their call:

    • Estimated Wait Announcement #1: An audio announcement that's played immediately before the estimated waiting time.
    • Estimated Wait Announcement #2: An audio announcement that's played immediately after the estimated waiting time.

  13. In the Failover - Queue Open section, specify how the queue should handle exception scenarios during its opening hours, for example if the number of calls in the queue exceeds the limits that you specified in the Thresholds section, or if there are no agents on the queue:

    • Unmonitored Queue: What to do if there are no longer any agents on the queue, even though the queue's supposed to be open. Select Failover Action to send calls to the queue that you can specify in the following field. Select Queue Calls to keep calls in the queue and ignore the following failover settings when the queue is open.

    • Failover queue: Alternative queue to send calls to if you've selected Failover Action in the previous. Settings for the original queue, such as language, announcements, etc., will be kept when calls are moved to the alternative queue.

      Make sure that the alternative queue has opening hours that match those of the original queue.

      You can't cascade calls across multiple alternative queues: It's possible to send calls from queue A to queue B, but you can't send them from queue A to queue B and then on to queue C.

      If transferred calls should use settings from the alternative queue, use failover forwarding (see the following) and a local extension in the SIP trunk instead.

    • Failover Announcement: An announcement that's played to callers in case of failover. If you've specified an alternative queue in the previous, the failover announcement is only played if the alternative queue is also closed or doesn't have any agents.

    • Failover Forwarding: Lets you forward calls to a specific number, rather than to an alternative queue. If you've specified a failover announcement in the previous, the announcement will be played before calls are forwarded. Also specify the SIP Trunk to use for the forwarding number. If you're going to forward calls to a number that's within the Zylinc system, select - Local Extension -.

    • Failover IVR: Lets you send calls to an IVR menu. Settings for the original queue, such as language, announcements, etc., will be kept when calls are moved. That in turn means that if a call ends up in another queue after the IVR menu, the call will use settings from the original queue.

      If transferred calls should use settings from the alternative queue, use failover forwarding (see the previous) to the IVR number and a local extension in the SIP trunk instead.

  14. In the Failover - Queue Closed section, specify how the queue should handle exception scenarios outside of its opening hours, for example if someone calls the queue when it's closed.

    • Queue: Alternative queue to send calls to when the original queue is closed. Settings for the original queue, such as language, announcements, etc., will be kept when calls are moved to the alternative queue.

      Make sure that the alternative queue is open when the original queue is closed.

      You can't cascade calls across multiple alternative queues: It's possible to send calls from queue A to queue B, but you can't send them from queue A to queue B and then on to queue C.

      If transferred calls should use settings from the alternative queue, use forwarding (see the following) and a local extension in the SIP trunk instead.

    • Closure Announcement: An announcement that's played to callers when the queue is closed. If you've specified an alternative queue in the previous, the closure announcement is only played if the alternative queue is also closed or doesn't have any agents.

    • Forwarding: Lets you forward calls to a specific number, rather than to an alternative queue. If you've specified a closure announcement in the previous, the announcement will be played before calls are forwarded. Also specify the SIP Trunk to use for the forwarding number. If you're going to forward calls to a number that's within the Zylinc system, select - Local Extension -.

    • IVR: Lets you send calls to an IVR menu. Settings for the original queue, such as language, announcements, etc., will be kept when calls are moved. That in turn means that if a call ends up in another queue after the IVR menu, the call will use settings from the original queue.

      If transferred calls should use settings from the alternative queue, use forwarding (see the previous) to the IVR number and a local extension in the SIP trunk instead.

  15. Click Save.

Once you've added a queue and defined its basic settings, you get access to more settings:

That's a group of Advanced settings about, for example, which types of client applications should be able to use the queue, a group of settings called Users about which agents should work on the queue, and a group of settings about the queue's Opening hours.

Like with the basic settings, you don't need to use every advanced setting. Take a look at the steps in the following, and then just use the settings that you need in your organization.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the ADVANCED link in the top right corner of the page.

  2. Specify required Client Settings:

    • Allow Attendant Console and Allow Mobile: Makes it possible for agents who use Zylinc Attendant Console and/or Zylinc Mobile to subscribe to the queue. If you don't select this, those client types will ignore the queue.

      What about other Zylinc clients?ClosedZylinc Contact Center and Service Center don't need a specific permission for agents to subscribe to the queue. Agents who use Zylinc Mobile without a license to use the app as an agent can't subscribe to queues in their app.

    • Call Lookup: Select the caller lookup configuration that clients should use for incoming calls. In case calls are forwarded from another queue, settings from the original queue will be used if you select Use from original Queue.

    Your organization can use reason codes to collect information about the nature of calls for statistical purposes.

    Examples of reason codes: Passport renewal, Mortgage request, Motorcycles, Cats. A reason code can represent any piece of information that your organization wants to collect data about.

    If you're going to use reason codes, the Call Reason Code list is where you specify the reason codes that agents on the queue will automatically be asked to select when they end a call:

    • Multiselect: Allow agents to select more than one reason code if relevant

    • Min. one selection: Require that agents select at least one reason code

      If you don't select this, agents can choose to end calls without selecting a reason code. That in turn may affect your organization's statistics, if some agents choose to select reason codes about the nature of their calls, and some agents don't.

    To add reason codes for the queue, first use the field in the Reasons column to write the reason code. Optionally, you can use the field in the Category column to specify a category for your reason code. When ready, click the Add Category link, and repeat as required.

    When you have more than one reason code, you can place your pointer over a reason code and use to reorder the sequence of reason codes.

  3. In the Timers section, you can specify WrapUp time. That is how many seconds that agents should get (to finish paperwork, etc.) after they end a call and before they get the next call.

    Wrapup time is only relevant if the agents are in automatic mode (that's when the agents are automatically assigned new calls instead of being able to select new calls themselves).

  4. In the Callback Settings section, you can set up the possibility for callers to be called back when it's their turn instead of having to wait in the queue. When a caller selects this, and it becomes their turn to be served, the next available agent is automatically asked to make an outgoing call to the caller.

    • Start Callback Offer: Lets you determine when the callback option should be offered to callers, based on their number in the queue and/or the number of seconds that they've waited in the queue. There's also an option that lets you stop offering callbacks a number of minutes before the queue closes.

    • Callback Caller ID: Specify the number that you want to be shown when agents on the queue make callbacks. If you don't specify one, each agent's own number is used.

    • Callback Queue: Typically, you'll want to keep callback requests in the queue (select - Keep call in this Queue -), but you can also choose to move callback requests to another queue. When that's the case, the opening hours of the other queue are ignored.

    • Callback Announcement: An announcement that's played to callers to let them know how to request a callback, the Frequency with which it should be played, and the Digit that callers must press to request a callback.

      If you select the callback announcement -default -, the Zylinc solution, which comes with a number of ready-to-use system audio announcements, will use the system audio announcement that matches the digit that you've specified.

    • Offer Voicemail: Makes it possible for callers to leave a voice message when they request a callback. Agents can then listen to such messages before they make the callback.

    • Attach to IVR: Select this if you want to use an in-queue IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu to offer callbacks (see the following step), and you want to use the limits, announcement, and frequency that you can specify under IVR Settings in the following instead of those that you normally specify as part of your callback settings.

    • Postpone: The number of minutes that callbacks should be postponed for, if you use an in-queue IVR menu to offer callbacks (see the following step).

    • Hang-up action: When you call back someone, you can't always be sure that they answer. Maybe you need to hang up and then try again later. That's why, when an agent has made a callback, they're asked to select whether the callback can be marked as resolved or whether the callback should be postponed until later.

      With this setting, you can specify whether callbacks should be marked as resolved or postponed in case agents don't get the chance to specify that themselves, for example if they get disconnected while they attempt to call back someone.

    There's a general setting that relates to callbacks: You can specify the maximum number of times that it's possible to postpone a callback. To do that, select CLIENTS > General Settings in the Administration Portal menu. Then, in the Agent Default Settings section, specify the required number in the Max callback postpones field. To allow an unlimited number of postponements, specify 0 (zero).

  5. In the IVR Settings section, you can specify settings for an in-queue IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu. This can be highly useful, for example if you want to offer callers some options if they've waited in the queue for more than, say, 30 seconds. You can learn more about in-queue IVR menus in Set up in-queue IVR menu with callback option.

    • Limit calls and Limit secs: Lets you determine when the in-queue IVR menu should be offered to callers, based on their number in the queue and/or the number of seconds that they've waited in the queue.
    • Announcement: An announcement that's played to callers before they get the IVR menu, and the Frequency with which callers will hear the announcement followed by the IVR menu.
    • Select IVR: Select the IVR menu that you want to use for in-queue IVR.

  6. Next, you can specify Digit Collection Settings, which can be very useful for collecting social security numbers, account numbers, etc., which agents can then view in their clients.

    Depending on your organization's directory integration, the Zylinc solution can even use collected digits to automatically look up more information about callers (in CRM systems, databases, etc.), so that agents can provide a very high level of service based on the collected digits. You can learn more about that in Automatically show information about inquirers.

    • Digit Collection Announcement: An announcement that's played to callers in order to make them enter the required digits,

    • Digits:

      • Max.: The number of digits that callers should enter before the Zylinc solution collects the digits.

        Example: You want to collect callers' account numbers. Your organization's account numbers are always made up of nine digits, so you specify 9.

        The Zylinc solution also collects the entered digits if the caller presses the # key.

      • Timeout: The maximum number of seconds that you want to allow between entering two digits. If the caller takes so long that they exceed the timeout, the digit collection is restarted, provided the caller has any attempts left (see the following).

        Example: If you specify 10, callers have a maximum of ten seconds to enter each digit in their account number. If they can't enter a digit within ten seconds, they'll need to start over again.

      • Attempts: The maximum number of attempts that you want to allow before you disable digit collection.

        Example: If you specify 3, callers have three attempts to enter their account number. If a caller hasn't managed to enter an account number after three attempts, you stop the digit collection, and the caller will instead need to tell the agent their account number when the agent answers.

  7. In the Customer Survey section, you can enable a caller survey.

    Before you can enable the survey, you must set up the survey itself in the third-party tool RECORDIT, and then specify survey-related settings in the Administration Portal in the Survey section under SYSTEM > Switch Settings).

    When you enable the survey on the queue, the Zylinc solution can inform callers about the survey before they enter the queue. Use the Prompt menu to specify how:

    • - default -: Use the settings defined under SYSTEM > Switch Settings
    • None: Don't inform the caller, but make the external survey system dial the caller's number after the agent has finished serving the caller.
    • Info: Inform the caller, and make the external survey system dial the caller's number after the agent has finished serving the caller.
    • Prompt: Inform the caller, get their acceptance (the caller presses 1 to accept), and make the external survey system dial the caller's number after the agent has finished serving the caller.

  8. With skill-based routing, you can associate each agent with skills to ensure that Zylinc distributes inquiries to agents whose skills best match the nature of a call to a queue. In the Skill Based Routing section, you can enable this for the queue, and specify how important each individual skill is for the queue.

    The importance factor that you specify for the queue is then multiplied by each relevant agent's skill level to find the agent who's best suited for handling calls to the queue.

    Example: On the queue, you give the skill Motorcycles an importance of 3. There are three agents on the queue, Anna, Brian, and Charlotte. For Motorcycles, Anna has skill level 1, Brian has skill level 2, and Charlotte has skill level 3. When we multiply the queue's importance factor for Motorcycles with each agent's skill level, we get a score of 3×1=3 for Anna, 3×2=6 for Brian, and 3×3=9 for Charlotte. If a call is about Motorcycles, Charlotte will get the call, if she's available. Otherwise, Brian will get the call, if he's available. If neither Charlotte, nor Brian, are available, Anna will get the call.

    How does Zylinc know what a call is about?Closed The Zylinc solution knows it either because the caller has called a dedicated queue, for example a queue about motorcycles, or because you've set up an IVR menu on the queue that lets callers select a special area of interest, like motorcycles.

    Remember to also define skill levels for agents. To do that, select USERS > Agents, click the name of the required agent, and scroll down to the Skill Based routing section on that page. Repeat for each required agent.

    If you use Internet Explorer on a Windows server, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration can cause lists of users and groups to take a very long time to load in the Zylinc Administration Portal. While the lists load, you'll see a loading indicator, like this:


    If it's allowed in your organization, you should switch off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. The way you do that varies depending on your server version. Do a Google search for Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration to learn how to do it on your server version.

    Alternatively, you can of course use another browser, for example Chrome or Firefox.

  9. Click Save.

This is where you add agents to your queue:

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the USERS link in the top right corner of the page.

    If you use Internet Explorer on a Windows server, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration can cause lists of users and groups to take a very long time to load in the Zylinc Administration Portal. While the lists load, you'll see a loading indicator, like this:


    If it's allowed in your organization, you should switch off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. The way you do that varies depending on your server version. Do a Google search for Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration to learn how to do it on your server version.

    Alternatively, you can of course use another browser, for example Chrome or Firefox.

  2. In the Available section, select required agents, and then use the arrow buttons to move the agents to the Primary, Secondary, Standby, or Owners sections as required.

    Note that you can also select groups of people to be agents on a queue. If you've already selected a group, and you get a new colleague who should be an agent on a queue, all you need to do is to make sure that your Active Directory administrator includes the new colleague in the relevant group.

    Due to the default synchronization intervals of the four components involved in the user synchronization, it can potentially take up to 198 minutes (3 hours and 18 minutes) before new users added to a group will work in the Zylinc solution. In most cases, however, it'll not take that long. Ask your Zylinc administrator if you're in doubt.

    Remember to check the required agents' settings under USERS > Agents in the Administration Portal.

    When you assign agents to queues, you can define the agents as either primary or secondary for each queue.

    Primary and secondary roles are only relevant when agents work in automatic mode, not if agents manually select the inquiries that they want to answer.

    Zylinc always considers primary agents first. It'll only consider secondary agents if no primary agents are available.

    When primary and secondary agents are both available, Zylinc first distributes inquiries to the primary agents

    When only secondary agents are available, Zylinc distributes inquiries to them

    If an agent becomes available and that agent monitors several queues with waiting inquiries, the inquiry from the queue with the highest priority will be routed to the agent, independently of primary and secondary settings. If several queues have the same priority, then Zylinc selects the queue that hasn’t been attended for the longest time.

    If you use skill-based routing (part of the queue's advanced settings), it'll take precedence over these policies.

    If you define agents as standby on a queue, those agents will only get inquiries from that queue, and subsequently answer them, if a certain threshold is reached. You can base the threshold on any combination of:

    • Number of inquiries that wait in the queue
    • Number of inquiries that have waited in the queue for more than a specified number of seconds
    • The fact that no other agents monitor the queue

    When standby agents are called into action on a queue, they become primary agents on that queue for as long as their help is required.

    If agents are standby on some queues and primary/secondary on other queues, they'll get inquiries from the queues on which they're primary/secondary. Only when the threshold is exceeded, they'll will also get inquiries from the other queues.

    As with primary and secondary agents, inquiries will also be prioritized according to queue priority.

    What if the queue balances on the threshold?ClosedTo avoid that agents go on and off a queue all the time, you can specify an activation threshold as well as a deactivation threshold.

    In Zylinc Contact Center and Service Center agents can themselves select to go in standby mode, in which case they'll go standby on all queues that they subscribe to, regardless of how they've been defined.

    Owners are agents who should be able to

    • Change settings about the queue
    • View statistics about the queue

    even if they're not explicitly defined as Primary, Secondary, or Standby.

    If you don't explicitly define one or more owners, everyone who has access to the queue can view information about it.

  3. Click Save.

Three factors determine when a queue is open:

  1. The queue's regular opening hours

  2. Calendar-specific exceptions, for example around holidays

  3. Queue-specific exceptions

Technically, the Zylinc solution continuously looks at this sequence from the bottom up to determine whether a queue should be open or closed:

  • First it looks for any queue-specific exceptions. If it finds one that applies at the time of looking, it opens or closes the queue accordingly.

  • If it doesn't find a queue-specific exception that applies, it looks for any calendar-specific exceptions. If it finds one that applies at the time of looking, it opens or closes the queue accordingly.

  • If it doesn't find any calendar-specific exception that applies, it uses the queue's regular opening hours to open and close the queue.

You set up opening hours for a queue this way:

If you want to learn this through guided hands-on exercises that also include how to set up exceptions to regular opening hours, see Set up opening hours on queues.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the OPENING HOURS link in the top right corner of the page.

  2. Select which time zone the queue belongs in. Typically, this is the same time zone as Zylinc system itself (in which case you select Server time zone), but if your Zylinc solution covers multiple time zones, you can select a specific time zone for the queue.

  3. In the Opening Hours section, specify the queue's regular opening hours.

    What if we want to close around midday, and then open again later?Closed If you want the queue to be closed during a siesta or similar, create an exception (see the following steps).

  4. In the Exceptions from schema section, select required calendar-specific exceptions, and use the arrow buttons to add them to the queue. You define the exceptions under QUEUES > Calendars.

    Calendar-specific exceptions are prioritized in the order they appear. Use the up and down arrow buttons to adjust the priorities.

  5. Exceptions on queue section, define queue-specific exceptions, and use the arrow buttons to add them to the queue.

    Unless you specifically select the Open check box when you define an exception, the Zylinc solution assumes that your exception should close the queue.

    Queue-specific exceptions are prioritized in the order they appear. Use the up and down arrow buttons to adjust the priorities.

    What if I want an exception that applies every day?Closed You can only define exceptions for specific dates or days of the week. However, if you want an exception to apply, for example, every day from 12.00 to 15.00, you can define such an exception for every day of the week.

  6. Click Save.

Remember that when a queue is closed, calls to the queue can be sent to another queue based on your Failover - Queue Closed settings, if you defined such settings under the basic queue setup.

Are you going to create several near-identical phone queues?

If so, create the required queues with the minimum settings (typically just a name and a number) and save them.

Then use the Bulk administration of queue settings feature (you find it below the list of queues when you select QUEUES > Voice Queues) to quickly give all the required queues their common settings.

When done, you can then fine-tune each of the queues if they need some individual settings.