Hunt groups allows users within a group to be included in a specified sub-group to handle incoming calls received by an assigned phone number. Group administrators can choose from any of the following schemes, each of which rings the specified phones in a different manner:
- Circular – sends calls in a fixed order. The call is sent to the first available person on the list, beginning where the last call left off.
- Regular – sends calls to users in the order listed by an administrator. Incoming calls go to the first available person on the list, always starting with the first person on the list.
- Simultaneous–rings all of the users in the group simultaneously; the first user to pick up the ringing phone is connected.
- Uniform – as a call is completed, the user moves to the bottom of the call queue in a shuffling fashion. The next incoming call goes to the user who has been idle the longest. If a user receives a call that was not directed to them through the hunt group, the call is not included in the receiving order for uniform calls.
Group administrators can also establish a no answer policy to redirect calls to the next agent if calls are not answered in a specific number of rings by the previous agent. If all idle phones have been visited once without answer, there are two options for handling the call: forward call to an external number, or give the call a Temporarily Unavailable treatment, which can trigger a service such as voice mail.
Hunt groups are great for teams. If you have auto attendant set up so that callers press one for sales for example, you can control how calls are distributed to the team and make changes to improve call answer times.
Jola includes hunt groups as part of the Premium broadsoft licence in their hosted telephony solution JolaPhone. Prior to cloud technology SMEs had to settle for basic sequential hunting. SMEs with hunt groups and auto attendant can now handle calls as efficiently as their much larger counter parts.
To find out more about hunt groups and latest hosted telephony packages contact Jola.
