A call queue is an extension on your CallHarbor phone system that places callers on hold while waiting for their call to be answered by an available agent. Agents are the extensions listed in the call queue that calls will be dispatched to. Depending on the type of call queue will determine the way a call is dispatched to agents and in what order.

What are the types of Call Queues?
There are 5 different types of call queues that can be created on the CallHarbor phone system: Round Robin, Ring All, Linear Hunt, Linear Cascade, and Call Park.

Round Robin
In a round robin call queue agents are dispatched calls based on which extension has the longest idle time. In a round robin, the order agents receive calls cannot be determined as it is based entirely on the idle time.

Ring All
In a ring all call queue, a call will be dispatched to all available agents. When the call is answered the other agents will stop being rang and become available again for the next call.

Linear Hunt
In a linear hunt call queue, agents are assigned to a group. A call will be sent to the first available agent in the first group and it will ring to that agent for a defined amount of time before moving to the next available agent in the first group. Once all agents in the first group have been rang, it will then move onto the first available agent in the second group, and so on and so forth until the call is answered or it reaches the max holding time. The defined amount of time and max hold time are both call queue specific settings.

Linear Cascade
In a linear Cascade call queue, like a linear hunt, agents are assigned to a group. The linear cascade differs from the linear hunt because a call is sent to all agents in the first group, then after a defined amount of time the second group receives the call as well, and so on and so forth through all groups until the call is answered or it reaches the max holding time. The defined amount of time and max hold time are both call queue specific settings.

Call Park
Call Parks are the only call queue that does not have any agents nor dispatches the call to another extension. Instead Call Parks can be thought of as parking lots for calls. A call park will have an extension number in the range 700-799 and can be dialed from any phone in the CallHarbor phone system. A caller is placed into a call park by dialing the extension where any music on hold files set will play until the call is pulled back out of the park by dialing the extension. This allows for a caller to be placed on hold on a separate extension rather than being attached to the line on the phone placing the hold. A call park is useful for call transfers that cannot be answered at that moment or when another phone needs to be used for the call but not know which extension will be used