Shared Receptionist

[LaurenPatterson]

I have a bit of a weird situation. My companies receptionist is retiring. We will have three different people rotating and answering phones. Trying to think of the best way to handle it. Our main line goes to an Auto Receptionist that directs phone calls during business hours to the receptionist that is retiring. If our receptionist doesn't answer, it goes to three members of our support team in round robin.

Now that the three support members will be sitting at the reception desk, we want the one currently at the desk to answer first, and then it overflow to the other two. 

My main question is what is a good way to allow whoever is at the front to be the main person without me changing the call routing every time it changes? My solution for now will be to have support log out of their account and into the receptionist account whenever they sit at the reception desk. Thanks in advance for any advice!

[sparrow]

Kinda sounds like you're using a Call Queue and not an Auto Receptionist. Can you clarify? 

[Eliot]

hi @LaurenPatterson 

i have the same question as @sparrow .  subject to your answer to @sparrow 's question, i am guessing as to your existing set up.

you have one auto receptionist (ar) and two call queues (cq). 

one call queue is the receptionist backup call queue with three members.  the second call queue is the support call queue with the same three members.

the auto receptionist receives incoming calls and routes the calls to the receptionist.  if the receptionist does not answer the call, then the call is routed to the receptionist backup call queue.

To replace one receptionist with a rotating person, I suggest creating a new receptionist call queue.  The members of this call queue could be the same members of the other two call queues.  The person on duty as the receptionist would sign in to this receptionist cq to enable receiving incoming calls.  the on-duty receptionist should sign out from the receptionist backup cq and depending on the volume of calls, may also sign out the support cq.

The person that is signed into the receptionist cq will get the incoming calls.  if the person sitting at the receptionist's desk does not answer, the calls will be routed to the existing receptionist backup call queue. 

Did my response answer your question? If so, please don't forget to mark the reply as an accepted solution.

thanks,  eliot