Skip Calls When Away

[sbgrizdan]

Is there a way to have queue calls skip a user if a user is away from their desk for a set period of time using the desktop  Zoom app?

When employees take a break or are just absent/sick with no notice, its hard to remember and cumbersome for an admin to take that employee off queue calls. And, even if we remember to do so, when the employee comes back, its easy for them not to realize they are off the queue calls and delay toggling back into the queues.

Currently, during these absences, we often have queue calls waste time cycling through that empty desk, wasting a lot of time for the callers.

Ideally, there would be an option for each Call Queue to skip users when they are idle/away for a set time. This feature would also be a good audit metric in a report to see how often they were idle and how many calls were missed on that desk specifically due to them being idle.

[ChrisO]

Hi sbgrizdan,

To suggest a feature update please visit https://zoom.us/feed and fill out the submission form. I have not had a chance to play with Zoom's new Contact Center yet, but this may be a feature within it and could be worth exploring.

[Amit_Dhanda]

Hi,

Yes, in call queue there is an option to configure call distribution option ( I have tried it in Sequential mode) and below that there is a checkbox to skip calls for users, who are offline or like that.

[FORE-Craig]

To expand on the reply made by @Amit_Dhanda , the same option exists for the ‘Rotating’ and ‘Longest Idle’ selections as well as ‘Sequential’. 

The options reads as follows: 

• Skip offline members when ringing: Select this option to skip offline members and immediately ring the next available member. If this option is disabled, the call queue will follow the ring duration even if a member is offline. Offline means the member is not signed in to the Zoom desktop client, mobile app, or provisioned desk phone.

If your users use the computer desktop or mobile phone app, quitting the app will essentially take them offline. Shutting down their computers at night is also a good practice that you might want to advocate. 

If you use desk phones, the users would indeed need to sign out, or toggle the Call Queue to ‘Off’, which I understand is more challenging for people to remember. 

You can read about the options here:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360059862471-Changing-call-queue-settings

I hope that helps! 

[sbgrizdan]

Craig, thank you. But I was looking for something a little more automated so it can handle unplanned absences. I wish it would skip the calls if the computer were idle for a set period. The current option requires a manual sign out or disabling of the queue (manual/planned).

[FORE-Craig]

You're welcome! I completely understand. The mechanism for an automatic Away status (idle) is in place, and there is a Call Distribution method of ringing those who are idle first. Hopefully, your proposal will be simple and fast to implement!

[enielsen]

That option is actually "Skip offline devices and phone numbers when ringing", not members. The help popup says:

1. Devices with Zoom app or client not launched and mobile phone with screen locked will be skipped.

2. Phone numbers added to user's call handling settings will be skipped.

For #1, no idea how it would even attempt to ring on a zoom app that is not launched! But will skip mobile phones with zoom app logged in that has a locked screen. Would still ring on a user's laptop zoom app though.

For #2, will never ring on an externally provided number if any agents have that in their call handling

We just have our agents toggle the receive call queues switch in their zoom app as needed. But - if the agent is unexpectedly offline - someone with call queue admin privileges can turn them off via the real time analytics dashboard.