Voicemail suppression when Shared Phone Group toggled off

[andrewparrish]

We have a shared phone group for our front reception desk that has a few members of our administrative staff who rotate behind the desk when our dedicated reception is out of the office. Recently, they brought to our attention that they get bombarded with voicemails from the main office line when they have the shared phone group turned off.

Is there a setting that I am overlooking that includes suppression of them getting voicemails on top of phone calls when they toggle off the shared group as they no longer need to be answering calls from that line?

[sparrow]

Trying to piece together what you are stating. By chance is the shared phone group a Shared Line Group (SLG)? is the front receptionist desk and main office line one and the same? 

[andrewparrish]

Yes to both.

[Vinnie]

Hello again @andrewparrish 

The Policy about who has access to the Voicemail, and sending Email notifications applies the same for Users, Call Queues, Share Lines, Auto Receptionist so that can be applied almost exactly as I described, and I believe that is the actual Pain-point...you want to make sure the Admin Staff doesn't receive a lot of Voicemail Notifications Emails.

If you replace in the proposed solutions Zoom Call Queue, for Share Line Group, it all the applies the same. As described in detail before:

- I would recommend the simplest one (Option 1) which is disabling the Email notifications as everybody has visible notification in the Zoom App.

- If you are compelled to keep the Email notification and don't care for the Zoom App notification , then just leave the Operator to receive the Email Notifications, and when the operator is out, the Operator can activate a rule in the Email to forward those notifications to the Admin Staff to an Email distribution that most likely you already have.

There are other options, but I am a pro-KISS (Keep It Super Simple).

Vinnie

[andrewparrish]

No. I don't want them to have access to the Voicemail box when they have the shared line toggled off. In the ideal scenario when you toggle this off the person should stop receiving phone calls and access to the voicemails either via EMAIL or in the WORKPLACE APP. Someone can go weeks without having to man the front desk so they can return to their regular duties. They shouldn't be harassed with voicemails cluttering up their direct line voicemail box when they don't have to work the front.

[Vinnie]

I hear, that changes the scenario; in that case,

Toggling-Off receiving calls doesn't affect at all the configuration of the Voicemail Access as it is an independent setting.

To complete cut access to Voicemail, you need to go to the Zoom Web Portal, and Remove the Admin Staff when they don't need access, and put them back when the do.

You can create a role to provide access to the Operator (and other people) that allow them to manage that setting I showed you before. I hope this clarifies the point.

[Vinnie]

Hello @andrewparrish 

I assume you are using a Zoom Call Queue to give them all (Operator, and Administrative Staff) the ability to receive calls, with the possibility of "Opt-in/Opt-out" (Toggle button), which only applies/affects the participation on Receiving calls or not from that Call Queue; that configuration is completely independent and it is done in the "Policy" tab of the Zoom Call Queue (Or Auto Receptionist, etc.).

With that said, there are two things you setup in such above-mentioned policy:

• Who has access to: Download and/or Delete and/or Share the Voicemails, and that is configured per user added to that Access List. That allows to See/Manage the Voicemails in each person Zoom Web Portal and the Zoom App as well.
• Notification via Email: Here is where you configure if an Email will be send also as notification, and if the Voicemail Audio will be attached, if a Transcription of the Voicemail will be included in the Email's Body, and if you want to al notify an extra Email(s) in addition to everybody included in the Voicemail access.

This is what I would suggest:

1. Since everybody can see and get a notification on the Zoom App directly, you could disable the Email notification completely; it is typically really not necessary, as the VM notification is very visible on the Zoom App.
2. If you have a compelled reason to use the Email notification, then:
   • Remove all the Administration Staff from the Voicemail Policy > Access Member list and just leave the Operator.
   • Create a Distribution List Email where all the Admin Staff is included (I would bet that exists in your system already).
   • Create a new user Role that will give the Operator, and other (i.e. the Admin Staff) Admin Right to the ZCQ (Zoom Call Queue) so they can manage that ZCQ policy.
   • When the Operator is on vacation (or so), any of the ZCQ Admins can quickly go to the Zoom Portal and Manage to  Enable/Disable that checkmark and populate with the "Admin Staff Group EMail" to receive the EMail notifications.
3. An alternative option for the previous one is to have the Operator to Enable/Disable an Email rule to forward emails coming from Zoom Voicemail to the Admin Staff Distribution List Email.

I hope this helps, although I know it is not ideal. If good enough, please mark this as (Accept as Solution).

Vinnie

[andrewparrish]

We are not using call queues.

[Vinnie]

OPTION 1

Keep just the Operator accessing the Voicemail, so no more excessive email for anybody else.

When the Operator has to leave, the Operator can activate a rule in the email to Forward all the Zoom Voicemail notifications to the Admin Staff people, and disable that rule when comes back.

i.e.   [ If email comes from *********** and the subject contains "New Voicemail from" then forward email to ...... ] 

☝️That rule configured on the Operator's Email can be Enable/Disabled as needed.

[Vinnie]

I just read your question again, both: What is the pain-point and if there is a way to disable voicemails when they toggle of receiving calls from the SLG.

The answer, I am afraid to say is: No, the Toggling button just affect incoming calls, and the Voicemail access and notifications is an independent setting as I tried to share. What I proposed is a workaround to accomplish the exact same results, but it is a multi-step process.

The alternative proposed solution is a much simpler one, but implies a compromised or always having visibility to the Voicemails (which by the way, they can easily Filter/Hide from the Zoom App) by , by the way, eliminates the pain-point of being bombarded with Voicemails so they don't get interrupted, but never cuts access to see the Voicemails.

I know they are not not ideal, but there are 3 proposed options that can accomplish everything or almost everything depending on what you can compromise: Easy/Fast use, but doesn't cut access to Voicemails, the one that accomplishes all, it is a multistep process.

Despite everything, I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Vinnie.