ACD Queues: Sales, Support, Etc.
Summary: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Queues Allow Customers to Reach Sales, Customer Support, Tech Support, etc. Personnel Without Knowing Their Specific Extensions or Names; and It Allows Multiple Calls to Be Taking Place Simultaneously
ACD queues are an absolute necessity for any business phone system, and any system which does not offer them cannot really claim to be a business phone system. In a true queue system, multiple agents can be logged into the queue and take calls on a "round-robin" basis. They can even all be talking at once. Any system which has, for example, "press 1 for Sales"; but which only has one agent on the end of that menu option is not an ACD queue.
The Need for Special Queues and the Three Ways That a Caller Can Reach Them
Most of the time when a customer calls a company they only know what they want from the company, not the name of the person who can provide this. This need is fulfilled in high-end business phone systems such as the Virtual PBX® by including Sales, Customer-Support, Tech-Support, Specific-Department, Product-Line, etc. queues in the menu choices presented to a caller.
A second situation where special queues are required is with an in-bound call center. In this case, it is possible for a company to advertise a special number and have customers who call this number enter directly into, for example, the Sales queue without having to pass through the normal company Auto-Attendant with which they answer their general calls.
There is a third method of reaching a particular queue using the VirtualDID feature. This would typically be used for geographic routing to a particular Sales queue for that area. This method works quite well, but if the number of geographic areas exceeds 8, a better method is to use geographic routing to an individual Virtual PBX® (Smart800) customized for the area in question.
Origin of the Name ACD
The general the name of such queues is Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) queues. They have this name because any number of employees can log into a specific queue and then automatically receive calls on a round-robin basis. When a call from an ACD queue comes to an employee, the system announces the number of the queue and the telephone number of the caller (whether Caller ID is blocked or not). Thus an employee can be logged into more than one type of ACD queue and can answer the call with the correct response, "Sales", "Customer Support", etc.
Overflow Queues
Often a company will have a "first team" designated to take Sales, Tech Support, etc. calls. This could be because some salesmen are very high earners; or in the case of Tech Support, it could be just the reverse. A company many wish the first tier of Tech Support calls to be handled by non-engineering personnel. Only if the queue becomes full or if there is a problem which the first tier cannot solve, should a call go to the high-paid engineers.
The Virtual PBX® deals with this problem by having "Overflow Queues". There can be, for example, Tech Support Queues 1, 2, and 3. The first Tech Support team would all log into Tech Support queue 1; but if a problem arose which required an engineer to solve, the agent in queue 1 could transfer the caller to queue 3 where the engineers would all be logged in. Queue 2 could be a simple overflow queue manned by employees doing other tasks who would receive Tech Support calls only when queue 1 was full, that is when all agents logged in were talking on the phone. The maximum number of people who wait in a given ACD queue before it overflows, goes to the operator, or goes to the queue Voice Mail can be set by the Virtual PBX® Tech Support personnel at 0, 1, 2, etc. as may be requested by our clients.
A second example where the Overflow Queues would be useful is where the queues are set up to handle different geographic areas. If a particular geographic area queue is full, the overflow queue would be a national queue so that the caller would be taken care of in this case.
In the case of Sales queues, suppose the number of people who are allowed to wait is set at zero. When the primary sales queue is full i.e. all employees logged in are talking, the next Sales call overflows to the first overflow queue. This can be manned by employees who normally perform other tasks but are trained to handle sales calls if needed. When the main and first overflow queue are both full, Sales calls can overflow to the third queue which can be manned by employees at home, for example. These would be off-duty employees who have chosen to earn a little extra money by logging into the second overflow queue using their home phone as their default contact number. Virtual PBX® sends a detailed bill each month showing each contact phone number's call time, and thus a company need only pay the employees in the second overflow queue for the time that they were actually on the phone.
Using the overflow queues, a company can avoid large staffing requirements and still answer all customer calls almost at once. When a particular queue such as Sales has its own dedicated phone number (bypassing the Auto-Attendant) the response time can be even faster.
A 24-Hour Around-the-World Call Center with One Phone Number Using ACD Queues
Using the ACD Queue feature of the Virtual PBX®, a 24-Hour Worldwide Call Center Using Only One Phone Number can be set up. This queue would be manned around the world by employees in different countries who logged in and out as their work day began and ended. As employees in one country logged out, they would be replaced by agents in a different country whose work day was just beginning.
A Professional Answering Service Using ACD Queues So That No Purchase of Equipment Is Required
Using the ACD Queue feature of the Virtual PBX®, a virtual answering service with no installed equipment can be set up. Employees for such a service can work from home if desired, resulting in lower labor costs for the Answering Service. Since the Virtual PBX® announces the phone number of the doctor's office, for example, which was forwarded to the Virtual Answering service; an employee in the Answering Service office, at home, even in a vehicle, can know exactly how to respond, "Dr. Smith's answering service", for example, and can route the call. Since there is no installed equipment, a physician or group of physicians, could use anyone for answering-service personnel, even family members, etc.
When All Agents Are Already On the Phone
If an ACD queue is full, i.e. if all agents are on the phone, a caller has three options: he can wait, he can press 0 for the queue operator, or he can press * and go directly to the queues Voice Main. Furthermore, the maximum number of callers who are to be waiting in the queue at any one time can be set. When this number is exceeded the caller is automatically sent to the queue's Voice Mail unless overflow queues have been setup. Each ACD queue can have a different music-on-hold or customized message for callers who are waiting. If it happens that no employees are logged into a particular ACD queue, the first caller is automatically sent to the operator; and any subsequent callers are sent to the queues voice mail.
Managing the an ACD Queue Operator Extension, Bogus ACD Operator Extensions
A small company may not wish to have a special operator for each ACD queue, for example, they may wish the main company operator to be the operator for all ACD queues. This can be done by creating a "bogus" operator extension queue. "Bogus" means that no contact phone numbers are entered in the extension, the extension is marked as "unavailable", and the queue's Voice Mail is forwarded to the main operator.
In the evening, for example, when no one is logged into the queue, the first call goes to the queue operator and subsequent calls go to the queue Voice Mail. The advantage of defining a bogus extension is that the caller still hears the queue greeting, for example, "You have reached Sales, there is no one here at this time, but please leave a message and we will return your call". When this happens with a bogus extension, the voice message is forwarded to the main operator; and he is paged even though the caller hears the special sales greeting.
Multi-Office Routing (MOR)
Multi-Office Integration (or routing) means that one phone number can be valid for all branches or locations and that one set of extensions can reach all employees no matter in what office they happen to be located.
Prior to the existence of the Virtual PBX®, the only solution possible for integrating multiple offices was to have a PBX installed at each office, and have dedicated TIE lines that connected the PBXs and allowed calls to be routed to extensions at each office. This was usually a very expensive proposition, and was therefore only available to large companies that were well financed.
With the advent of the Virtual PBX® it is now possible for even very small offices to achieve Multi-Office Routing without the traditional expense associated with it allowing them to present a unified presence to their customers.