Attendant Coverage Path

[jlappin]

I need some help getting a coverage path working for our attendant. After reviewing the existing posts, I don’t see anything that is exactly our scenario. Although I did learn a lot of other cools things trying.

Currently during business hours, our operator answers all calls, however, when she becomes too busy to answer all calls, I would like these to roll to an existing AA.

Here is basic configuration:

We have one live operator and two auto attendants which handle calls 7/24. A vector controls where calls are sent based on a set of criteria.

oThe after-hours AA is enabled when others are not. Basically 17:00-7:00 M-F, and 0:00-23:59 on weekends.

oFrom 7:00-17:00 m-f calls are sent to the business-hours AA.

oWhen a receptionist wants to take calls at the console, she presses a button which logs her into a queue (generally 8:00-12:00, 13:00-16:30). Once logged in calls are directed to the console. This can be turned on or off as necessary enabling her to go down the hall, to lunch, etc.

o We have an override button for holiday where another button can be pressed which sends calls to the after-hours AA regardless of time of day.

The culture at the company is that we prefer a live operator answers calls. However when the console becomes too busy, we would like to have a coverage path for the business hours attendant.

We have tried several things to achieve this goal. The closest we have come is to set up a basic hunt group with one member (the console ext). Then we set up a cover path to the business-hours attendant. We plan to send calls to the hunt group via the vector. Our thought was if the attendant does not answer the call in the hg, it would be sent to the coverage path. The issue with this is that the coverage path to the business-hours AA hunt group does not seem to work. It gets ignored or skipped. For the purpose of testing we have placed other hunt groups in the coverage path and they seem to work fine.

I can provide specific details of the configuration if necessary.

Any thoughts or advice?

 

[orypecos]

Do u have attdt vectoring?
A attdt extenion should't be put in a hunt group. It causes the attdt cueing to behave unreliably

 

[jlappin]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, in fact we currently have a vector tied to the attendant ext but we could not find a way to get it to redirect if no answer after x rings or x seconds.

 

[wilsontec]

have you try use phantom number route call to attendant.
e.g.

incoming call -> phantom extension ( use coverage path route call to attendant )-> attendant.

if you have R11 software you can use time of day route to different coverage

hope can help you

 

[jlappin]

Thanks. I am not clear on the definition of a phantom ext. Is this the same as a terminating ext entension? We are running R11 and have some time of day routing to the day attendant. How would one use time of day routing to transfer to a call when the attendant is not answering?

 

[orypecos]

The only ways that I know of redirecting the attd seeking calls if they are not answered is by using "backup alerting
" which allows other stations to take calls to the attdt, or "alerting" which puts the whole pbx in night service if the attdt does not take a call in so many seconds.