To complete the tasks in this article, you’ll need to be an administrator. Learn more about Teams administrator permissions.
This page can help you set up an auto attendant or call queue and plan your call flow.
Many organisations require a ‘waiting area’ (call queue) or ‘digital receptionist’ (auto attendant) for their phone system. They can be useful if you have a customer service or sales line or similar line not attached to a specific user.
What you’ll need
For setting up both an auto attendant and call queue, you’ll need the following:
- A resource account with a Teams Phone licence.
- A phone number (attached to a resource account). See Preparing a phone number for a call queue or auto attendant.
- A call flow plan.
Setting up a call flow plan
Before you set up your auto attendant and Call queue, it’s helpful to have an idea of what kind of call flow you’d like. You should consider things like: Should callers hear a menu or go straight into a queue? Do you need separate call routing for off-hours or holidays?
Once you are clear on what you need, the next step is to set up a resource account.
Creating a resource account
To set up a call queue or auto attendant, you’ll need a resource account and a phone number that’s configured for this purpose.
See Preparing a phone number for a call queue or auto attendant for guidance.
Setting up an auto attendant
An auto attendant allows you to create a ‘digital receptionist’ who can answer and help direct your calls. With the auto attendant you can:
- Answer calls automatically and play greetings.
- Configure menu options (Press 1 for.., 2 for..).
- Route calls to the right place e.g. call queue, a person or voicemail.
- Set business hours and route calls when you’re closed.
Callers can be directed to specific people, call queues, external phone numbers, voicemail or other auto attendants.
Once you have your resource account set up, see Setting up a virtual receptionist (Auto Attendant).
Creating a call queue
Most organisations need at least one call queue. Call queues allow you to send calls to a group of users. You can also choose to add options such as ‘Music on hold’ and playing a greeting before callers join the queue.
To set up a call queue, see Setting up a virtual waiting room (Call Queue).
You can also find more information on this in Microsoft’s Plan your auto attendants and call queues.
Test the call flow end-to-end
Finally, we recommend that you call the number to check greetings, test menu options, confirm queue routing and validate voicemail or fallback behaviour.