Plan for Teams Auto attendants and Call queues

Auto attendants allow you to set up menu options to route calls based on caller input. Menu options for an Auto attendant--such as "For Sales, press 1--For Services press 2"--let an organization provide a series of choices that guide callers to their destination quickly, without relying on a human operator to handle incoming calls.

Call queues are waiting areas for callers. For situations where callers need to reach someone with a particular specialty--such as sales or service--rather than a specific person, you can use Call queues to connect callers to the group of agents who can assist them. Callers are put on hold until an agent assigned to the queue is available to take their call.

When Auto attendants and Call queues are used together, they can easily route callers to the appropriate person or department in your organization.

Auto attendants

The primary purpose of an Auto attendant is to direct a caller to an appropriate person or department based on the caller's input to the provided menu options. Callers can be directed to:

• Specific people within your organization.
• Call queues where they wait to talk to the next available agent.
• External phone numbers.
• Other Auto attendants.
• Voicemail.

Different call routing options can be specified for business hours, off hours, and holidays.

Menu prompts can be created by using text-to-speech (system-generated prompts) or by uploading a recorded audio file. Speech recognition accepts voice commands for hands-free navigation, but people calling in can also use the phone keypad to navigate menus.

Each Auto attendant has a specific language and time zone. If you do business in multiple languages or multiple parts of the world, you can create as many different Auto attendants as you need to accommodate your callers.

For each Auto attendant, you can configure an operator. While you can configure operator calls to go to various destinations, the operator feature is designed to allow callers to talk to a specific person in your organization who can help them.

Auto attendants can be configured to allow callers to search your organization's directory, either by name or by extension number. In an Auto Attendant, you can choose which users show up in the directory by selecting which groups to include or leave out by setting the dial scope.

Internal callers, using their Teams client, can reach an Auto attendant by calling the Resource account assigned to the Auto attendant. External callers can reach an Auto attendant by dialing the phone number assigned to the Resource account or via the web if click-to-call is configured.

Call queues

A Call queue is analogous to a waiting room in a physical building. Callers wait on hold while calls are routed to the agents in the queue. Call queues are commonly used for sales and service functions. However, Call queues can be used for any situation where the number of calls exceeds your internal capacity, such as a receptionist in a busy facility.

Call queue exception handling allows you to redirect calls to specific people, voicemail, other Call queues, or Auto attendants in the following situations:

• There are no agents logged
• The total number of callers waiting in queue exceeds the limit that you specify
• The caller's wait time in queue exceeds the limit that you specify

Like Auto attendants, Call queues each have a language setting. You can use different Call queues if you do business in multiple languages. Agents can be members of more than one queue if they're multi-lingual.

For each Call queue, you can specify if agents in the queue can opt out of taking calls and if calls should be routed to them based on their presence indication in Teams.

Internal callers, using their Teams client, can reach a Call queue by calling the Resource account assigned to the Call queue. External callers can reach a Call queue by dialing the phone number assigned to the Resource account or via the web if click-to-call is configured.

Call queues don't provide separate call routing for off hours and holidays. Even if your Call queue is staffed 24/7 we recommend using an Auto attendant to direct calls to the call queue.

Call priorities for call queues

Call priorities for Call queues allow you to set the order in which calls are routed to agents within a call queue. This functionality is useful for ensuring that high-priority calls are answered first, while lower-priority calls are held in a queue until an agent becomes available.

Prerequisites

Auto attendants and Call queues

To configure Auto attendants and Call queues, you need the following resources:

• A Resource Account for each Auto attendant or Call queue that directly answers calls. Nested auto attendants or call queues that receive calls from an auto attendant or call queue that answered the call don't require a resource account.
• A free Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license for each resource account.
• External phone calls:
  • At least one Microsoft service number, Operator Connect number, Direct Routing number, or a hybrid number for each resource account that you want to be directly dialable from external phone numbers.
    • The service number can also be a toll or toll-free number.
• Web click-to-call:
  • Contact centers with Azure Communication Services
  • Quickstart: Join your calling app to a Teams auto attendant
  • Quickstart: Join your calling app to a Teams call queue

Agents

Agents who receive calls from a Call queue must be Enterprise Voice enabled online or on-premises users. For more information, see Assign, change, or remove a phone number for a user and Enable users for Direct Routing. In addition, if the Call queue is using Direct Routing numbers, agents who need to conference or transfer calls also require:

• An online voice routing policy assigned if the Call queue uses transfer mode.
• An Audio Conferencing license or online voice routing policy assigned if the Call queue uses conference mode.

If your agents are using the Microsoft Teams app for Call queue calls, they need to be in TeamsOnly mode.

Outbound PSTN calling

If your Auto attendants or Call queues perform any of the following actions:

• Transfer calls to an external PSTN number
• Use the Call queue Callback feature
• Use resource accounts for agent on-behalf-of outbound calling line ID control in Call queues

Then, in addition to the Teams Phone Resource Account license, the resource account must also have one of the following assigned:

For Microsoft provided numbers:

• A pay-as-you-go license assigned or
• Communications credits

For Direct Routing numbers:

• An online voice routing policy.
  • Phone number assignment is optional when using Direct Routing.

There are no additional requirements when an Operator Connect phone number is assigned.

Business decisions

Before you set up your Auto attendants and Call queues, there are some decisions that you should make about how to use these features in your business. These decisions determine the settings you choose when configuring your Auto attendants and Call queues.

Document your answers to these questions and provide the information to the administrator doing the configuration.

• How do callers reach you? Internally only? Externally? Click-to-call on the web?
• What languages do you need? Where are these languages needed - which department or group?
• Do you want to allow voice inputs from callers or only dialing inputs?
• Do you need separate call routing for off hours or holidays? What are the hours and holidays?
• Do you want to allow agents in a Call queue to opt out of taking calls?
• Do you want agents in your Call queues or your operator to have a specific caller ID if they dial out?
• For the voice prompts, do you want to record your own or use the system-generated voice?
  • The system-generated voice is easy to update.
• Do you want to delegate certain Auto attendant and Call queue administrative tasks to authorized users?

Technical decisions

When using Auto attendants and Call queues to connect callers to people in your organization, there are some technical decisions to make before you start the configuration.

Call queue agents

Agents can be added to Call queues in the following ways:

• Option 1
  • Individual users (maximum 20)
  • Distribution lists
  • Microsoft 365 security groups, including mail-enabled security groups
• Option 2
  • Teams channels
• Option 3
  • Shifts in Microsoft Teams

We recommend choosing a strategy for adding call agents to queues before you start your configuration.

Migrating phone numbers

If you have existing Auto attendants and Call queues that you're migrating to Teams, you need a plan to transfer your existing phone numbers to the new Auto attendants and Call queues. You might need to create a port order to move your numbers from another providers. We recommend that you temporarily acquire one or more new phone numbers and test your Auto attendant and Call queue flows before switching them over the numbers you currently have in service.

Conference mode (default)

Conference mode is an option in Call queues that significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to connect Teams VoIP calls and external PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) calls to an agent. For conference mode to work, agents in the Call queue must use one of the following clients:

• The latest version of the Microsoft Teams desktop client, Android app, or iOS app.
• Microsoft Phone System version 1449/1.0.94.2020051601 or later.

Set Agents' Teams accounts to Teams-only mode. Agents who don't meet the requirements aren't included in the call routing list.

Conference mode is enabled by default. If you have agents who don't meet the requirements, then conference mode must be manually disabled during Call queue configuration.

Nested Auto attendants and Call queues

You can nest Auto attendants and Call queues in two ways:

1. Directly reference the auto attendant or call queue you want nested

The first Auto attendant or Call queue that answers a call requires a resource account and associated licensing. Nested auto attendants or call queues that receive calls from an auto attendant or call queue that already answered the call don’t need a resource account.

Auto attendants and call queues that are nested this way and that transfer calls externally don't require resource accounts or respective licensing. When you nest auto attendants or call queues, license the resource account on the first auto attendant or call queue receiving the call.

Nesting without resource accounts is the recommended approach. This method removes the need to create and license extra resource accounts. It also makes auto attendant and call queue exception handling flows easier to understand and manage.

However, there might be times when you require nesting with resource accounts. For example, when agents in a call queue receive a call, how the call arrived in the queue determines the information in the toast. If the call was transferred to the queue without a resource account, the agent receives the name of the call queue in the toast. If the call was transferred to the queue through a resource account, the agent receives the display name of the resource account.

2. Reference the resource account assigned to the auto attendant or call queue you want nested

Each resource account must have a Teams Phone Resource Account license.

Reporting and Nested Auto attendants and Call queues

Teams admin center usage reports

If you require Teams admin center reporting, nest with resource accounts. The Auto Attendant Usage and Call Queue Usage report in Teams admin center don't support reporting on Auto attendants or Call queues that are nested without resource accounts.

The Teams admin center usage reporting only reports on the calls and caller actions in the first Auto attendant or Call queue that answers the call.

For information about reporting with nested Auto attendants and Call queues in Queues app, see Use the Queues app for Microsoft Teams.

Auto attendant and Call queue historical reports

For Auto attendant and Call queue historical reports, users can access reports in the following ways:

• Authorized users see all Auto attendants and Call queues they're authorized for regardless of how they're nested.
• Administrators see the Auto attendant report by resource account or by the Auto attendant GUID if no resource account is available.
• Administrators see the Call queue report by resource account or by the resource account of the Auto attendant or Call queue that transferred the call to the Call queue.

Click-to-call restrictions

To help prevent a denial of service attack from web based click-to-call applications, there's a maximum of 40 click-to-call calls per minute across all auto attendants and call queues in a tenant.

Supported audio file formats

If you want to use a recorded audio file for prompts or music, the supported formats are WAV (uncompressed, linear PCM (Pulse-code modulation) with 8/16/32-bit depth in mono or stereo), WMA (mono only), and MP3.

The audio file content can't be larger than 5 MB.

Getting started

Once you complete the planning tasks in this article, follow these steps to get your Auto attendants and Call queues set up:

1. Plan your call flow routing to identify the number of resource accounts, auto attendants, call queues, and associated configuration items you need.
2. Plan for Auto attendant and Call queue authorized users who can be responsible for administrative changes to Auto attendants or Call queues.
3. Get a Teams Phone Resource Account license for each resource account that you plan to create. These licenses are free, so we suggest getting a few extra in case you decide to make changes to your resource accounts in the future.
4. Create a resource account for each Auto attendant and Call queue that that directly answers calls.
5. Assign a Teams Phone Resource Account license to each resource account.
   • If the resource account will be used to transfer calls externally, assign a pay-as-you-go license or communications credits to the resource account
6. Get service numbers for the Auto attendants and Call queues that you want phone callers from outside your organization to call.
   • For more information about service numbers, see transferring numbers from another provider or requesting new service numbers.
7. Create click-to-call configurations for the Auto attendants and Call queues that you want users on your website or in your mobile applications to call.
8. Create the holidays for which you want to have separate call routing in your Auto attendants.
9. Create the groups, Teams channels, or Shifts scheduling groups that you want to use to contain the call agents for the Call queues.
10. If you plan to enable dial by extension, ensure that you add your users' extension number to their Microsoft Entra ID profile.

Once you complete these steps, you're ready to create your Auto attendants and Call queues. Refer to the workflow diagram that you created to determine which Auto attendant or Call queue should be created first.

In the example diagram, you would create the sales and support Call queues before you create the Contoso main Auto attendant because the main Auto attendant needs to direct callers to the sales and support Call queues. -- Still relevant?

See the following articles for information on how to create Auto attendants and Call queues:

• Set up an Auto attendant
• Create a Call queue

Alternate provisioning tools

Auto Attendant and Call Queue Backup and Bulk Provisioning Tools are a set of tools that provide a way to configure Auto attendants, Call queues, and Authorized users through Excel spreadsheets and PowerShell scripts.

Related articles

Plan Direct Routing

Routing calls with Auto attendants and Call queues

Set up a Microsoft Teams Auto attendant

Create a Call queue in Microsoft Teams

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