How do I add a queue, greetings and whisper?

What this does

Adds the touches that make your number sound professional: your own recorded greetings, a queue with music and messages, a short “whisper” so your staff know which number the caller dialled, and the option to pass a call on after answering.

What you’ll need

A Smart Number Manager login (see What is Smart Number Manager and how do I sign in?).
An Advanced service (see How do I ring a group of phones from one number?) or an advanced call flow (see How do I build an advanced call flow?).
Your recordings as MP3 files.

Steps

Upload your recordings

Go to Accounts, then Audio, and select + Add New Audio.
Give the recording a name you’ll recognise, choose the MP3 file and select Save.
Your recording is now in the audio library, ready to use in any service. Use the edit icon to rename or delete it later.

Play a greeting when callers connect

Open your service and switch on Pre-Connection Greeting.
Choose a recording from your library, or upload a new one, then Save Service.

Add a queue

Open your service and switch on Queue.
Choose:

the message callers hear when they join the queue
the waiting music
comfort messages, and how often they play (from every 5 seconds to every 5 minutes)
whether callers hear their position in the queue.

Set the limits: the most callers allowed in the queue and the longest anyone waits. Choose where callers go when the queue is full or they’ve waited too long: voicemail, a message, another number or another service.
If you want callers to be able to leave the queue, switch on breakout, choose the key they press and where it takes them.
Select Save Service.

Whisper and the number your staff see

Switch on Whisper and choose a short recording, such as “Sales line”. Your staff hear it before the call connects.
Optionally let staff press a key to accept the call, or to refuse it so it moves on to the next step in the service.
Switch on Display Number and choose whether staff see the caller’s number or the number the caller dialled.
Select Save Service.

Pass a call on after answering

Switch on Midcall Transfer and select Save Service.
During a call, the person who answered presses # to put the caller on hold, then dials the colleague. Pressing * cancels the hold.
When the colleague answers, press:

1 to hand over the call and drop off
2 to hang up on the colleague and dial someone else
3 to hang up on the colleague and go back to the caller
4 to switch between the caller and the colleague
5 to bring all three into one conference call.

Queue, whisper, display number and mid-call transfer work on Advanced services and advanced call flows.

What you should see

Callers hear your greeting, then wait in the queue with music if everyone’s busy. Your staff hear the whisper before each call and see the number you chose.

Troubleshooting

My recording won’t upload. It must be an MP3 file.
Callers are dropped from the queue too soon. Raise the maximum wait time, or check where you’ve sent callers when the time runs out.
Staff hear the whisper but the call doesn’t connect. If “accept” is on, they need to press the key to take the call.

Done for you

Prefer us to handle this? Contact Bluehubcloud support and we’ll set it up for you.