How does a call travel through your system?

Before you change a phone number or build a menu, it helps to picture the path a call takes. Every outside call starts at one of your phone numbers and moves through a few stops until someone answers or it lands in voicemail. You decide each stop.

Some labels in your portal or apps may look slightly different from this guide.

The path, stop by stop

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Ring the number

   Each number on your account has a destination: the first place its calls go. That can be a user, a phone menu, a ring group and a few other options. CallSprout support sets it for you. Change where a phone number rings covers the list.

2. 2
   Step 2:

   Check business hours

   If business hours are on for that number, the system checks the time and date first. During open hours the call carries on to the number's destination. When you're closed, it goes to the after hours destination you chose instead. Business hours are checked before any caller rules on the number. See set business hours and after hours routing.

3. 3
   Step 3:

   Play the phone menu

   A phone menu (auto attendant) plays a greeting and routes the caller by the key they choose. A key can lead to a person, a ring group, a voicemail box, a company directory or another menu. Menus can have their own business hours too.

4. 4
   Step 4:

   Ring the group

   A ring group rings a set of users together or in turn. If nobody picks up after the passes you set, the call moves to the group's last destination, often a shared voicemail box.

5. 5
   Step 5:

   Route to the user

   The call rings the person's desk phone and any apps they use. If they don't answer, their own settings take over, such as forwarding or voicemail.

Where business hours apply

You can set business hours in several places: for the whole account, on a phone number, on a phone menu, on a ring group, and on a user. Each place can use its own schedule, follow the one above it, or skip the check. Most companies keep one schedule for the account and let everything else follow it. You manage the schedules for the account, phone menus, ring groups and users yourself. For hours on a phone number, ask CallSprout support.

Plan the order before you build

Build from the end of the path back to the start. Create the users first, then the ring groups, then the menu that points to them, and ask support to change the phone number last. That way the number never points at something that doesn't exist yet, and callers don't hit a dead end while you work.

A few more things to keep in mind:

• Queues are a destination on Contact Center Pro only.
• Enhanced ring groups add member login and other controls. They come with every plan, they're the model Contact Center Lite runs on, and they show up as ring groups in your menus. See set up an enhanced ring group for your team.
• Loops are capped. If two ring groups or menus pass a call back and forth, the system stops it after a set number of passes.

Test the path

After any change, call the number from a cell phone. Try a menu key, let a ring group time out, and call once outside your open hours. If the call goes somewhere you didn't expect, work back through the stops above.