What happens when nobody answers a ring group?

A ring group doesn't ring forever. Once it has made all its passes and nobody has picked up, the call moves on to the place you choose. Setting that up well is the difference between a caller leaving a message and a caller hanging up.

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

The order of events

1. The group rings. Members ring for the group's ring time, in the order its ring strategy sets.
2. It tries again. The group repeats for as many extra passes as you set in Loops.
3. An optional message plays. If you picked a Timeout Message, the caller hears it now, for example "Sorry, everyone's busy. Please leave a message."
4. The call goes to the last destination. That's the Last Destination you set on the group.

Add up the ring time across all passes to see how long a caller waits. With 25 seconds a pass and 1 extra pass, that's roughly 50 seconds before step 3.

Pick the last destination

Common choices:

• A shared voicemail box. Set Last Destination to the user whose mailbox the team checks, and set Last Destination is voicemail to Yes. The call goes straight to the mailbox instead of ringing that user.
• A backup person or team. Point it at a manager's extension or another ring group.

If you pass calls between groups, keep it simple. The system limits how many times one call can come back into the same group, and stops calls that loop too long, so a call can't bounce around forever. A long chain still means a long wait, though.

Let callers leave the line

An exit key lets callers stop waiting. Set an Exit Digit, such as 0, and an Exit Destination, such as the front desk. Mention the key in the group's greeting, or callers won't know it's there.

Keep calls out of personal voicemail

Members who forward their phone to a cell can lose group calls to the cell's voicemail, which picks up before anyone does. With Confirm Calls on, a member's phone plays a prompt first, and the call connects only once they accept it. Anyone who accepts too late, after a teammate has the caller, hears a short notice instead.

After hours

A ring group can have its own business hours, or inherit your account's. When it's closed, calls go to its after hours destination, not through the steps above. See set business hours and after hours routing.

Call back callers who give up

Smart Callback is part of Contact Center Lite and Contact Center Pro. It calls back callers who hang up or time out in an enhanced ring group, and you turn it on yourself in the group's settings. Those are the only two cases it covers, so leave any other callback switches off. See offer callers a callback instead of waiting. Enhanced ring groups on every plan also have their own settings for a full line, a long wait or no available member. See wrap up time, and what happens when nobody is available.