Call Groups — How Calls Reach Your Team

Call groups let you define how calls are distributed when they need to reach a human. Instead of routing to one specific person, a call group rings multiple team members using a strategy you choose.

How Call Groups Work

A call group has:

• Members: the team members included in the group
• Strategy: how calls are distributed
• Timeout: how long to ring before giving up

When your agent decides to transfer a call (via escalation rules or caller request), it can route to a call group instead of a specific person. The group's strategy determines who rings.

Members who are set to Away, or who are outside their own transfer hours, are skipped automatically. If that leaves nobody available, the agent takes a message instead of attempting the transfer.

Strategies

Simultaneous: all available members ring at once. The first person to pick up gets the call. Best for small teams where speed matters — someone always picks up quickly.

Round Robin: calls are distributed evenly. The system tracks rotation and rings the next person each time. Best for evenly distributing workload across a team.

Least Recent: the member who hasn't been attempted in the longest time rings first. Best for ensuring everyone gets calls and no one sits idle while others are overloaded. This tracks transfer attempts, not answered calls — it's best-effort distribution.

Timeout

Each call group has a timeout (default: 20 seconds). If no one picks up within the timeout, the caller hears a short message that someone will call them back, and the call ends. Your team gets the call notification with the caller's number, so follow up promptly.

Because the agent has already handed the call off by then, it can't step back in to take a message. If you'd rather your team follow up than risk a missed ring, use an escalation rule that takes a message instead of transferring.

When to Use Call Groups

Call groups work well for:

• Front desk teams: any receptionist can handle scheduling calls
• Sales teams: distribute leads evenly
• Support teams: route technical questions to whoever is available

Transfers only happen during business hours. Outside them, your agent takes a message; it doesn't ring a call group.

For calls that need a specific person (caller asks for someone by name, or the topic requires specific expertise), your agent uses team routing instead of a call group.

Managing Call Groups

Call groups are managed in the Team page under the Groups tab. Create a group, choose a strategy, set a timeout, and add team members. You can also configure escalation rules to route to a call group as the transfer destination.