Forum Discussion
Cloud PBX - Auto Attendant - Transfer to External number
Hey There! In the process of deploying a proof of concept for auto-attendant at my org. Wanted to know if there is a way to have a menu option transfer a call to an external number.
My use case...
Caller dials into main Auto-attendant "... press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service...", when the user presses "2" i would like the autoattendant to direct the call for customer service to an external PSTN number, one that handles our call center. IS this possible, will it be possible, any workarounds?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Hi Austin.
That might depend on your location and your configuration.
In my environment (CCE with SIP trunk) this is possible. A user has a forwarding to an external destination (mobile phone). In the call queue set the maximum queue length to 0 and forward call to "Person in your company". Then the call in the call queue is forwarded to the external number, this also works with an org autoattendant.
Hope that helps.
/Kenneth ML
25 Replies
Austin Ayers It is not supported yet by Microsoft.
Workaround:
1. Create a service account with teams-only and then transfer calls to PSTN number from teams client settings for this account.
2. From AA configuration, forward call to the service account.
Regards,
Fady
I have not done end to end testing... However it may appear that a CAP (Common Area Phone) license could be used in place of a fully licensed user... so the appropriate licensure would be. CAP @6$ and Domestic dialing @ 12$. I am basing this off the fact that i was able to set call forwarding on a Hoteling CAP in the office. I do not know fully if that would work once i disconnect the physical phone itself but it would appear so as the change on the device seems to commit the change once in place, havnt tested if it can be added to a call queue though. (running cloud pbx using teams only currently). To note of course that All calls even once forwareded externally are still connected through your pbx so they are still billable...
For this reason we split our system, our AA now offers sales, operator, and dial by name. But then Says if you need customer service hang up and dial a new 1800 number. Painful in the short term, but probably better all around.
Austin Ayers You cannot route call queue calls to a Common Area Phone. The object cannot be a member of a distribution/Office 365 group.
You need a licensed user account with Phone System license, which can be added to E1/E3 licenses or included with E5.
Regards,
Kenneth ML
KennethML Yeah, exactly correct. For "Common Area Phone".
If you wanted to have an option as a 'user' that sent calls to another external number. Then thats diff.
Still no updates in this? Microsoft you are lagging in the basic fundamentals of converging technologies. If we cannot have these basic features, why release the product AT ALL? Its more of a hindrance than anything.
Echoing Joe Miller
Seems sad to have to eat up an E3 license just to forward to an external number. If there are consumption concerns, create a new license called "external number forwarding" that you can sell based on the region similar to the domestic calling plan.
They now have resource accounts, and they can be setup to just forward to external. Also, you (I believe) can create a "contact" in the admin panel of the tenant, and there you can specify the "external number" of the contact, which can be used to forward calls to.
Take care
I am looking for a similar configuration.
Serivce Number
Option 1: Goes to a Skype Cloud PBX user
Option 2: Cellphone of a person at the company not licensed for O365
Option 3: Cellphone of a person at the company not licensed for O365
Option 4: Emergency Contact center. Public PSTN number
Is this on the roadmap?
Hi Jeff.
Not that I know of, but let's loop in nomorephones he might be able to give a hint to this.
/Kenneth ML
Would love to know if the AA would allow for an option to route to external number! This is a deal breaker for Small business like us, who want to use a SaaS call center and need an option for "customer service" in our primary IVR/AA
I second this request. We have already had potential clients ask to be able to forward an AAs and Call Queues to an external number. For example they want to have unanswered calls go to an answering service.
- I think Microsoft would need to modify their consumption billing model to accommodate this as the tfs would incur cost. At the moment a full user licence and plan is needed to not only cover the cost of the call, but also the technology to make it happen.
Maybe it will come in the future.
Hi Austin.
That might depend on your location and your configuration.
In my environment (CCE with SIP trunk) this is possible. A user has a forwarding to an external destination (mobile phone). In the call queue set the maximum queue length to 0 and forward call to "Person in your company". Then the call in the call queue is forwarded to the external number, this also works with an org autoattendant.
Hope that helps.
/Kenneth ML
This worked great for me. Thanks. We had the same problem, no onsite PBX (Skype only) and needed to forward the call queue to a land line (in a physical building). If I added any skype account to the call queue, and forwarded that number - it just rang the skype phone and did not "follow" the forwarding instruction.
After reading your response, I used an old user account who was no longer with the company. Forwarded their skype phone to the land line number. Set the call queue to forward to their Skype account after 0 minutes and it works great.Thanks again.
Hi Kenneth,
Unfortunately your solution only allows for one mobile to be called. I have AA which calls a callqueue, which then has distribution list with one agent within it. This agent has forwarding option to a mobile which does not work. It works if you call the skype account directly but not within a call queue.
What I want to acheive is out of hours calling system which calls engineer 1 on his mobile and if they do not pick up then it goes to engineer 2 mobile. If engineer 1 and 2 do not pick up then we can push this to skype voicemail.
Regards
Kwok
Hi Kenneth,
I was under the impression that CQ/AA does not work with CCE as the solution needed to be purely online. Do you have any MS PSTN numbers here or is it a pure cloud PBX CCE setup?
Possibly the CCE setup works with CQ/AA but maybe there are odd scenarios that fail and hence it's not a supported setup, could that be the case here?
Thanks
Jed
Hi Jed.
You must have a service number for each OAA and CQ, these numbers cannot be a CCE based number, but only MS PSTN number.
Agents can be cloudbased with hybrid PSTN with CCE. It is not a supported scenario, but I have not found any scenario that doesn't work.
/Kenneth ML
