Make calls on behalf of Call Queue (or resource account)

Iron Contributor

We have been testing out Direct Routing calling functionalities in Teams for a while now and everything seems to be working fine but unfortunately we have run into a problem that is a show stopper for us and our customers.

 

Our employees, and our customers employees, are often members of multiple call queues and need to be able to make outbound calls on behalf of all the queues (resource accounts) they are members of. If I'm not wrong this was possible in Skype for business, right? At the moment users that are part of a call queue can only make outbound calls as themselves or alternatively you can set up a policy for outgoing Caller ID to set it to a Service Number. Being able to set up a policy for the caller ID on outgoing calls is a step in the right direction but not good enough as a user can only have one caller ID policy at a time so a user can still not make outbound calls from any queue they are member of.

 

There are multiple requests for this on UserVoice (see links below) so I hope Microsoft will consider adding this feature ASAP as, for now, it is sopping us and many others from using Teams as a phone system.

 

UserVoice requests:

 

Also, setting up a policy for caller ID is not an option for us as we are using direct Routing and you cannot use your own phone numbers...another flaw that needs to be addressed ASAP!

 

Anyone else considering this a problem? Looking forward to hear your opinions...

29 Replies

@Mattias Skog - I couldn't agree more! Ring Central was the best solution for this with a dropdown selection of numbers available to set/mask your outbound Caller ID. I have an issue where my service numbers are assigned to an auto attendant for time based routing but then hit call queues to ring my users.

 

This is definitely needed as these same users only need some of there outbound phone calls to appear from the service number, which can be assigned as their outbound caller id but it applies to all calls.

@Mattias Skog You can make outbound calls on behalf of the call queue if you assign a channel for Calling answering instead of individual users or groups.

 

When the channel is assigned you will see a call tab in the channel and agents can choose to make outbound calls as themselves or as the queue.  

Hi @D_K we are trying to call out on behalf a call queue and wondered if you could expand on how to assign a channel for call answering? I have tried Google but had no luck
Thanks in advance

@Sakitt ,

 

Here's the how-to from the Microsoft Docs. There's also a doc on assigning a Calling ID polity to users. Manage caller ID policies in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs

 

What I'd like to see happen is that Calling ID policy assigned to a user become a collection/array of policies to enable the end user to select which policy applies at the client/gui level. 

In the call queue configuration there is an option for call answering where you would usually add the agents. If you select the Choose a team option instead you can select a Team and channel which calls will be routed to. Once this is done you should see a calls tab added in the channel selected.

Inbound calls will now be routing between members of the Team that are listed as agents in the calls tab. Call between agents routing is still going to be determined on how you configure it in the queue configuration.

@D_K @crf200  Many thanks to you both for your responses. They have helped us achieve the setup we require. 

Apologies for hijaking this thread!

Kind Regards

Stephen

@D_K this works fine on the Teams Windows-Application :stareyes:. Do you also have a idea for the mobile APP?:unamused:

@D_K 

This is correct. It is now even possible to use the resource account of an AutoAttendant as the "call on behalf of" number. So you can use the Autoattendant for incoming calls and use the Team channel to make calls on behalf of the number connected to the AA. This way you don't need to assign a number to the RA of the CQ. Pretty sweet.

I have even found a way to program it with PowerShell:

 

$oboResourceAccountID = (Get-CsOnlineApplicationInstance -ErrorAction Silentlycontinue |Where-Object {$_.PhoneNumber -like "*xxxx"}).ObjectId # xxxx being the number connected to the RA of the AA)
New-CsCallQueue -Name <Name of CQ> -RoutingMethod Attendant -OboResourceAccountIds $oboResourceAccountID -OverflowThreshold 5 -UseDefaultMusicOnHold $true -LanguageId "en-GB"

 

Hi @Dewalt Kotze, can you please provide a screenshot to illustrate the above statement: "agents can choose to make outbound calls as themselves or as the queue". I have configured this and the queue I use is now routing between the Chanel members. They however cannot use the Call Queue Phone number the make a call on its behalf.

Hi@dragnevdrg365 

 

The screenshots are attached. When the call queue is configured you have to click the drop down arrow next to the call button to select the outbound caller ID you want to use.

@dragnevdrg365 

There is 2 ways to use this feature; either by using a channel in a Team or the default dialer (this is not available everywhere yet)

 

Team channel:

After connecting a Teams channel to a Call Queue, you get an extra Tab named "Calls". There is a new dialer on the right side of the screen. After you enter the number if you click on the arrow, you can select whether to dial as yourself or as the Call Queue:

Grootj860_1-1659961493317.png

 

Every member of this Team will be able to answer calls or call on behalf of the CQ.

 

Default dialer:

 

Grootj860_0-1659960825533.png

After filling in the number, you have to click on the arrow next to ""Call". You can then select whether you want to call as yourself, as the person you are a delegate for (2nd option, if configured as a delegate ofcourse) or as a call queue (3rd option).

 

The default dialer feature is being rolled out by Microsoft at the moment, so it is possible your enviroment hasn't been enabled yet. 

See this link for info: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365 

I'm trying to enable call out as resource account for an auto attendant. I've made it work for call queue but not auto attendant. Is this possible?

@Grootj860 

dragnevdrg365_0-1660805228715.png

That's my CQ setup. I am member of the Channel and it is not possible to do a call on behalf of the CQ.

We need this so we can call customers from unified number, no all 20 agents calling from their own number.

dragnevdrg365_1-1660805431258.png

Here you can see I have no drop down menu to switch my number. I wander if I need to rise a ticket with Microsoft. This has been real pain lately.

 

@Heimlich13 

If I understand your question correctly; you want to use the RA of the AA as the number to dial out for the CQ? Yes, this is also possible. You have to add the number of the CQ to the RA of the AA and then just add the RA from the AA as the Calling ID to the CQ.

 

This is the RA of the AA:

Grootj860_0-1660805577322.png

And if you add it here:

Grootj860_1-1660805657811.png

 

That number will be used to dial out.

 

I don't know why you can't add the RA as the calling ID for this CQ. I think you should open a ticket to get this fixed.
My RA "Hotline" is of type "Call Queue" and has been assigned phone number. The CQ related is G+. I could possible created second RA of type "AutoAttendant" and place it in Assign Caller ID. But this way I am setting one CQ with 2 resource accounts and 2 phone numbers - makes no sense to me.
About two months ago I made an autoattendent-RA with a number assigned which I used for the AA so it was available for inbound calls and assigned that same AA-RA as calling-ID for the queue with agents that answer the call. No problem - agents in the queue can select if they want to dial out using the RA-number (call as xxxxxxxxxx) or their personal number (call as you)
Now, when I try to do the same thing again, admin center tells me I cannot assign the same RA twice.
Something must have been changed......
We're using Direct Routing, btw.
Don't want to use a Calling-id Policy because that overrules everything and does not allow any choice in calling-id.
Same with me, not interested in CallingIdPolicy as it will overwrite the number on every call. It simply needs to work as 2-SIM card mobile phone: 1 to handle personal contacts and 2nd to handle customer contacts. In my case we also don't need Auto Attendant as we have no need to configure options: press 1, press 2, etc. We need just one Call Queue. I have opened now ticket with Tech Data, see how it goes.
Is it possible to make a team default to the RA that you have assigned in the CQ when agents place calls?

I can see there is a drop down to select the RA number as the caller ID, but I'd like to make it so that the agent's own DDI is NOT the default option, i.e. that they're always dialing out as the RA unless they explicitly choose otherwise.

I can forsee there being multiple occasions when agents forget to select the dropdown to change their caller ID....

Thanks in advance.