Assigning Voice Terminals, Lines, Or Line Pools To; How Group Call Distribution Works - AT&T MERLIN 3070 Administration Manual

ASSIGNING VOICE TERMINALS, LINES, OR LINE POOLS TO GROUPS FOR
GROUP CALL DISTRIBUTION
Your business may have groups of employees with similar responsibilities, anyone
of whom can provide information or some other service to callers from within or from
outside your business. If you assign their voice terminals to a Call Distribution group,
your MERLIN system directs calls that are placed to the group to each voice ter-
minal in turn. As a result, call handling duties are shared equally.

How Group Call Distribution Works

Once you have assigned voice terminals to a Call Distribution group, any intercom
call to the group rings at the voice terminal of the person whose turn it is to take the
next call. If you also assign lines and/or line pools to a Call Distribution group, any
incoming call on one of those outside lines rings at the voice terminal of the person
whose turn it is to take the next call.
For example, many calls come into Ultimate Motors daily from people who have ques-
tions about the cars the dealership has on its lot and on order. Ultimate's administrator
has created a Sales Call Distribution Group consisting of salespeople Joe, Don,
Maureen, and Phil. Whenever a call comes in on one of Ultimate's sales lines, the
system determines which voice terminal received the last call. If Joe took that call,
the system directs the new call to Don's voice terminal. If Don's voice terminal is busy,
the call rings at Maureen's voice terminal. The receptionist, whose console is set
for delayed ring on this line, answers the call if nobody is available to take it. This
arrangement equalizes the salespeople's responsibility for handling inquiries and
opportunity to bring new customers in for themselves.
Having Call Distribution groups can also make intercom calling more efficient. For
example, Primo Foods' order-entry agents handle telephone orders and inquiries
about products in the company's retail catalog. Agents often put customers on hold
while they get billing information from Accounting or check the status of back-ordered
items with Shipping. Because people in those departments belong to Call Distribu-
tion groups, an order entry agent just touches the intercom button, then dials the
group's 3-digit code or touches an Auto Intercom button for that group. Agents get
the information they need without having to look up individuals' intercom numbers
or make a series of calls because several voice terminals are busy.
If an agent isn't free to take calls, he or she just turns on the Do Not Disturb feature.
The system doesn't direct any calls to this voice terminal until the user turns off Do
Not Disturb.
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