Overview

Ring groups are a group of agents that work together to answer inbound calls and SMS. It is a good solution for handling customer calls because

it distributes calls and SMS from Lines to defined groups with an order of agents;
it immediately rings all the available extensions and allows the nearest available agent to answer the call.

For example, your organization might want to set up a ring group for your support team. Calls could ring all the agents until someone answers, or it could ring all agents one at a time, in random order.

Aloware Ring Groups settings allow it to manage the following:

Inbound calls
Text Messages
Missed Calls

Mapping out Ring Groups

Name your ring group and add users:

Navigate to Ring Groups on the left-sidebar > General tab.
- Name - name the ring group that can be understood by you and your team, e.g., Sales, Support, etc.
- Description - an optional field to provide a brief description of this ring group
When calls come in, they will run through the sequence of layers.
- Assign one or more agents in every layer; you can add more layers as you like.
Once the setting is done, click the Save button.

Selecting Ring Group Route

Admin can determine how the calls will route to users in each layer and set the dial duration.

There are three (3) available options. Once again, note that this setting applies to each layer within the ring group.

Simultaneous - or SimulDial is the default setting. This option rings all the phones within the same order at the same time until someone picks up, and the rest of the rings will be disconnected.
Random - On each layer, this option randomly selects a user (agent) within the same order. If that user does not pick up, it rings another user.
Round-Robin - this option rings users one-by-one within the layer until someone answers. Aloware routes the call to the agent that's been on the longest available status.
Longest Available - this option focuses on assigning calls to agents based on their availability, specifically targeting the agents who has been idle for the longest duration. The calls are routed one by one to the representative who has had the longest period of availability.
Read this article, Round-robin and Longest Available ring group settings to learn more.
- The "dial for" selector controls how long each call will ring in each layer in seconds. The optimal setting here is 30 seconds.

Repeat Contact Call Routing

Define how this ring group handles repeat customer calls. A "repeat call" means that there is a history of completed calls recorded in Aloware.

Route the call to the ring group (default).
- Calls will be routed to this ring group and will follow the ring group's layers and settings. builder sequence.
Route the call to the agent who last spoke with this contact and then route it to the ring group.
- This option routes repeat callers to the last agent they spoke to. This option is best when a call gets disconnected.
- If the agent who last spoke with the caller is not available to take the call, then the call will be routed to the ring group as usual.
Route the call to the owner of the contact first and then route it to the ring group.
- If a contact has an owner defined in Aloware, this option will route callers to their respective contact owners.
- If the owner of the contact is not available to take the call, then the call will be routed to the ring group.
Route the call to the owner of the contact, and stop. For unassigned contacts, do not route.
- This option route the call to identified contact owner in Aloware.
Route the call to the agent who last spoke with this contact first and then route it to the ring group.
- If a contact suddenly disconnects from the line during a call, the contact will route to the same agent he last spoke with.

Text Message Handling (Beta)

Define how your Ring Group will handle incoming text messages. Ring groups can be used to assign and distribute inbound text messages, to handle the load across multiple agents. The options available here are:

Assign incoming text messages to the contact owner (default).
- This option will not "distribute" the text messages, and the contact owner will be notified.
Assign incoming text messages randomly between agents (if contact is not owned)
- It distributes SMS randomly between agents if the contact has no assigned contact owner.
Do not assign incoming messages to agents.
- This prevents agents from being notified of incoming messages.

Missed Call Settings

If all available and eligible agents in all tiers of the ring group have been offered the call, and no one has answered, or if the ring group does not have any available agents, the call will be missed. You can determine how this ring group handles the missed call with two options:

Use the Line's missed call settings (default) - This option respects the setting configured under Line Settings (Routing & IVR tab) and returns the call to the Line to take a voicemail.
Take a voicemail - Configure a voicemail prompt for this ring group. This option is preferred if you want to separate out voicemails by departments or teams.

Notifications in Ring Groups Settings

Admin can enable notifications for inbound text messages and voicemail notifications:

Inbound Text Notifications
- Users in the ring group will receive notifications for inbound texts if they have access to the contact.

Voicemail Notifications
- Enabling this option will send voicemail notifications to all users of this ring group with access to the contact.