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Calling Group Priority and Support Calling Groups
A calling group can be assigned a priority level and can be used to support another calling group. When a calling group is assigned as a Support calling group to another calling group (called the Home calling group), it answers calls coming into the Home calling group when no Home calling group agents are available. Depending on its priority level, the Support calling group answers its own calls or the Home calling group�s calls first.
For example, assume that a customer wants his Service group to answer calls for his Sales group before answering calls to the Service group. To accomplish this, the Service group is programmed as a Support calling group for the Sales group, the Home calling group (see Figure 1). The Sales group is given a higher priority level (1) than the Service group (2), so that the Sales calls will be answered by the Service group before the Service calls are.
As a further extension of the example in Figure 1, two groups can support each other (see Figure 2). For example, the Service group supports the Sales group, but when the Service group agents are all busy and there are no calls in the Sales group�s queue, the Sales group agents can answer Service Group calls. In this scenario, the Sales calls are still the first priority level so the Sales calling group has a higher priority level (1) assigned to it. Each calling group is both a Home calling group and a Support calling group.
Figure 3 shows how one Support calling group can support more than one Home calling group. In this example, three Home calling groups (Sales, Service, and Administration) are all supported by a General calling group. None of the Home calling groups has any agents assigned to it, so calls always are answered by the Support calling group. Each Home calling group has a different priority level, so that the Support calling group can answer the Sales calls first, then the Service calls, and lastly the Administration calls. Each Home calling group�s label is sent to the Support calling group agent when a call comes in. In this way, the agent knows how to answer the call (for example, "Hello, this is the Service Department").
Figure 3. Multiple Home Groups Sharing a Support Group
As Figure 4 shows, a calling group can be a Support calling group and also can be supported by another Support calling group, a sort of hierarchical support. However, Support calling groups can provide only one level of support. Group B supports Group A, and Group C supports Group B, but Group C cannot support Group A.
Figure 4. A Support Calling Group with its Own Support Calling Group
