Call Center Queues

A Queue is a waiting line for inbound calls. When more calls arrive than your available agents can answer at once, the Queue holds each caller, plays hold audio, and hands the call to the next available Agent according to a strategy you choose. Queues are the heart of UCBC's Agent Center / Call Center suite, and they work together with Agents, Supervisors, Tiers (which agents belong to which queue), and an optional Callback feature that lets a waiting caller request a call back instead of continuing to hold.

This article covers creating and configuring a Queue (every field, including UCBC's own hold-audio journey and Callback feature), adding Agents to a Queue, Agents and Supervisors as their own records, the live Agent Status and Active Calls views, and editing/deleting a Queue.

Overview#

• Queue — the waiting line itself: an extension number callers (or an IVR Menu, Ring Group, etc.) are transferred into, a ringing/distribution strategy, hold audio, and the list of Agents allowed to answer it.
• Agent — a person who answers calls from one or more Queues. Creating an Agent here automatically creates their phone extension and portal login together, in one step.
• Supervisor — a person who can monitor one or more Queues (live calls, agent status) without being a queue member themselves.
• Tier — the assignment of one Agent to one Queue, with a Level and Position that control the order agents are offered a call (see Field Reference).
• Callback ("Virtual Hold") — an optional feature letting a caller already waiting in a Queue press a digit to request a call back instead of continuing to hold.

All of this is managed from the Agent Center (or CC Agents) area, which has its own tabs: CC Agents, CC Supervisors, Queues, and Settings (Destination, IVR Menus, Ring Groups, Time Conditions, Ticket Settings — covered in a separate article). The Agents and Supervisors tabs each have their own second-level tabs: Agent Status / Registrations under Agents, and Active Calls / Registrations under Supervisors.

The Call Center Queues list

Screenshot needed · queues-list

How to Create a Queue#

1. Go to Queues and click Add.
2. Enter a Queue Name and an Extension — the number other things (an IVR Menu option, a DID, a Ring Group, etc.) dial to reach this queue.
3. Optionally choose a Greeting — a sound that plays once, right when the call enters the queue, before any hold audio starts.
4. Choose a Language for system prompts (position announcements, etc.).
5. Choose a Strategy — how the next available agent is picked (see Field Reference for every option; Longest Idle Agent is the default and the most common choice).
6. If you already have Agents created, add them to this queue in the Agents grid — pick an agent, a Tier Level, and a Tier Position per row (see "How to Add/Remove Agents" below). You can also do this later, after the queue is saved.
7. Fill in the Outbound Caller IDs grid if agents in this queue should call out using specific numbers (see Field Reference) — this is optional and only needed if you want to control which Caller ID an agent's phone uses for calls they place.
8. Configure the hold-audio fields — First Hold, Busy Agents, and Second Hold — see "The Hold-Audio Journey" below for what each one means to the caller.
9. Turn Record on if every call through this queue should be recorded (this also locks the Record setting on every agent tiered into this queue — see Tips).
10. Set a Queue Limit if you want to cap how many callers can wait at once.
11. Optionally expand Callback (Virtual Hold) and configure it if you want to offer waiting callers a call-back option — see "Callback" below.
12. Set the remaining timing fields (Time Base Score, Max Wait Time, Tier Rules, Discard Abandoned After, etc.) — defaults work for most queues; see Field Reference if you want to fine-tune them.
13. Choose a Timeout Action — where a call goes if it waits too long and nothing else intervenes (e.g., voicemail, another queue, a different extension).
14. Click Save.

The Hold-Audio Journey (what the caller hears)#

UCBC plays hold audio in a specific sequence, moving the caller through up to four distinct sounds depending on how long they wait and whether agents are genuinely busy:

1. Greeting — plays once, immediately, when the call enters the queue (e.g., "Thanks for calling, please hold").
2. First Hold — starts looping right after the Greeting, for as long as at least one agent is free to take the call. This is normal, everyday hold music.
3. Busy Agents — the moment every agent on the queue is genuinely busy (not just slow to answer — truly unavailable), First Hold is interrupted and this plays once. It's meant to be a "sorry, all our agents are currently busy" message.
4. Second Hold — after Busy Agents finishes, the system alternates between Busy Agents and Second Hold, back and forth, until an agent becomes free and answers, or the caller hangs up. Second Hold is the same setting as the platform's standard Music on Hold — it isn't a separate recording you need to upload specifically for this queue unless you want one.

In short: calm hold music plays as long as someone could pick up soon; once it's clear nobody can, the caller is told that and then hears an alternating "still busy / hold music" loop until they're answered.

Callback — Letting a Caller Request a Call Back#

Callback (also called "Virtual Hold") lets a caller who is already waiting in a queue press a digit to request that the system call them back instead of continuing to hold. It is off by default — a queue's Callback section is collapsed on the edit screen; click Show to expand and configure it.

What the admin configures#

1. Callback Strategy — which signal decides when it's time to dial the caller back:
   • Free Agent — call back as soon as any agent on the queue goes free.
   • Longest Idle Agent — call back using the agent who has been idle the longest.
   • Round Robin — cycle through agents in turn.
2. Callback Max Attempts — how many times to try reaching the customer back before giving up. A missed attempt is retried the next time an agent becomes available — not on a fixed timer.
3. Callback Caller ID — the Caller ID Name/Number your system presents to the customer when it calls them back. The outbound trunk is resolved automatically from the number, the same way it works for the Outbound Caller IDs feature.
4. When — the exact moment in the hold-audio journey (above) when the Callback Offer Announcement plays and the callback digit becomes pressable: Before First Hold, After First Hold, After Busy Agent / Before Second Hold (the same moment, just two names for it), or After Second Hold.
5. Callback Offer Announcement — a sound played once at that moment, telling the caller which digit to press for a callback, and that doing nothing just keeps them on hold as normal.
6. Callback Offer Wait Seconds — a short pause (default 5 seconds) held after the announcement finishes, before the next hold audio resumes — giving the caller a real moment of quiet to press the digit without being talked over.
7. Callback Confirmation — a sound played once the caller actually presses the digit, confirming the request was accepted, right before the call ends. Leave blank to use a stock confirmation sound.
8. Callback Options — a grid where you choose exactly what digit(s) a waiting caller can press and what happens when they do. Each row has a Digit, a Destination (picked the same way as an IVR Menu option — this can be "request a callback from this queue," transfer to another queue, an extension, voicemail, etc.), a Description, and Enabled. Leave a row blank to drop it.

What the caller experiences#

1. The caller is holding in the queue as usual, moving through Greeting → First Hold → (if needed) Busy Agents/Second Hold.
2. At the point you chose in When, the system plays the Callback Offer Announcement (e.g., "If you'd like us to call you back instead of waiting, press 1"), followed by the configured pause.
3. If the caller does nothing, hold audio simply continues — nothing changes for them.
4. If the caller presses the configured digit, the Callback Confirmation plays, the call ends, and the caller's spot in line is effectively replaced by a scheduled callback.
5. According to the Callback Strategy and Max Attempts you configured, the system calls the customer back once an agent is available, presenting the Caller ID you set.

How to Add or Remove Agents (Tiers) in a Queue#

1. Open the Queue for editing.
2. In the Agents grid, each row has: an Agent dropdown, a Tier Level (0–9), and a Tier Position (0–9).
   • Tier Level controls priority groups — agents at a lower level are generally offered calls before agents at a higher level (useful for "primary" vs. "backup" agents on the same queue).
   • Tier Position breaks ties within the same level, controlling ordering for strategies like Round Robin or Sequential.
3. Pick an agent in any blank row to add them; a new blank row appears automatically.
4. To remove an agent from the queue, click the delete icon next to their row and confirm.
5. Click Save. Agent/tier changes take effect immediately — no separate reload step is needed.

Agents and Supervisors#

A queue's Agents (Tiers) tab

Screenshot needed · queue-agents-tiers

Agents#

An Agent is the record that lets a person answer queue calls. Creating an Agent creates their extension (phone line) and portal login in one combined step — you don't need to separately create an extension first.

How to Create an Agent

1. Go to CC Agents and click Add.
2. Enter the Agent Name.
3. Enter the Extension — this becomes the agent's real phone extension (SIP registration, UCBC Softphone, call routing all follow this number).
4. Enter the Username — the agent's portal login.
5. Optionally enter an Email.
6. Enter a Password and Confirm Password — this becomes both the SIP registration password and the portal login password.
7. Set No Answer Delay, Reject Delay, and Busy Delay if you want non-default timing for retry behavior (defaults are sensible for most setups).
8. Set Record if this agent's calls should always be recorded (this is automatically turned on and locked if the agent is tiered into any queue that has Record enabled).
9. Click Save.

Extension and Username can be edited later at any time — renaming either one updates it everywhere on the platform automatically.

Agent status (Available / On Break / Logged Out) is no longer something you set by hand on this form — it is driven entirely by whether the agent is actually logged into the Agent Portal, and reflects automatically on the Agent Status and Active Calls views. The three values mean:

• Available — logged in and eligible to receive queue calls.
• On Break — logged in but has stepped away (toggled from inside the Agent Portal itself).
• Logged Out — not currently logged into the Agent Portal; never offered queue calls.

Supervisors#

A Supervisor can monitor queues (live calls, agent activity) without being a queue member or taking calls from it.

How to Create a Supervisor

1. Go to CC Supervisors and click Add.
2. Enter the Supervisor Name, Extension, Username, optional Email, and Password/Confirm Password — same behavior as an Agent's own linked extension/login.
3. Set Status to Active or Inactive.
4. In the Queues grid, check (add a row for) every queue this supervisor should be able to monitor. Their portal only ever shows the queue(s) selected here — never every queue in the domain, and this is not the same as queue membership (a supervisor is never an agent in the queue).
5. Click Save.

Agent Status#

Under CC Agents > Agent Status, you get a live, auto-refreshing table of every agent and their tier assignments across queues — a quick way to see who's logged in, on a call, on break, or logged out, without digging into individual agent records.

Active Calls#

Under CC Supervisors > Active Calls, supervisors get a unified live view of agents, queues, and the calls currently in progress. You can:

• Pick a specific Queue to focus on from the dropdown.
• Filter the agent list by status: Available, Not Available, On Break, or Logged Out.
• See calls in progress and take supervisor actions on them (e.g., listen in, pick up, end a call) directly from this view.

This view refreshes automatically every couple of seconds.

How to Edit a Queue#

1. Go to Queues, find the queue, and click its name (or the edit icon).
2. Change any field as described above.
3. Click Save.

How to Delete a Queue#

1. Go to Queues.
2. Check the box next to the queue(s) you want to remove.
3. Click Delete and confirm. This also removes its tier (agent) assignments.

Field Reference — Queue#

Field Reference — Agent#

Field Reference — Supervisor#

Tips & Common Issues#

• A queue's Record toggle overrides individual agent settings. Turning Record on for a queue locks the Record field on every agent currently tiered into it — you can't turn recording off for just one agent while the queue itself requires it. Remove the agent from the queue to make their Record setting independently editable again.
• Outbound Caller IDs apply to every agent in the queue, all at once. If you only want certain agents using a specific number, set that up at the Agent/Extension level instead.
• Callback digits always work, even mid-press. The configured digit is wired in for the whole call from the start; whether a press is actually honored depends on whether the caller has reached the "When" point you configured yet — pressing too early simply keeps them in the normal queue.
• Second Hold and Music on Hold are the same setting. If you've already set up Music on Hold elsewhere, you don't need to upload anything extra for Second Hold.
• A brand-new queue has no agents yet. Add at least one Agent via Tiers before expecting any calls to be answered — otherwise calls will simply ride out to the Timeout Action.
• Changing an Agent's or Supervisor's Extension or Username is safe at any time — the change applies everywhere on the platform immediately, with no separate propagation step needed.