Ring group vs call queue: which should your team use?

Every Tonet team rings one of two ways:

• Ring together is a ring group. Everyone on the team rings at once for 25 seconds. If nobody answers, the caller goes to the team's voicemail.
• Queue is a call queue. Callers wait on hold with music until someone on the team is free to answer. There's no time limit.

You pick one per team in Manage › Teams.

Ring together vs Queue at a glance

See both with the same five calls:

Five calls in two busy minutes

2 people3 people4 people▶ Play again

Ring togetherEveryone rings for 25 seconds, then voicemail

1. Call ADone · Owner
2. Call BDone · Front Desk
3. Call CDone · Sales
4. Call D✉Voicemail
5. Call E✉Voicemail

3 answered · 2 to voicemail

QueueCallers hold with music until someone is free

1. Call ADone · Owner
2. Call BDone · Front Desk
3. Call CDone · Sales
4. Call DDone · Sales
5. Call EDone · Front Desk

5 answered · 0 to voicemail · longest wait 0:53

Ringing or on hold Talking✉ Voicemail

How Ring together works

1. A call reaches the team.
2. Every member rings at once, wherever they're connected: the dashboard, the desktop app, the phone app or a desk phone.
3. The first person to answer gets the call.
4. If nobody answers within 25 seconds, the caller goes to the team's shared voicemail.

If no one on the team is connected, the caller still waits the 25 seconds, then goes to voicemail.

How Queue works

1. A call reaches the team. The caller hears a short recorded message saying everyone is busy and to wait, then hold music.
2. Every member who's free rings at once. Members already on a call aren't rung.
3. Phones ring for 20 seconds. If nobody answers, there's a 5-second pause, then they ring again. This repeats until someone answers or the caller hangs up.
4. Every 30 seconds, the caller hears the message again.

More than one caller can wait at a time, with no limit. Callers aren't told their place in line or how long the wait is.

A caller goes to the team's voicemail only when no one on the team is connected: when the call comes in, or while they're waiting.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Ring together if:

• Your team is small and usually free to pick up.
• You'd rather take a message than keep a caller waiting.
• Calls are short, like a front desk that answers and passes calls on.

Pick Queue if:

• Calls often come in while everyone is on the phone, like a support or order line.
• Callers should wait for a person instead of leaving a message.
• Someone is always connected during the hours the team gets calls.

Not sure? Start with Ring together. If the Calls page shows many missed calls while your team was busy, switch the team to Queue.

Ring group vs hunt group

A hunt group usually means ringing people one after another until someone answers. Tonet teams don't ring one by one: both Ring together and Queue ring everyone at once.

A call sent to one person rings only that person. If they don't answer, it goes to their own voicemail. It doesn't move on to someone else.

Set how a team rings

1. Go to Manage › Teams. Owners, managers and admins can open it.
2. On the team's card, pick Ring together or Queue. It saves right away.
3. Make sure calls reach the team. The card's Gets calls from lists what sends calls there. If it says Nothing sends calls here yet, send calls to the team from:
   • a number's Go To, in Phones
   • a key in a menu, like "For sales, press 1"
   • a schedule route or a calendar event

The team's voicemail

Both ways can send callers to the team's shared voicemail. Team members find its messages on the Calls page. To set the greeting callers hear, see Voicemail, or copy a team voicemail script.

Next step

• Make a team
• Let callers pick a team with a menu
• Route calls by business hours