Tag: On Hold

Adding Custom Music On Hold Prompts To An Allworx Phone System

Allworx On Hold Music

 

The Allworx 6x, 24x, and 48x phone systems all support using music on hold for calls in queues or while waiting for extensions. In addition to the supplied music on hold prompt, Allworx allows for the creation of custom music on hold prompts. To create custom music on hold prompts, you’ll need an FTP transfer program.

Access your Allworx’s FTP server by navigating to ftp://192.168.2.254/prompts (IP may change depending on configuration). You’ll need to login to the phone system (the default password is admin). Once logged in, you can transfer files over to the prompts folder. In order for the system to recognize your file as a music on hold file, you need to follow a specific naming convention: moh_#_X.snd where # is a number between 1-30 and x is a character string that helps describe the music on hold source. An example would be moh_1_sales.snd.

The hard part about creating custom MOH music is that it must be saved in the .snd format and be recorded in raw u-law, mono, 8 bits per sample, 8 kHz sample rate audio. This is in order for the Allworx to play the sound back over the telephone network. You might have trouble creating this audio yourself, but you can find examples to use online.

Once you’ve transferred the .snd files over to the proper address, log into the admin port at 192.168.2.254:8080. Proceed to Phone System > Music on Hold in the navigation menu and scroll to the bottom. You’ll want to select load custom recordings to put the prompt you created into use by the system. Once you’ve done this you can begin using your music on hold prompts for things such as call queues, hold, and ring groups!

Creating a Call Queue For an Allworx 24X

The Allworx 24X phone system is capable of supporting call queues for extensions that are busy.  To use call queues with the Allworx system, you’ll need to have the Automatic Call Distribution feature key installed on your system. Contact your Allworx dealer for this feature.

Assuming you have installed the feature key, you can set up call queues by logging into your admin portal at 192.168.2.254:8080. Once logged in, go to Phone System > Call Queue in the navigation menu. You’ll want to select modify of the queue that you are editing.

If this is your first time editing a queue, select Queue 0 and click modify. You’ll end up on a Call Queue page. The page has several settings you can use to set up the queue.

Allworx 24X Call Queue

The first setting you’ll want to change is the description of the queue. Give it a name that is descriptive and tells you what it is. In our example, we’ll call it ‘Tech Support.’ Next, choose the distribution mode of the calls and how they should go to the phones that are part of the queue. There are four options: all ring, fairness – longest idle, linear idle, and sequential round robin. Each is explained below.

Four Call Queue Ring Options

All Ring: All phones assigned to the queue will ring when the call comes in
Fairness – longest idle: The user whose phone has not been used in the longest time will receive the call.
Linear Priority: The phones will ring in a specified order of priority. The phones will ring in the same pattern every time.
Sequential Round Robin: The queue will rotate through the list of phones to ring, with a different phone ringing first each time.

Pick the distribution mode that best suits your company’s needs. You’ll want to skip relay status message if you’re new to Allworx. You can change the maximum wait time allowed, but 1800 is generally considered an acceptable number. For those with long wait times, consider changing this value to ‘0’ which is indefinite.

You can choose to have queue prompts play or just have a ring back tone played to the caller. Alarm systems are built into the phones that alert users to too many calls being in the queue. Users can specify the alarm to go off anywhere between 1 and 16 callers. Both an amber and red alarm can be configured in this way. Alarms can also be configured by wait time.

Those with music on hold (MOH) can select what source to play the music from, or simply play no music. Maximum rings sets how many times an agent’s phone should ring before being removed from the queue. The next settings should be left by new users first creating a call queue. Changing these defaults might result in a call being left in limbo by the phone system.

The last settings have to do with callers wishing to leave the queue. If you already have your default auto attendant set up, you can leave these as the default option 400. Alternatively, you can have a call transfer to an operator, a voicemail, extension, another call queue, or even hang the call up!

Following these instructions, you should now have a call queue set up on your Allworx phone system! As with other parts of Allworx configuration, the system is easy to understand and set up yourself.