How to Create an Inbound Queue in 8x8 Contact Center

Objective

To learn how to create an Inbound queue in 8x8 Contact Center.

Applies To

8x8 Contact Center
Contact Center Configuration Manager
Call Queues

Procedure

From the Configuration Menu, open Queues/Skills.
Click or Inbound Phone.
Enter the desired properties in the Properties tab.
Click Save.

Additional Information

8x8 Contact Center categorizes phone queues by the direction of the phone calls.

An inbound phone queue accepts incoming phone calls and directs them to skilled agents. Agents either process these phone calls, or reject them, routing them back to the queue, thus ensuring calls are not discarded.
An outbound phone queue processes all outgoing interactions including campaign calls, click-to-dial calls, and web callback calls.

To define an inbound phone queue, you need to define the primary properties, such as queue name, default priority, post-processing timeout, and more. The Properties tab allows you to define these properties.

The following table summarizes the options under Queues/Skills > Inbound Phone > Properties:

Properties Tab Option	Description
Queue type	Read-only reminder of the type of queue.
Queue direction	Read-only reminder of the phone queue direction. Specifies if it is inbound or outbound. It is applicable to phone media only.
Queue name	Type a name for the queue.
Default Priority	Choose the priority for this queue, where <1> specifies the lowest priority and <10> specifies the highest priority. This defines the priority for interactions of all media. By default, Contact Center prioritizes the queues as follows: Phone queue = 8 (highest default priority) Chat queue = 6 Voicemail queue = 4 Email queue = 2 (lowest default priority) Based on your business needs, you can assign the desired priority for each queue.
Transfer Incoming Calls To	If enabled, Contact Center transfers phone interactions from this queue to an external telephone number (that is not managed by the contact center). The external telephone number must have the following format: In the United States: 1 + three-digit area code + seven-digit phone number Outside the United States: Country Code +phone number The telephone number may contain optional dashes, spaces, or parentheses.
Post-Processing Timeout	Choose how much time Contact Center must wait before assigning a new interaction from the queue to an agent who has just completed an interaction. The post-processing timeout enables agents servicing the selected queue to perform any necessary post-interaction tasks before receiving a new interaction. Choose Manual to enable agents assigned to this queue to use their Agent Console to explicitly make themselves available for new interactions. When there are multiple agents available with the same queue and skill level assignment waiting to receive the next interaction, Virtual Contact Center routes the call to the agent who has been idle the longest. See the Note and table below regarding resetting the agent's idle timer.
Voice Recording %	Specify the percentage of interactions from this queue recorded by Contact Center.
Waiting Music	Choose the audio file played when a caller must wait for an agent to become available. The Waiting Music lists all files defined in the Audio Files tab.

Note: The agent's idle timer is reset every time an interaction comes to an agent via a queue, and as soon as the agent ends the post processing. Log in and log out or changing the status does not reset the agent's timer. Also, if the agent transfers a call that comes via a queue to another agent, it resets the timer for Agent A but not for Agent B. See the following table for the complete list of activities that may or may not reset the agent's idle timer.

An agent's idle timer is reset by	An agent's idle timer is not reset by
Inbound Call via an Inbound Voice Queue	Accepting Direct-to-Agent Calls
Inbound Voicemail Call via an Inbound Voicemail Queue	Dialing Agent-to-Agent Calls
IVR Callback call via an Outbound Queue	Dialing a manual outbound call even if it makes the agent busy using an Outbound Phone Code (OPC) Queue
Web callback call via an Outbound Queue	Making a click-to-dial outbound call
Campaign call via an Outbound Queue	Agent-to-Agent Chat
Inbound Chat via an Inbound Chat Queue	Changing between logged in states such as Available, Working Offline, and On Break
Inbound Email via an Inbound Email Queue	Log in or Log out

After you define the queue properties, you are ready to assign members to the queue.