Lucent Technologies 5 manual Group Features, Calling Groups

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 5.0	Issue 1
System Manager’s Guide 555-650-118	June 1997

4Features and Applications

Features Page 4-49

■Auto Dial buttons require programmed line buttons but are useful for people who have those buttons available and make many calls to a few numbers. They are also useful for entering account codes and other dialed codes and may be appropriate for people who frequently enter the same codes.

■MLX display telephone users can take advantage of Directory features for calling frequently used numbers.

■Speed dial codes are helpful to people who have nondisplay telephones, single-line telephones, and telephones with few line buttons. They are also useful for entering account codes at MLX display telephones, where the user can choose the Account Code feature from the display, or at telephones with a programmed button for the Account Code feature.

■A Last Number Dial button performs like the redial button available on most home telephones and should be considered for most multiline telephones in the system. Saved Number Dial is similar, but works as a temporary Auto Dial button. Once a number is saved on it, it remains until the feature is used again.

Group Features 4

Group features allow a programmed group of extensions to have a single extension number. For many purposes, these groups are treated as a single extension. Below, we discuss the uses of these groups.

Calling Groups

A calling group is created to receive calls when more than one person answers the same type of calls and it is not important which person answers a call. Examples are airline agents, customer service representatives, and telemarketers who receive direct response calls from customers placing orders. Calling groups of this type are usually monitored by a special type of operator, a calling supervisor. When too many calls are waiting for a calling group, calls are sent to an overflow receiver. In Release 4.0 and later systems, waiting calls can be sent to the overflow receiver based how long callers have been waiting or how many callers are waiting.

The system has numerous features and settings to support calling groups:

■Hunt type determines whether calls go in a circular pattern (circular hunt type) to the first available group member, whether calls are distributed based on which agent has waited the longest since transferring or hanging up on an incoming calling group call (most idle agent hunt type, Release 5.0 and later systems only), or whether all calls go to one group member and reach others only when the first person is unavailable (linear hunt type).

■Extensions and supervisor positions can be programmed to log group members in or out (automatically or manually) for the purpose of receiving calls or stopping calls to the extension.