Short answer: Departments are groups of users (e.g., Sales, Support, Billing) that receive and handle specific types of calls. They make IVR routing simple (e.g., “Press 1 for Sales”), keep teams organized, and enable department‑level reporting.

Contents

• Definition & purpose
• Prerequisites
• Create a department (step‑by‑step)
• Connect the department to your call flow
• What you can track
• Best practices & limits
• Verify and test
• Troubleshooting

Definition & purpose

A department is a routing group you can assign to an IVR option or callflow node. Calls to that option ring the department’s members according to your ring strategy and fallbacks. Departments also provide team‑level analytics such as total calls, missed calls, wait time, and talk time.

Note: In many setups, a department can behave like a queue (e.g., ring strategy, timeouts, voicemail). Your exact controls appear in the department or callflow node editor.

Prerequisites

• You can access Manage → Departments.
• You have permission to add users and edit call flows.
• The users you want to add already exist in Manage → Users (or you’ll add them next).

Create a department (step‑by‑step)

1. Open Manage → Departments.
2. Click Add Department.
3. Enter a name (e.g., Sales, Customer Support).
4. Click Add Members and select the users to include.
5. Choose a ring strategy (e.g., round robin, first available) and set ring/queue timeouts.
6. (Optional) Configure voicemail and overflow routing (e.g., to Operator or another team).
7. Click Save.

Connect the department to your call flow

1. Go to Calls → Design Callflow and open your IVR/call flow.
2. Select the IVR/Menu option you want (e.g., “Press 1 for Sales”).
3. Set the destination to the Department/Queue you created.
4. Review no‑input/wrong‑input behavior and fallbacks.
5. Click Publish.

Screenshot

What you can track

• Total, answered, and missed calls by department
• Average wait time and average talk time
• Agent performance within the department (e.g., distribution of calls)

Best practices & limits

• Keep menus short: 3–5 options per level; use additional sub‑menus if needed.
• DTMF options: Practical option keys are 1–9; reserve 0/*#** consistently (e.g., operator/repeat).
• Consistent rules: Align ring strategy, timeouts, and voicemail rules across departments.
• Availability windows: Ensure members’ call‑receiving times cover operating hours.
• Overflow paths: Always define where calls go if no one answers (another team or voicemail).

Verify and test

1. Place a test call and choose the department’s IVR option.
2. Confirm ring order matches your strategy and timeouts behave as expected.
3. Check Call Logs: the path should show IVR → <Department> → Queue/Agent with outcomes.

Success criteria: The right agents ring, fallbacks work, and logs reflect the expected path.

Troubleshooting

• No one rings: Verify members are Active, assigned to the department, and within their availability window.
• Wrong destination: Recheck the IVR option’s destination in the callflow.
• High missed calls: Shorten hold times, add members, or enable overflow to voicemail/another team.
• DTMF not detected: Increase no‑input timeout slightly; test from another device/carrier.