Call Queues

Call queues let you manage high call volumes by placing callers in a waiting line until an agent is free. Instead of sending callers straight to voicemail when your team is busy, queues hold them with music and position updates while dialnote finds the right person to help.

You create a queue inside a phone number's call flow, then monitor and fine-tune it from the Call Queues page in the sidebar.

How Call Queues Work#

When a caller enters a queue, dialnote plays hold music or a custom message while it looks for a free agent. As soon as an assigned agent becomes available, the queue connects them to the next waiting caller. The order it tries agents in depends on the ring strategy:

• Round Robin — rotates through agents in order, spreading calls evenly
• Longest Idle — rings the agent who's been free the longest
• Ring All — rings all available agents at once (shown as "Simultaneous" in the backend)
• Random — picks a random available agent

Agents are only offered a call when they can actually take one. dialnote rings agents who are Available (or were auto-marked Away after inactivity). It skips anyone who's On Call or set to Do Not Disturb. See Availability & Status for how those states work.

Creating a Queue#

Queues aren't created from a standalone "new queue" button. They're created as part of a phone number's call flow. There are two ways:

1. Enter Queue node — open the call flow builder for a phone number, add an Enter Queue node, and configure it.
2. Ring Users fallback — in a Ring Users node, turn on the If nobody answers toggle. dialnote auto-creates a matching queue using the same agents.

Once a queue exists, you edit its settings from the Call Queues page.

Queue Settings#

On the Manage tab, owners and admins can edit any existing queue. Open a queue to change:

Basic info

• Name — a label like "Sales Queue" or "Support Line" (up to 100 characters)
• Description — an optional note about what the queue is for

Agent assignment

• Agents — the team members who'll receive queued calls
• Groups — group-based assignment isn't available yet (the field shows "coming soon")

Ring strategy

• Pick Round Robin, Longest Idle, Ring All, or Random (see above)

Timeout

• Max Wait Time — how long a caller waits before the timeout action runs (default: 300 seconds)
• Timeout Action — what happens when time runs out: Voicemail, Forward (to a number you enter), Hang Up, Overflow Queue (to another queue's ID), or Callback

Hold experience

• Hold Music URL — a publicly reachable HTTPS audio file (falls back to the default if blank)
• Hold Message / TTS — a text-to-speech message read to waiting callers
• Announce Position — tell callers their spot in line
• Announce Wait Time — share the estimated wait

Active status

• Toggle a queue Active or Inactive to pause routing without deleting it

Accept / Reject Mode#

By default, dialnote auto-connects the next free agent to a waiting caller. Turn on Accept / Reject Mode and agents instead see an offer they can accept or decline.

This helps when agents need a breather between calls or when some calls need specific expertise. If an agent declines or doesn't respond within the Accept Timeout (default 30 seconds, set between 10 and 120), the caller is offered to the next agent.

Monitoring Live Queues#

The Monitor tab shows every active queue in real time. Each queue card shows:

• Waiting — callers currently in line
• Addressed — callers connected to an agent today
• Missed — callers who hung up while waiting today
• Avg wait — the average time callers spend on hold

Expand a queue to see each waiting caller's position and wait time. You can Dequeue a caller manually to pull them out of the line and continue their call flow. Hit Refresh to pull the latest numbers, or try the built-in demo data if you haven't set up a queue yet.

Adding Queues to Call Flows#

The most common setup is an IVR menu that routes each option to its own queue. For example:

1. Caller dials your number
2. The IVR menu asks "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support"
3. Press 1 → enters the Sales Queue
4. Press 2 → enters the Support Queue

Each queue runs independently with its own agents, hold music, and timeout rules. When a queue times out, the call follows that queue's timeout action — voicemail, a forwarding number, or an overflow queue.

What's Next#

• Set up a queue — a step-by-step walkthrough
• Queue analytics — track wait times, service level, and per-agent performance
• Call flow builder — where queues are created and wired up
• Ring groups — ring a team before falling back to a queue