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 while dialnote finds the right person to help. Position and wait-time announcements are available too, but they're off until you turn them on.

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 longest-waiting caller. Callers are handed out first in, first out, and one agent is dialed at a time: the first assigned agent who's free.

Every queue also carries a ring strategy (Round Robin, Longest Idle, Ring All, or Random). Right now it's saved with the queue but doesn't change how agents are picked, so all four behave the same way.

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, set to Do Not Disturb, or who switched themselves to Away by hand. 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 Hold callers in a queue 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), Callback, Hang Up, Overflow Queue, or AI Agent (hands the caller to an enabled AI agent you pick)
• For Overflow Queue, type the name of the queue you want the caller sent to. The field is labeled "Overflow Queue ID", but a name is what it matches on, and a value that matches nothing creates a new queue under that name.

Hold experience

• Hold Music URL — a publicly reachable HTTPS audio file. Leave it blank and waiting callers hear your hold message instead, or "Please hold while we connect you." on a loop if you haven't set one
• 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, the caller is offered again to whichever assigned agent is free, which can be the same agent who just declined. A no-response only re-offers when that agent has the web app open, since the offer modal is what declines on your behalf when the countdown (the Accept Timeout, default 30 seconds, set between 10 and 120) runs out.

Monitoring Live Queues#

The Monitor tab shows your live queues in real time. A queue only appears here once a caller has actually reached it, so a queue you just created stays off this tab until the first call lands. 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