Explore How Ring Groups Work. Let One Number Ring Multiple Phones

It is quite common for a company to serve its customers over the phone without actually being or having a call center. Some companies are unable to hire a full-time staff to help them handle their calls. Instead, they employ people who are going to be available whenever their customers are in need. In situations like this, companies employ the services of ring groups.

WHAT IS A RING GROUP?

Ring Group is a VoIP feature that allows multiple phones to ring simultaneously when a single extension or number is dialed. It is also known as Departmental Extensions.

Do you want all of your employees working on a particular issue? Ring group is the right feature for you as it will allow you to dial just one number and every phone in that department will ring sequentially or simultaneously. Anyone from the department can pick up the call and provide your customer with the desired solution. Isn't this great? Just in case you don't know, that's what most businesses do. They use this feature to distribute incoming calls to each of their departments, including Sales, Support, Marketing, etc.

RING GROUPS VS. HUNT GROUPS

Ring Groups are basically different from Hunt Groups. They are both distinguished by their ring distribution method. While phones in Ring Groups ring simultaneously, those in Hunt Groups ring sequentially. Let's take a look at the advantages and disadvantages that each group has to offer.

RING GROUPS: Pros and Cons

For instance, let's assume John, Mary and Dave are connected to your Ring Group. Once there's an incoming call, all phones will ring at once. Distributing your call this way allows for a faster call or phone response though it may cause some productivity drawbacks within the company. This is because your employees will be interrupted every time their phone rings. They may even ignore the call in the hopes that someone else will pick, leaving the call to be unattended to it in the end.

A Ring Group works better with small businesses. Just set up a Ring Group and let the members of that group handle your calls. Whoever picks the call first handles the call.

At mango9 we also offer Ring Group, as well as other Voice Over Internet Protocol 45+ business features tailored best to meet your business needs.

HUNT GROUPS: Pros and Cons

In the case of the Hunt Group, when you receive a call, the phones in the group ring in a preset sequence until someone picks up the call. If the call remains unanswered though, it is forwarded to voicemail. Let's use John, Mary, and Dave as our example again. This is how the Hunt Group feature works; When John’s phone rings three times and he doesn't answer, the call is routed to Mary's phone, follows the same number of rings, before being routed to Dave's phone. This makes it a very efficient solution to the handling of your company's call. The phones will not ring simultaneously and other employees will not be interrupted because of the same call. But considering it from the customer's point of view, he/she will have to wait until an available agent picks up their call, or even worse, leave a voicemail if none of them picks the call.

You can also make a decision on how you would like your call flow order to be set. There are two major ring patterns:

1. Cyclic

This pattern is best known as equal distribution of calls. If you want to ensure that your employees get equal call flow, all you need to do is set the Cyclic Hunt Group and the problem will be solved. When the call comes in, the first extension will ring. If there's no answer, the second extension will ring. Still no answer? Then the call will be sent to the third extension.

2. Cyclic Repetitive

This pattern provides you with the ability to distribute phone calls within all the extensions in the order that the extensions are set or entered. For instance, the first incoming call will go to the first extension; if there's no answer, it will be sent to the second extension. Now let's assume it is answered on the second extension and another call comes in, the new incoming call will be redirected back to the first extension.

Hunt Groups are really great for larger businesses as you can preset the ringing order among your employees so as to ensure that each one has his/her own turn to answer the calls.

Ring Groups, on the other hand, provides you with the ability to assign your employees to any type of number. It can be a virtual number, a toll-free number, or a local number belonging to your company.

Corporate-class features such as Ring Groups will help you enhance your customer service while increasing the productivity of your employees.

This state-of-the-art feature will minimize the number of unanswered calls you get, and increase customers’ satisfaction, thereby, making your company a successful one. Choose the right communication system today and take care of your company's welfare.