Overview

By default, Cirrus Halo automatically routes queued calls to the groups assigned to a Router. During periods of high demand, you may want additional users to assist without automatically receiving calls.

This guide explains how to configure a secondary group that can:

• View calls waiting in a queue
• Manually retrieve calls when required
• Never receive automatic call allocation

This approach allows supervisors to control when additional teams become involved while ensuring the primary team continues to handle calls as normal.

Example use case

The Customer Services team manages all inbound customer enquiries and is the primary group assigned to the Router.

During busy periods, a secondary support team is available to help.

The support team should:

• See calls waiting in the queue
• Manually retrieve calls when requested
• Never receive calls automatically

This configuration provides additional capacity without affecting the normal routing strategy.

Before you begin

Before configuring a manual retrieval group, ensure:

• The Router has already been created.
• The queue has a configured Maximum Queue Time.

• The primary servicing group is already assigned to the Router.

How it works

Each group assigned to a Router has an Activation Delay.

This value determines how long a queued call waits before that group becomes eligible to receive automatic call distribution.

If the Activation Delay is configured to a value greater than the queue's Maximum Queue Time, the delay is never reached.

As a result:

• The group never receives automatic calls.
• Users in the group can still see queued calls.
• Users can manually retrieve calls whenever additional support is needed.

This creates a manual overflow team without changing the existing routing behaviour.

Create the manual retrieval group

1. Navigate to ‘Resources’ > ‘Groups’ > ‘Agent Groups’.
2. Create a new agent group and assign the required group members.

3. Navigate to ‘Phone & Text’ > ‘Routers’
4. Open the desired router's configuration.
5. Verify that the ‘Max. queue time’ field is populated.
6. Select the Groups tab.
7. Select Add.
8. Choose your new agent group from the drop-down list.
9. Enter a figure in the ‘Activation delay’ field that is GREATER than the ‘Max. queue time’

10. Save the changes

Verify the configuration

After saving the Router configuration:

1. Sign in as a user in the manual retrieval group.
2. Confirm that queued calls are visible.
3. Place a test call into the queue.
4. Verify that the call is automatically offered only to the primary group.
5. Confirm the secondary user can manually retrieve the waiting call.

If the secondary group begins receiving automatic calls, check that the Activation Delay is greater than the queue's Maximum Queue Time.

Result

The Router behaves as follows.

Best practice

This configuration is recommended when:

• Another department provides occasional support.
• Supervisors decide when additional users should assist.
• Users need queue visibility without receiving automatic calls.
• Overflow support should remain manual rather than automatic.

Avoid this configuration if all available users should automatically receive queued calls. In that scenario, configure the additional group with an Activation Delay that falls within the queue's Maximum Queue Time.

Troubleshooting

• The secondary group is receiving automatic calls
  • Check that the Activation Delay is greater than the queue's Maximum Queue Time.
• Users cannot see queued calls
  • Confirm that users are members of the correct Router group and have permission to view the queue.
• Users cannot retrieve queued calls
  • Verify that manual retrieval is enabled for the queue and that users have the required permissions.