When I talk with clients regarding solutions, I am often sharing information about how users should be utilizing the same tools internally and externally. I think back to having a house phone and with the updates to technology, along came the cell phone. If you are interested in seeing how you can bring an old house phone to teams see Connecting a Rotary Phone to Microsoft Teams. Users don’t need two phones, two solutions, two contact centers, etc.. Modern workplaces require tools that not only facilitate internal collaboration but also enhance external customer interactions. Microsoft Teams has continued to invest in a platform for team collaboration, however with the introduction of the Teams Queue app, it changes the communication and call management for external use.

What is the Teams Queues app

The Teams Queues app is a feature of Teams Premium that allows authorized users to view and interact on a new level of the queue. This can be used for reporting, management and real-time statistics. This app will be beneficial for authorized users, team members, supervisors, and leads who work closely together to manage customer calls and facilitate communication and collaboration. We all know that interactions with customers begin with voice calls and having a more robust feature for calling ensures that the experience is focused on customer care.

Queue members have the ability to take inbound calls, make outbound calls from the call queue, and transfer calls to others when specific expertise is needed, all while staying in a single dashboard. In the picture below, I am able to see the waiting calls allowing someone to know if they need to opt-in or update queue settings to ensure that a high-level of customer service is maintained.

One of the key features of the Teams Queue App is its focus on collaborative call handling. In the past, managing call queues was completed by Teams admins, which often slowed down the process of improving operations. With the Queues App, authorized users, also known as leads or supervisors, can now manage their team, call queues, and auto attendants based on needs. This control speeds up decision-making and optimizes call management.

The Queues App offers a wide range of advanced call functionalities that are integrated within the Teams client. Authorized users can configure call queues and auto attendants directly from the Call settings, allowing for quick and easy adjustments. Members of the queue can use the dialpad ensuring that users do not need to navigate back to the Calls app. This ensures that users are using the correct queue for any outbound dialing campaign.

Analytics have always been a weakness of Microsoft Teams Voice, often requiring organizations to purchase a Contact Center solution for advanced queues and reporting needs. With the queues app, authorized users now have the ability to access analytics, both real-time metrics and historical reporting. Real-time metrics include the number of waiting calls, average wait time, and the longest call waiting time. Historical reporting allows users to view metrics for call queues, auto attendants, and agent queue actions over a period of up to 27 days. This feature will allow for analyzing trends and continuously improving the communication process. Access to these reports is based on admin authorization, ensuring that only authorized users can view sensitive information.

Viewing real-time statistics

If authorized by your IT admin, you can see real-time statistics for your call queue, such as total number of calls in the queue, average call time, and longest wait time. The available statistics are based on your admin settings, and new metrics may come available in the future.

There are two ways to find your analytics dashboard.

1. When you have a queue selected, you will see an overview for that queue at the top of Quick access on the left side of the Teams window.
2. See a wider range of analytics for all of your queues, your team members, and your auto attendants:
   • Select Analytics in the top right corner of the window.
   • Select the Real-time tab in the top left corner.
   • Select the queue, auto attendant, or team member you’d like to see the analytics for from the dropdowns.

Viewing historic reports

With the historic reporting feature, you can access reports on the agents, Auto attendants and Call queues that you oversee. Like real-time statistics, your access to these reports is based on admin authorization.

1. In the Queues app, select Analytics in the top right corner of the window.
2. Select the Historical tab in the top left corner.
3. Select the Auto attendant, Queue, or Agent you’d like to see the analytics for from the list.
4. Select the date range you’d like to see, and select Apply.

How to Implement the Teams Queues App

The Teams Queues app is enabled by default for all Teams users in your organization who are assigned both a Teams Premium and Teams Phone license and who are voice enabled. As an admin, you can manage Queues app settings and designate authorized users to perform various actions mentioned above. Permissions to features is controlled by Voice Application policies, which should be configured within your tenant. By utilizing multiple voice application policies, you can assign different levels of permissions that reflect the configuration changes you want to allow authorized users to make to auto attendants and call queues. As an example, you could have one voice application policy that allows the ” supervisor” to have access to both real-time and historical reporting and another policy for ” leads” that allows access to real-time reporting and the ability to opt agents in and out of call queues.

1. Assign licenses to users in your organization

As mentioned, the Queues app is enabled by default for all Teams users in your organization who are assigned both a Teams Premium and Teams Phone license and who are voice enabled.

• Assign users to a call queue
• Recommended Pin Queues app to Teams

Review your app setup policies. Below are the quick directions to review.

App setup policies

1. In the Teams admin center, go to Teams apps > Setup policies.
2. Select an existing policy or select Add to create a new policy.
3. Turn on User pinning so that your users can choose to pin the app for convenient access.
4. Under Pinned apps, select Add apps.
5. Search for Queues and select Add.
6. Select Add and then Save.

I do recommend training as part of the rollout. Although the items displayed are rather simple to consume, some of the settings, if allowed can be confusing and require admin adjustments. For example, if you want to allow for the change in greeting, users making the change could potentially change the experience of all incoming calls resulting in questions from other staff. With any technology, I believe that training is a crucial aspect of implementing anything new. I would recommend ensuring that your team members and leads are familiar with the features and functionalities of the app. Providing training sessions and resources will help them navigate the app and utilize its capabilities.

Level of reporting

Reporting at the real-time or historical level has been difficult with Microsoft Teams. With the Queues app, you receive a level of access to reporting that allows for easy access within the Teams App and does not require admin level permissions to the Teams Admin Center. Below is a table that overviews the Teams Queues app metrics that you can access.

What licensing is needed

The Teams Queue app requires the following:

• Teams paid subscription
• Teams Phone license either through Teams Phone Standard or ME5/E5
• Teams Premium
• Microsoft Teams Calling Plan or 3^rd party calling plan if calling externally or needing to allocate the call queue or agent and external number

When to use the Teams Queues app

The Teams Queues app is designed to cater to a wide range of industries and use cases. Here are some real-world applications that I can see for organizations:

1. Customer service centers can benefit significantly. The app’s advanced call queue management and real-time reporting features ensure that customer calls are handled and supervisors can monitor call performance and make necessary adjustments to improve service levels.
2. Healthcare providers could it manage patient calls and appointments using the routing feature would allow healthcare teams to work together.  The historical reports provide insights into call trends, helping providers optimize their communication strategies.
3. Sales teams could use it to manage customer inquiries and leads efficiently. The real-time metrics feature allows sales managers to monitor call performance and ensure that inquiries are handled promptly. The app’s integration with Microsoft Teams ensures that sales representatives can manage calls without switching between multiple applications.
4. Financial services organizations should consider the app for its authorized users administration feature, which allows supervisors to manage call queues and auto attendants. Real-time and historical reporting provides valuable insights into call performance, helping organizations make decisions.