Basic settings
Let us start with Personal telephony. Basic Teams telephony routes all calls to the user. When a user doesn’t pick up within 20 seconds, it forwards the call to the voicemail. When navigating to the Teams calling settings, we’re presented with a list of settings enabling us to customize our reachability.
At the top we’re presented with tabs, starting with our personal telephony, and if we’re a member of a call queue, the queues are then listed.
The first option we’re presented with is call handling. What do we want to happen when we’re receiving a personal call? Do we answer it ourselves? And what if we’re busy or on a break? Are we reminded someone called?
The default settings are ‘okay’ at best, the phone rings when someone calls. The default Teams calling behavior is much like your mobile phone. Your phone doesn’t know when you’re doing something. It just rings. Well, that’s not very intelligent and can be quite annoying at times.
Simultaneous ring
The ‘when you receive a call’ setting presents us with simultaneous ring options. When we receive a call, do we want to ring someone else? In most cases we don’t, but if we do, we can select a phone number, contact, call group or delegate. These last two options might not be visible and a bit more complex to explain, so let’s come back to them later.
Now you might be thinking; ‘alright let’s set up my mobile number and it will always ring!’ Well... no. The secondary ring will only happen when someone calls your personal Teams phone number. It won’t redirect any group numbers.
But if that’s the case, great! this might be a viable option for you. But then, why don’t you use the Mobile Teams client? Using the Teams client on your smartphone makes this setting redundant because your phone will ring when receiving a call. Why? Because this will unify the calling experience. It allows you to access all Teams features, such as the company address book. Secondly, if you ever have any issues, the Teams calls will be recorded in the Teams admin center, helping your admin troubleshoot the issues quicker. And lastly, lets keep it simple alright? Using the Teams client on our smartphone gives us the same functionality without enabling an extra setting.
I’d advise only using this option when you really need it. Set it up when a mobile phone number is the only way you’re (sometimes) reachable due to bad data reception or not having a smartphone.
Otherwise, let’s keep the calls within the Team’s platform.
Overflow settings
The second setting is a bit more interesting. When we’re in a call, do we want a new call presented to us? We’re able to dictate the behavior of new calls even when we’re already calling someone. It possible to let the call ring, play a busy signal or use the ‘when you can’t answer a call’ settings. Letting the call ring could be useful in some situations demanding every call to be answered, but in most cases isn’t desirable. Playing a busy signal creates a dead end, forcing the caller to call you back later. The last option gives us the option to route the call somewhere else. Like the voicemail, a main number or a colleague. So, for now, let’s use that.
The ’when you can’t answer a call’ settings are much like the ‘when you receive a call’ settings. However, we have an extra option called ‘do not redirect calls’. Once again killing the call completely. If all calls must be answered by someone, redirecting the call is the best viable option. There we’re able to redirect to a number or an internal contact. These contacts are interesting because I can not only route a call to a colleague, but also to a call queue within my organization. Like sales, support, guest services, or the main number.
In my opinion, the voicemail setting is even better. Because it does also allow the call to be redirected can be made aware of out-of-office settings!
Now we’re left with these settings, ring timer is mostly personal preference. But in my opinion, the default 20 seconds is quite balanced.
Voicemail
The default voicemail settings let the caller record a message, which will be made available in the Teams calling window.
To personize the voicemail we got two options, first is to record a personal message. Second is to use a custom text message. This way it’s possible to customize the voicemail message using text to speech. Please check if the voicemail language is set to the same language you’re using to setup a custom greeting.
Please be aware that when you’re using a text-to-speech message, Teams will always add ‘please leave a voicemail after the tone’. There is no need to add this to your text message.
Now, let’s look at the ‘Choose what happens when the call is redirected to voicemail’ settings. The default setting is to let the caller record a message. The other settings can be much more interesting, making the call routable. First we could setup a message and end the call, killing our reachability. Second, we could play a greeting and redirecting the call immediately. This is a good option when you might overlook a voicemail, or if you always want someone to answer the call, giving the caller notice you wont be answering the call yourself. The last option makes the caller choose what to do. Leave a voicemail or press 0 to be redirected.
While this sounds amazing, it is in all honestly a bit messy. It provides the user with a lot of information. First the caller will hear the greeting, then the ‘leave a voicemail after the tone’ announcement, then another announcement saying, ‘press pound for more options or press 0 to be redirected’, followed by the voicemail tone. The mechanism is great, but please test both redirect options yourself and decide on which experience is most fit for the people calling you.
Why would you choose a redirect option over ‘just leave a voicemail’? That’s because of the out-of-office settings. You’re able to customize your voicemail message once again as soon as Outlook automatic replies are enabled and/or an out-of-office event is scheduled.
When all these settings are set up properly, not a single personal call will ever be missed.
Contact us
By the way, could you use some help or support when setting up Teams for telephony? Feel free to contact us, we are happy to help you, even if you are not a customer of ours.
The author
Klaas-Hendrik Romkes is a Technical Consultant at Purple. He helps people get the most out of the Microsoft Teams environment daily, particularly in (video) telephony. He initiated this series because he believes organizations can get much more out of their Teams environment.