How to create hunt groups using Gradwell One

Getting started

Hunt groups are used to call multiple phones at once, or one at the time until a user picks up. These are extremely useful in situations where a customer wouldn't necessarily want to get through to a particular user, for instance if a new sales call could go to any member of the sales team.

To set up a hunt group, you need to first create the users, details of which are here, and set up and add members to a user group, which is explained in more detail here. You will also need to ensure that you have a spare phone number to use. If you need to add any more, this guide should help.

Basic configuration

To start, you need to log in to your control panel. Under the Function numbers menu, select Hunt group numbers. From here, click Create new hunt group.

The options that you can use to customise your hunt group are:

• What is the phone number for this group: you will need an unused additional number on your account to use for your hunt group. To see a list of unused numbers on your account, click List available external numbers.
• What is the name of this group: create a descriptive name for your hunt group here.
• Exclude this number from contact searches: if you would prefer for users not to be able to find the hunt group from the corporate directory, check the checkbox.
• Hunt length: this setting allows you to control how many users will form part of the hunt group. The system will then automatically select this number of users when a call is received to be part of the hunt group.
• Call how long (seconds): this setting will control how long each phone in the hunt group will ring for.
• Distribution logic: you can either choose the devices of the members of the hunt group to ring in parallel (all devices will ring simultaneously) or sequentially. If you choose sequential an extra field called Distribute after will appear. When a call is received, one device will ring, and if the user does not answer the call within the number of settings indicated in the Distribute after field, the next user's device will ring.
• Fallback number: this is the phone number that calls should be forwarded to if no members of the hunt group answer the call.
• Honor nightmode when distributing calls: if this checkbox is selected the hunt group will not be in effect if the system is in nightmode. In this circumstance you can select a forwarding number (for example, an out of hours service).
• When redirection number cannot be shown (e.g. on mobile), prefer to show group number as calling party: if this checkbox is selected the hunt group telephone number will be shown when a call is forwarded and the original caller's number cannot be shown to the device.

Once you have customised the settings above, you can choose who to include within the hunt group using the Which user groups participate in this hunt group section.

You can also chose to create some criteria that will exclude users from being part of the hunt group by their call state, their activity, or their current role (business or private).

Finally, you can choose which type of devices can be part of the hunt group. Please note that this will bypass all call routing rules, and calls will be sent directly to the user's device.

Troubleshooting

If you are confused why all user's phones are ringing as expected within a hunt group, please check this knowledgebase article.