What is a Hunt Group?

A hunt group allows a caller to automatically find an available (i.e. “not busy”) agent from amongst a group of extensions. Each extension will be tried in order until a “free” extension is reached. Extensions will be skipped if the person is currently on the phone or has marked their extension as “blocked” from hunting. (See the Quick Reference Guide section of the Support pages for details about blocking calls from hunt groups).

Hunt groups may be searched sequentially or round robin style. A sequential hunt always starts with the first extension in the list, and works down. Round robin distributes the calls evenly amongst the members of the group by rotating the group member whose extension is tried first, then searching down the list in sequential order.

Adding a hunt group

Create a hunt group within an auto attendant by adding a New Special Menu and selecting Hunt Group type:

1. Click the [New Special Menu] button on the Auto Attendant setup screen.
2. Select Hunt Group and enter the name of the new group (e.g. Support).
3. Connect the new hunt group to your existing menu structure by adding a keypress or timeout event. For example, “Press 2 for the next available support agent”.

Configuring hunt group extensions

Expand the new hunt group menu by clicking on its name in the menu list. For example:

Add user extensions to the group, set a default extension and set the hunt order here.

If no users are available, the caller will reach the voicemail box of the extension set in the “Voice mail if no one available” field. If you choose to omit this setting, callers will be directed to the voicemail box of the last user extension in the Hunt Group sequence.

The voicemail extension can also be a member of the hunt group. Used in this way, the system will try the hunt members in the programmed order and return to the voicemail extension only if no one is available.

In the example above, Bert is the first agent in the hunt group, so new calls will be routed to him first. If he is busy, calls will overflow to Maryanne, then Jane. If each of these users is busy or unavailable, calls will be routed directly to Alice's voicemail box.

Roll over to the Halloo Receptionist

Now you can roll your unanswered calls to an on-demand live receptionist. The Halloo call center is available 24x7x365 with agents ready to take your calls when you can’t pick up. To activate this feature, turn on the Live Call Answering feature on the last extension of your hunt group if you have chosen Sequential Hunt. Or, enable it for the extension that you chose in the Voice mail if no one available option.

Please Note:

Hunt groups are only useful if you have at least 1 user extension designated, in addition to the Default extension. (If you choose to omit the Default extension, you will need at least 2 user extensions.) With only a single user extension and no distinct Default extension, the hunt group serves no purpose not already met by the user's individual Forwarding preferences.

Special Case:

If you would like to use a hunt group to “follow” a single user to multiple locations, you may. To accomplish this, you will need a different user extension set up for each of your possible locations. Set up a hunt group with these distinct extensions in the order you would like the system to hunt for you. Enter your main voice mailbox as the Default extension.