Call queue
What is Call queue?
A call queue holds incoming calls in order — typically first-in-first-out, sometimes with priority rules — when every eligible agent is busy, playing hold music or a position announcement until an agent frees up. A queue is usually tied to a skill, department, or campaign, and its live wait time, position, and abandonment rate are core metrics a contact-center supervisor watches to judge whether staffing matches call volume.
More detail
Queues commonly support overflow rules — routing to a secondary queue, voicemail, or callback offer once wait time or queue depth crosses a threshold, rather than holding a caller indefinitely.
An ACD is the system that actually pulls the next call off a queue and assigns it to a specific agent based on a configured routing strategy.
Frequently asked
- What happens if a call queue gets too long?
- Most platforms support overflow handling — routing to a secondary queue, offering a virtual callback instead of holding, or falling back to voicemail — once wait time or queue depth crosses a configured threshold.
- Is a call queue the same as an ACD?
- No. The queue is where a waiting call sits; the ACD is the system that decides, based on a routing strategy, which specific available agent that waiting call gets assigned to next.
See also
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