Automatic call distribution between managers: queue and bot

At an online school, calls come in a wave after a webinar, and automatic call distribution decides everything. One manager is busy, another is free, and the client listens to the ringing and hangs up. At a clinic, a regular patient reaches a new administrator, who has to find out all over again who's calling. It's not about the people — that's just how the scheme is set up.

The “Employees” block decides who to call, in what order and how long to wait for an answer. It creates a lead (the client's card in the CRM) by itself and assigns it to the owner. The “Message” block tells the client and the manager what they need to know — by voice, SMS, email or in Telegram. As a result, a free person picks up, and a regular client reaches their own manager.

All of this is set up in one window together with numbers, the CRM and an AI bot — it's the built-in cloud phone system for business, no integrations needed. And if nobody answers, the voice bot picks up the call: no calls stay missed.

Watch the two-minute video, and below you'll find the step-by-step setup.

Why businesses need it

• The most popular scheme: managers “One after another, remembering the last position”, and if nobody answers — the voice bot. Requests are split evenly, and not a single call goes unanswered.
• Hot requests where answer speed decides everything: “Call every available employee from the list”. The call rings for everyone at once, managers race to pick up first and get the lead, and the client hears an answer within seconds. The downside: requests more often go to the fastest people, so keep an eye on the workload.
• Clinic and salon: the “Call the lead owner” option takes a regular client to their administrator. The client doesn't have to explain again who they are.
• B2B sales: before connecting, the “Voice informer” tells the manager the funnel step (the deal stage in the CRM) and the last comment. The manager picks up already in context.
• Callback requests: the system first reaches the client, then connects them with a manager. Managers don't waste time on calls nobody picks up.
• Any business: if nobody answers, the client gets an SMS and the manager gets a Telegram notification. A missed call isn't forgotten.

How call distribution works in the “Employees” block

In the “Add a block” window, it's called “Call employees / create a lead”, and in the “Messengers” channel — “Lead distribution”. The block has four main settings:

1. “Lead creation” — on every call from one number, only on the first one (the default) or if the ad source has changed.
2. “How to dial the employees” — “One after another, remembering the last position”, “Call every available employee from the list” (the call goes at once to everyone on the list who is currently online, and whoever answers first talks) or “Do not call, only create a lead”.
3. “What to do if the lead was created before?” — “Call the lead owner” or “Call the selected employees”.
4. Who to call — employees or teams. The dialing order matches the order in which you select them.

The block has four branches: “If the employee has not answered”, “The client hung up” (didn't wait for an answer) and two “After the call” branches — for the client and for the employee.

How to distribute calls between managers

1. 1
   Add the block

   In the branch you need, click “+” and choose “Call employees / create a lead”.
2. 2
   Choose when to create a lead

   “Create a lead only on the first incoming call from one number” usually works.
3. 3
   Choose the dialing method

   “One after another…” (the most popular option) or “Call every available…”. For the queue, set “Time before forwarding to the next employee” — at least 10 seconds.
4. 4
   Add people

   Click “+ employee” or “+ team”, tick the ones you need and click “Done”.
5. 5
   Set up regular clients

   Choose “Call the lead owner” and specify backup people in the “If the owner is not available, distribute to” field.
6. 6
   Set the wait and a backup step

   In the “If the employee has not answered” branch, the “Waiting for the answer” field: from 10 to 600 seconds, 30 by default. With the “+” button, put the voice bot (the “Launch an autofunnel” block) or a message in this branch. How to move calls to the bot in batches is covered in the article how to never miss incoming calls.
7. 7
   Save

   The “Save” button at the bottom of the screen.

If the last link in the chain is a backup employee rather than the bot, give them a longer “Waiting for the answer” — 60–120 seconds (up to 600). The branch after them is empty and the call ends there, so a persistent client who is ready to wait still gets through.

More settings: a melody instead of ringing and the voice informer

The “More settings” section in the block is collapsed — expand it.

• “If the employee answered the call” — who to assign the lead to. By default — to whoever answered, and only if the client is new. A repeat call doesn't reassign the client to a random manager.
• “If the call is missed” — who gets the lead if nobody answered. You can take the “In calls” toggle in the employee's card into account.
• “Melody instead of the ring tone” — an mp3 or wav file the client hears instead of ringing. It plays the whole time the call is ringing through, and a short recording repeats in a loop, so mix a single phrase with music.
• “Voice informer” is a phrase the robot says to the employee before connecting (a call whisper): the funnel step, the start of the last comment, the source, the client's name or your own text of up to 500 characters.

The “Voice informer” checkboxes: “Say the funnel step”, “Say the last comment” (the first 100 characters), “Say the source”, “Say the client’s name”, “Say the project name”, “Say the lead or deal owner”, “Say the call type”, “Say the page the client came from” and “Warn about an incoming call to 8800”. “Say the text” adds your own phrase from the “Text for the employee” field. Tick no more than 3–4 items: while the robot is talking to the manager, the client is waiting on the line and may hang up before anyone answers.

In “Text for the employee”, the “insert a field” button adds CRM fields — for example, what the client ordered and for how much. The account manager hears it before connecting and starts the conversation with the right order. “Say the last comment” only works if managers leave a comment after every call: “waiting for a size exchange”, “asked for a 5% discount”. Make sure they do: on the second and third touch, the sale is built on these notes, and the client doesn't have to repeat the same thing to different people.

The “Message” block: SMS after a missed call, voice, email, Telegram

Each channel is turned on with its own checkbox, and you can use several at once.

• Voice — an mp3 or wav file or a robot text of up to 300 characters. While the message plays, the call doesn't go to an employee.
• SMS — to the client or to employees. The “You have typed N characters / M SMS” counter shows how many SMS the text fits into.
• Email — the subject and text of the email, or an HTML template.
• “Notify an employee via Telegram” — to the lead owner or a list of employees. The employee must be subscribed to the notification bot.

The “insert a field” button puts the name, phone and CRM fields into the text. A common trick: in the “The client hung up” branch — an SMS to the client “We'll call you back” and a Telegram notification to the manager.

Requests without a call

For website forms, email and the API, choose the “Do not call, only create a lead” method. Next, add a “Message” with a Telegram notification — the lead owner learns about the request right away.

Read also: Cloud phone system for business: set up calls and stop losing them, Sales call recordings and missed calls: where to find them, Callback widget for website: call the client back in 60 seconds, Sip phone setup, Call transfer to another employee