Google Voice - Managing Ring Groups
This process will outline how to manage a call queue (aka Ring Group) in Google Voice.
Keep in mind that each group serves a different purpose and will be managed accordingly, but this document (and included video) will show you a general outline of the processes used in the ring group. First I will show you this video in which I navigate through the functions, and below I offer brief explanations of each process for reference.
ROLE/PERMISSIONS: If you are on the Leadership Team or a manager of the on call schedule, you will have the Google Voice Admin role added to your username which allows you to manage Ring Groups. If you do not have these permissions, please see Levi/Chad.
COMPUTER: This process is not available in the mobile app store as it is managed in admin.google.com, so you will need to be on a laptop or desktop computer to manage the ring group.
STEP 1: Log in to admin.google.com using your Google Worskpace credentials (same as you use for Gmail)
STEP 2: Navigate to the Service Management portal by clicking Apps → Google Workspace → Google Voice and then selecting “Service Management” at the bottom of the page.
STEP 3: Click “Ring Groups” and select the Ring Group that you need to update or manage. (e.g. Accounting Team)
STEP 4: There are three sections that you will use to manage in the Ring Group: Business Hours, Configuration, and Members.
Business Hours: This section is where you will set the hours for your group, add Holidays (which will set the day as after hours), and also to select the After Hours function. You can have it forward to a specific caller or group, or you can send to voicemail and specify the voicemail recipient(s). (e.g., I set Accounting Team to 8-5 M-F, add Nov 25-26 as Holidays, and I set the After Hours action to send to voicemail and have the voicemail send to ar@locdoc.net.)
Configuration: This section determines how the calls roll in. The call routing determines what order to ring the members (Round Robin, Simultaneous, and Fixed Order) as well as the duration of each member ring and maximum ring duration. The unanswered calls determines what action to take if the call is not answered. (NOTE: Round Robin means it distributes the calls evenly across the team, so first call will go to person 1, second call will go to person 2, and the third call goes to person 3, and then back to person 1)
(e.g. I set the Accounting Team to a Round Robin with 10 second ring per member and a 30 second ring maximum. I then set the unanswered call to send to voicemail and then send the voicemail to all group members as well as ar@locdoc.net)
Members: This section determines who can take and who can make calls. The total section is where you will add users to receive calls, and then the outbound callers section is for users to call from the queue. (you can add people to call out from the queue who do not receive calls from the queue, if you want a central number that customers can call back to)
(e.g. I set the Accounting Team so that Andrew Ingram and McDouglas Perez can make calls, but those two plus Jessica Bennet can make calls from the Accounting Queue number.)
That’s it! This is all you need to manage the Ring Group. See the video above where I navigate to the Service Management portal and make updates to various functions.