SmartPBX Contact Center is an optional paid service for organizations that need licensed agent and supervisor workflows, richer queue reporting, and the Contact Center dashboard. An account administrator first makes existing extensions into Contact Center agents, then creates queues in Contact Center Settings and connects an approved inbound route to the queue.

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Contact Center or Basic Queues?

• Use Contact Center when the account has the advanced paid service and needs its agent, queue, reporting, and supervisor experience.
• Use Basic Queues when the account does not include the paid Contact Center add-on or when SmartPBX support has designed that separate queue workflow.
• Do not build the same production team in both systems unless SmartPBX support has designed the interaction. Similar names do not make the two queue types interchangeable.

Before you start

• Confirm the Contact Center subscription, number of agent licenses, and who may administer or supervise it.
• Create and test each person's SmartPBX extension and assigned phone or app first.
• Record the queue name, agents, expected hours, distribution policy, caller audio, maximum wait, no-agent behavior, overflow destination, and reporting owner.
• Prepare and test the final voicemail or alternate destination before connecting the queue.
• Confirm call-recording, transcription, monitoring, and retention requirements before enabling any related option.
• Plan a low-volume test window and record the current inbound route and rollback destination.

Creating an agent or queue does not send calls to it automatically. A phone number, Business Hours schedule, virtual receptionist, or another earlier feature must point to the queue's routing destination. SmartPBX support manages public-number and analog-gateway routing changes.

1. Make an extension a Contact Center agent

Go to Accounts > Extensions, find the intended person, and open the three-dot actions menu.

Create Contact Center agent: Select Contact Center > Make Agent for a licensed person who should receive queue calls. Make Admin grants Contact Center administration and should be reserved for people who actually manage the service.

If Contact Center is absent and the account should include the paid add-on, do not silently create a Basic Queue as a substitute. Confirm entitlement, available licenses, your role, and whether you signed out and back in after access was assigned. If the account does not subscribe to Contact Center, use the Basic Queues guide instead.

After creating the agent, confirm that the extension remains active, the intended device is registered, and the agent can use the approved Contact Center sign-in or status workflow.

2. Open Contact Center Settings

Return to the account dashboard. In the Contact Center area, open Settings. The tile and its Settings action appear only for licensed, authorized accounts.

Open Contact Center: Select the main tile to open the operational dashboard after at least one queue exists and your role includes dashboard access.

Open Settings: Select Settings to create or manage Contact Center queues. This link appears only when your role includes Contact Center settings access.

Contact Center Settings separates queue configuration from agent management.

Manage Contact Centers: Expand Contact Centers to review existing queues or reveal Add Contact Center.

Manage agents: Expand Agents to review the licensed Contact Center agents available for queue assignment.

Before creating anything, search for an existing queue or agent with the same name or extension. Duplicates can split reporting and make routing difficult to troubleshoot. To create a queue, expand Contact Centers and select Add Contact Center.

3. Create the queue

Start with the queue identity and caller audio on the Settings section.

Name and extension: Enter a clear operational name and confirm the unique internal extension. This extension is the queue's routing address; saving it does not connect live calls automatically.

Choose caller audio: Select the reviewed greeting and Music on Hold. Use the plus button only when an approved greeting must be added.

Add a description: Record the queue's purpose so another administrator can distinguish it from similar teams or test queues.

Save Contact Center: Save the identity and caller-experience settings before moving through Agents, Routing, and Advanced.

Configure only the sections and options included in the implementation plan:

• Agents: Add licensed agents who should receive this queue's calls. Confirm primary and backup coverage.
• Routing: Use the approved distribution behavior, wait limit, no-agent handling, and overflow or timeout destination. Changing these choices can materially affect workload and caller wait time.
• Advanced: Enable only the options included in the approved design. Recording and insights require approved consent, notice, access, retention, and download policies.

Save the queue identity before assigning agents if the portal requires the queue record to exist. Record its extension for the later inbound call-flow change.

4. Assign agents to the queue

Open the queue's Agents section.

Add an agent: Select a licensed agent, then choose Add Selected Agent. If the person is missing, create or repair the agent record before continuing.

Set tier priority: Tier Level groups primary and backup coverage. Tier Position orders agents within a tier when the chosen routing method uses order. Keep the approved values unless the call-distribution plan intentionally defines multiple levels.

Remove agents: Remove someone only after confirming that another licensed agent covers the queue. Removing the last available agent can send every caller to the no-agent or timeout branch.

Save assignments: Save, reopen the queue, and confirm the intended names, levels, and positions remain.

Start with one test agent. Add the full team only after the queue can offer and complete a controlled call.

5. Configure queue routing

Open Routing.

Choose routing method: Select how eligible, available agents should receive calls. Common effects include ring-all delivery, longest-idle balancing, rotation, and configured-order delivery. If you are unsure which behavior the current deployment uses, contact support before changing it.

Set queue timeouts: Max queue wait time limits the caller's total wait. Max wait time with no agents controls how long a caller remains when nobody is eligible and available. A zero value can have special behavior; do not assume it means an immediate timeout.

Set no-answer route: Choose the action first, then a target that already exists and has been tested. A staffed destination or approved voicemail is safer than an unverified feature extension.

Save routing: Recheck both wait values and the final destination before saving.

The Caller Exit Key can let callers leave the queue through a configured key. Enable it only when the prompt explains the choice and the exit destination is tested.

6. Review advanced queue behavior

Open Advanced. These controls affect caller announcements, tier progression, abandoned-call handling, displayed caller identity, and recording.

Caller announcements: Choose an approved periodic greeting, set a reasonable frequency, and announce position only when the estimate is useful for callers. Repeated announcements should not interrupt hold audio excessively.

Tier progression: Time Based Score and tier rules change when callers or agents move through the queue order. Delay, multiplication, and skip-empty-tier settings should match the written staffing plan; keep the existing values when the design is unknown.

Abandoned-call handling: Set the removal delay and notification address deliberately. Allowing a returning caller to retain position changes queue fairness and must be tested with the intended callback or re-entry workflow.

Caller ID and recording: Use a short prefix only when agents need to recognize the queue before answering. Do not enable recording until subscription, consent, notification, access, retention, and download policies have been approved.

Save Advanced only after comparing every changed value with the implementation plan.

7. Create or review an agent

In Contact Center Settings, expand Agents and select Add Agent. Search first so one person does not receive duplicate agent records.

Choose contact: Select the tested SmartPBX extension or approved contact that should receive queue calls.

Name and type: Use a recognizable operational name. Callback is the normal choice for offering calls to a selected contact; use UUID Standby only when support has designed that specialized deployment.

Status and timeout: Choose the approved default status and allow enough time to answer without making every caller wait unnecessarily. The agent's live status can still change during operation.

Save agent: Save the agent, then return to the queue's Agents section and assign it. Creating an agent does not add it to a queue automatically.

Open the agent's Advanced section only when the implementation plan requires it.

Agent credentials: Treat the Agent ID and Agent Password as confidential. Use unique approved values and never put the password in a ticket, screenshot, or shared document.

Call handling timers: Max No Answer and No Answer Delay control repeated missed offers. Wrap Up Time provides post-call work time. Reject and Busy delays control when another call can be offered. Record Agent requires the same recording-policy approval as queue recording.

Save agent: Save, reopen the agent, and verify the contact, status, timeout, and approved advanced values.

8. Test agents and failure paths

1. Add one test agent before the whole team.
2. Set that agent to the approved available state.
3. Confirm the agent's extension and device can receive an ordinary direct call.
4. Place a controlled call to the queue's internal destination.
5. Verify caller audio, distribution, displayed caller identity, answer behavior, wrap-up behavior, and the agent's post-call state.
6. Repeat with the agent unavailable to prove the no-agent or timeout branch.
7. Add the remaining agents and repeat enough tests to prove the intended distribution.

9. Connect the inbound route

After the internal tests pass, point a controlled test path to the queue. Test through the same Business Hours, virtual receptionist, or other earlier features that production callers will use.

Move the live public number only after approval. Then place outside calls for the open route, closed route, no-agent route, maximum-wait route, voicemail or overflow route, and any virtual-receptionist choice that reaches the queue. Monitor the first live calls and restore the previous route if callers cannot reach a safe destination.

10. Hand off daily operation

Document who owns agent status, staffing, queue changes, live monitoring, dashboard review, recording access, and escalation to support. Supervisors should know the difference between a momentary dashboard snapshot and a repeated service problem.

When to contact support

Contact SmartPBX support when the Contact Center tile or actions are missing, license counts are unclear, an extension cannot become an agent, queue settings differ from the approved design, a queue does not receive calls after its route is connected, agent state will not update, overflow fails, reporting appears incomplete, or recording and privacy requirements are unresolved.

Applies to SmartPBX version 1.9.5.