Getting Started with Teams Queues App: Features, Voice Application Policy Settings, and Roles

Welcome to the world of Microsoft Teams Queues App! This powerful tool is designed to streamline your team's communication and enhance productivity. In this post, we'll explore the key features of the Teams Queues App, including its intuitive interface and robust functionality. We'll also dive into the Voice Application policy settings and controls, which allow you to manage call routing and user permissions effectively. Additionally, we'll highlight the differences between a Teams Admin Role and the authorized user setting, ensuring you have a clear understanding of the distinct responsibilities and capabilities each role entails. Whether you're an admin or an authorized user, this guide will help you get familiar with the Teams Queues App and get started on the right foot.

Key features provided with Queues App 

Collaborative Calling: Teams working together to service customers can benefit from a shared call queue in a Teams Channel. This feature allows team members to manage calls collectively, ensuring that no customer call goes unanswered

Enhanced user interface: The Teams Queues App offers an intuitive and streamlined user interface, allowing team members to manage customer calls efficiently and enabling team leads to configure call queues and auto attendants directly from the Teams client, enhancing overall productivity and user experience

Real-Time Metrics and Historical Reporting: The app offers real-time metrics such as the number of waiting calls, average wait time, and longest call waiting time. Additionally, it provides historical metrics for call queues and auto attendants, helping teams analyze performance and make data-driven decisions

Enhanced Customer Engagement: By integrating with other Microsoft Teams features, the Queues App allows agents to quickly access subject matter experts within the organization. This immediate access to resources enables agents to resolve customer inquiries more efficiently, leading to improved customer experiences.

Seamless Integration: The app integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, eliminating the need for agents to switch between multiple applications. This integration fosters real-time communication via chat, calls, and video meetings, enhancing collaboration and productivity

These features collectively help teams manage customer engagements more efficiently, streamline workflows, and ultimately enhance overall productivity.

Getting started with the Teams Queues App, there are several prerequisites you need to meet:

• Licensing: Users must have both a Teams Phone and a Teams Premium license. Once a user is licensed for Teams Premium, it can take up to 48 hours for the Queues App to be available in the Teams client. Queue agents can be a member of the queue without the Teams Premium license, but will not have access to the Queues App experience in Teams.
• Teams Preview Policy - at the time of this post, the Queues App is in Public Preview - review your tenant and user preview settings - Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
• Resource Accounts: You need a Resource Account for each Call queue and Auto attendant. These accounts must have a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license
• Admin Permissions: During deployment, a Teams Administrator account  is required to set up Voice Application policies, and authorized users of designated auto attendants and call queues.
• Teams Client: The Queues App is currently supported on Teams desktop and Mac clients, but not on web, mobile, or Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) clients
• PowerShell Modules: As with many features and administrative controls, the queues app can be managed in Teams Admin Center or the updates Teams PowerShell module can be used.

Let's break down the differences between the Teams Admin Role and the Authorized User Policy settings for the Queues App and Voice Application Policies.

Teams Admin Role

Teams Admins have comprehensive control over the Teams environment, including the Queues App and Voice Application Policies. Their responsibilities include:

• Creating and Managing Policies: Admins can create, edit, and assign custom Voice Application Policies. These policies control what configuration changes authorized users can make to auto attendants and call queues.
• Full Access to Settings: Admins have full access to all settings related to call queues and auto attendants, including hours of operation, call routing, queue membership, and pre-recorded greetings.
• Delegation of Permissions: Admins can delegate certain permissions to authorized users, allowing them to manage specific aspects of call queues and auto attendants without needing full admin rights.
• Global Policy Management: Admins manage the global, org-wide default policy, which disables all configuration change capabilities for all users unless custom policies are created and assigned.

Authorized User Policy Settings

Authorized Users are designated by Teams Admins to manage specific aspects of call queues and auto attendants. Their capabilities include:

• Limited Configuration Changes: Authorized users can make configuration changes to the auto attendants and call queues they are authorized for. This includes managing business hours, call routing, and viewing real-time and historical metrics.
• No Admin Center Access: Authorized users do not need access to the Teams Admin Center portal nor do they need to be assigned any administrative roles.
• Access Through Teams Client: Authorized users can access and manage their assigned call queues and auto attendants directly through the Teams desktop client or the Queues App.
• Policy Assignment: Authorized users must be assigned a custom Voice Application Policy created by an admin. This policy provides the minimum levels of permissions needed for their role.

Key Differences

• Scope of Control: Teams Admins have full control over all settings and policies, while Authorized Users have limited control based on the permissions assigned to them.
• Access Level: Teams Admins access and manage settings through the Teams Admin Center, whereas Authorized Users manage their assigned settings through the Teams client or Queues App.
• Policy Creation and Assignment: Only Teams Admins can create and assign custom Voice Application Policies. Authorized Users can only operate within the confines of the policies assigned to them.

These distinctions ensure that while Teams Admins maintain overall control and security, Authorized Users can efficiently manage specific aspects of call queues and auto attendants, enhancing productivity and delegation within the organization.

Implementation Planning

We've covered the features and value within the Queues App. In getting started, there are a few recommended planning steps. 

• Assignment of the Teams Premium license - Teams Premium is required to access the queues application, while all queue agents may not require the Queues App interface, assign the Teams Premium add-on (not included in E5).
• App Setup Policy - define which users will see the Queues App and the pinned position of the Queues App (or user pinning allowed)
• Voice Application Policy - define the controls needed for each role or persona
• Authorized users - define non-administrative users who can interact, control and report within each auto attendant or call queue

Premium License Assignment

Teams App Setup Policy

Voice Application Policy

This section offers flexibility and should be planned accordingly. You may consider getting started with 3 policy settings based on persona's. 

• Manager/Supervisor
• Agent
• Reporting Only (no control or interaction with the call flow, visibility of statistics and reporting)

You may also consider additional policies here, and options to separate Auto Attendant functions from Call Queue functions. Often Call Queues are preceded in the call flow by Auto Attendants (nesting) therefor control of both functions may be needed.

Take note - the historical reporting options allow for control over ALL Queues in the tenant or only when authorized users are defined.

Auto attendant and Call queue historical reports - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

The Queues App interface provides access to real-time and historical reporting, keep in mind these settings also control access to historical reporting in Power BI

I covered this earlier this year in a blog post - Auto Attendant and Call Queue Historical Reporting in Power BI

Assign the policies to users

and

Define Authorized Users

Within each Auto Attendant and Call Queue - define the authorized users who do not have a Teams Administrative role.

As with any cloud solution - it may take time for licenses and policies to propagate down to users so please be patient.

Queues App in Action

Once settings and policies have synchronized the Queues App will be visible (if pinned) on the side bar. Take note of the Auto Attendants and Call Queues across the top and the historical reports available in the upper right corner through Analytics.

Important - Understanding the Queues App and Auto Attendant / Call Queue Settings

While the Queues App provides an enhanced interface for calling, follow-up, agent presence, and call statistics - control over greeting messages, agent selection, and call routing is accessed through the Teams Client settings (for authorized users)

Navigate to Settings -> Calls for administrative controls over each attendant and queue

Note - the small purple icon will identify an Auto Attendant or Call Queue.

As the Queues App is in public preview - get started now, and remain patient as feature enhancements roll out through the GA stages.

This guide provides a solid foundation for getting started with the Queues App in Teams. While there are numerous comprehensive contact center integrations available for organizations requiring full-featured experiences or CRM integration, the Queues App combined with Teams Premium offers a valuable solution that bridges the gap between basic queue needs and a fully-featured contact center.

Stay tuned - in the next chapter we will cover specific personas and real-world use of the Queues App.