Teams auto attendants and call queues

For organisations using Teams Phone, auto attendants and call queues are how you build the menus and queues that route inbound calls to the right people. Combined, they replace much of what a traditional PBX or contact-centre platform used to do for basic call routing.

Auto attendants

An auto attendant is an interactive voice menu — "press 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for billing." Configuration includes:

• A resource account with a phone number that callers dial.
• Greeting in business hours and after hours (recorded audio, text-to-speech, or uploaded WAV).
• Menu options — DTMF (key press) or voice command, each routing to another auto attendant, a call queue, an external number, voicemail, or specific Teams users.
• Business hours, holiday schedule, and time zone.
• Language.
• Dial scope — which users in the directory can be dialled by name lookup.

Nested auto attendants are common: a main number routes to department auto attendants, which route to call queues with agents.

Call queues

A call queue distributes inbound calls to a pool of agents (Teams users with the right calling licence). Configuration:

• A resource account with a phone number (or routed-to from an auto attendant).
• Routing method: attendant routing (all ring), serial routing, round-robin, longest-idle, presence-based.
• Agents — users assigned to the queue.
• Hold music.
• Max wait time and max queue length before overflow.
• Overflow / timeout destinations — voicemail, another queue, external number.
• Greeting and waiting messages at intervals.

Agents see queue calls in their regular Teams client with the queue name displayed. They can opt in or out of receiving queue calls via Teams settings (subject to policy).

A worked example

A small business with sales and support:

[Main number] +1-555-123-4567
   │
   ▼ (Auto attendant: greeting + menu)
   ├── 1 → Sales call queue (Tom, Alice, Sam)
   ├── 2 → Support call queue (Pat, Riley)
   ├── 3 → Billing → forward to external billing provider
   └── 0 or after timeout → receptionist (Cindy)

Plus an after-hours auto attendant that says "we're closed, leave a message" and routes everything to a shared mailbox.

Reporting

The Teams admin center provides reporting on:

• Call counts per queue and auto attendant.
• Wait times and abandonment rates.
• Agent activity — calls handled, calls missed.
• Auto attendant menu selections — which options callers pick most.

Useful for sizing call queues and identifying flow problems.

When this isn't enough

For more advanced contact-centre scenarios — skills-based routing, screen pops, CRM integration, recorded compliance, advanced reporting, IVR with deep self-service — look at Teams-certified contact centres (Genesys, NICE, Five9, AudioCodes, Anywhere365). They integrate with Teams Phone for the agent experience while bringing dedicated contact-centre infrastructure.

For internal switchboards and small-to-mid call-routing needs, native Teams auto attendants and call queues are usually enough — and free with the Teams Phone licence.