Forward Calls to Other's Chrome Extension and Mobile App

We have the business plan with 5 paid for RC phone numbers. We do NOT have desktop phones or Windows or Mac. We exclusively use Chrome Extension and Mobile App. It is currently impossible to forward calls to other people's phone extensions using Call Handling in this scenario. This is ridiculous.

Part of the issue is that even though I'm logged in to my Chrome Extension and/or have the Mobile App open and using it, I show up as unavailable. Therefor I do not receive calls on mobile app/chrome extension using the call forwarding feature if forwarded from someone else or another virtual extension.

BUT, if I look at a call queue I made I show up as available. WHY!?

Call queue's do NOT allow you to transfer to an IVR if no one answers. The only option is voicemail or nothing.

One Scenario of Many
Caller rings our main line and is instantly forwarded to a virtual extension via advanced rules. This virtual extension rings four users on their Chrome Extension and Mobile App. If no one answers after 3 rings they are transferred to the Greeting IVR menu which is multi-level.

There is currently no way to have this happen. Why?

This could be fixed in a number of ways:

1) Allow Call Queues to transfer to extensions/IVR if no answer
2) Have a setting in Auto-Receptionist to Ring first then go to IVR
3) Have setting that attempts ringing a phone/extension even if unavailable?
4) Allow phone extensions to forward to mobile app/chrome extension

Numbers 1) and/or 4) above would fix our issue. Number 2) would still need number 4) to work. Number 3) would also work as a quick fix.

Clearly, RingCentral CAN and DOES ring chrome extensions and mobile apps just fine using call queues and we show up as available. Why is the exact opposite true for simple call handling rules?

PLEASE FIX THIS.

P.S. It's 2018. There are a lot of people who use Ring Central ONLY with their mobile phones. That was the point of going with RingCentral and yet simple call forwarding to a group isn't available. I realize that our firm not using Windows or Mac is a smaller subset of people, but I guarantee you that your customers are using chromebooks and chromeboxes as you are one of the only companies to have a chrome extension that works well.

Matthew Burt

214 Points
frustrated

Posted 1 year ago

1 year ago

Saadet, Employee

68,382 Points

Hey Matthew, I don't have too many details about this but I recently found out that our Product Team is aware of this gap and working on fixing it (finger crossed) in 2019. For some reason, any API/WebRTC cannot ring to a Ring Group (the setting under Call Handling & Forwarding). This presents a problem for many users on not just the Chrome extension, but also the RingCentral app. I'm hoping this will get fixed as quickly as possible. Whenever I receive more information about it, I'll update this thread.

Comment

2019-03-19T21:24:36+00:00

Kayla De Leon

72 Points

Do you have more information about this? When will this feature be launched - we have staff that only use the Mobile App and they cannot get their executives calls when they are forwarded.

2019-03-19T21:26:32+00:00

Saadet, Employee

68,382 Points

Hey Kayla, there are no new updates about this. I'll keep an eye out for it in the Q3 and Q4 releases

1 year ago

Matthew Burt

214 Points

I appreciate the quick response and I'm glad to hear they know about it. I'm highly confused on why they realize this is an issue and don't plan to fix it until next year. One of your top competitors just introduced SMS and informed me they will be adding a Chrome Extension by the end of this year... and they already have the ability to ring first then IVR...

It baffles me that I have to set up advanced rules to ring first then IVR. This should be a built in option, but since advanced rules exist I'm more concerned about the fact that the call handling doesn't work.

If you look at an answering service (with live people) you generally ring the office a few times then forward to answering service. This same workflow should apply to IVR menus as you are replacing the Live Answering Service with an IVR.

We are a Law Practice and need to be able to answer the phone immediately if certain numbers call (from the government, clients, etc). We need to all have the ability to answer but if no one can get it, the IVR should be the fallback. It also serves as a triage to weed out unnecessary callers that we let ring on purpose.

What makes this worse is that we can't even reliably hand out our direct lines, since we have no way of ringing other people so if someone calls direct, that person is the ONLY person who can answer... sigh

(Edited)

Comment

1 year ago

Stephen Hind

112 Points

Yes we need this feature to and struggle to believe this issue exists. Not everyone uses desk phones, and even if they did what if they're away from the desk? If we're away from the desk we want my mobile/Chromebook to ring!