Queues

If you've ever called any company's support or sales line, you have probably used a queue. Queueing is a crucial part of an IVR for any company to handle multiple callers at once. SignalWire makes it easy to store callers in a queue in the order that they called and then connect them to a live agent whenever it's their turn. This guide will show you how to implement queues using XML bins.

Queues with an XML Bin

We are going to define the forwarding instructions in an XML bin hosted on SignalWire. To create an XML bin, go to the "LaML" section in your SignalWire Space, then click on "Bins".

To create a new XML bin, click the blue button in the LaML section of your SignalWire Space.

You will need to create three bins, whose content is given below.

First, to create a simple queue you need to use the <Enqueue> verb, which will place the incoming caller into a queue. You can create an XML bin with the following code and attach its URL to a phone number as the webhook for handling inbound calls. Refer to Making and Receiving Phone Calls for more information about connecting a bin to a phone number.

Enqueuing bin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
  <Say>
    Thank you for calling Best Quality Vacuum. 
    Ed Galbraith is currently unavailable or speaking with other customers. 
    Please stay on the line to speak with one of his representatives.
  </Say>
  <Enqueue>Best Quality Vacuum</Enqueue>
</Response>

Then, we need a second bin which will allow an operator to dequeue calls. You can configure a secondary phone number to handle incoming calls using the following XML bin, so that operators can dial that phone number to start speaking with customers.

Dequeuing bin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
  <Say>Connecting to caller... The next voice you hear will be the customer.</Say>
  <Dial>
    <Queue url="https://example.signalwire.com/laml-bins/962230ad-10f5-485d-9bfa-458c7ae1213c">Best Quality Vacuum</Queue>
  </Dial>
</Response>

In this case, we used the <Queue> noun to determine the destination to dial. Note that the name of the queue corresponds to the one used for the enqueqing bin: "Best Quality Vacuum". The url attribute points to a third XML bin, which contains instructions on how to handle each call in the queue as the caller is connected to the agent. In this case, we are going to play a short message:

User call bin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
  <Say>
    This call will be recorded for quality control and training. You will now
    be connected to the next representative.
  </Say>
</Response>

That's it. Make sure to configure your two phone numbers to handle calls with respectively the enqueuing and dequeuing bin, and you will be able to test it.

In this example we didn't actually start the recording of the call: to implement it, check out our guide about recording calls.

Conclusion

XML bins offer a quick and easy way to get started with common use cases. If you are an advanced developer, or you need more flexibility and real-time control on your calls, you may be interested in our guide about how to make and receive calls in Node.js.