ShoreTel – Receptionist Phone Setup (Tricks and Tips)

So how do you set up your receptionist’s phone with Shoretel?  Our requirements were:

1. All calls to the main number should be directed to the receptionist phone during business hours.
2. The receptionist should have her own extension (outside) and voicemail.
3. When the receptionist steps away from her desk, she should be able to transfer the calls to a group of 3 secretaries.  All the phones should ring simultaneously until the call is answered. If no one answers, the call should be placed in the general email box.

So how did we accomplish this?  Well we started off by creating a regular user account for the receptionist.  Then we created an Operators hunt group and and Operators-backup hunt group.  The Operators hunt group it tied to the main outside line.  The only member of the group is the receptionist.  The second hunt group, the Operators-Backup group has all 3 secretaries as members and is set to simultaneously ring all phones (Distribution Pattern = Simultaneous).  When the receptionist needs to leave her desk, she busy’s out the hunt group (*18<main-extension-number>) and all calls roll to the Operators-Backup group.  This works because the “Call Stack Full” option in the Operators group points to the Operators-Backup group.  When she gets back she just types in the same code and the Operator hunt group “unbusy’s” the line.  Unbusy is a word, I swear. I just used it in a sentence.

So how did you do it? Hit me up in the comments.