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Cap an overloaded queue from your phone at 2am
A queue is backing up and nobody can answer it tonight. Limit it for 30 minutes from bed, and let it put itself back.
This is for whoever is on call. When you're done, the queue holds no more than the number you chose, callers already waiting are still answered, and the cap comes off by itself when the time is up.
What you'll need
- Your phone enrolled in Standby, with a fingerprint or face unlock set up. Without it, you can see the incident but can't approve a change.
- Your admin to have checked the At capacity branch in your contact flows, once. See Check two branches in your contact flows.
Cap it
- Open the incident from the notification, or from the Alerts tab. Tap Acknowledge so Standby stops paging the next person.
- Under What you can do, tap Cap how many contacts this queue will hold. No incident? Go to Settings → Queues, tap the queue, and choose the same thing there.
- Under Accept no more than, set the number. It starts at the reading that fired the alert, so everyone already waiting gets answered and new arrivals stop joining. Below it, Standby shows the cap currently set in Amazon Connect. If you see This raises the cap, it does not lower it, your number would let more contacts in. Lower it.
- Under For how long, choose 30 minutes.
- Tap Cap at 7 for 30 minutes (with your number), and confirm with your fingerprint or face. The prompt names the change, such as "Cap Support at 7 contacts · 30 minutes". Read it before you approve.
It takes up to a minute to reach callers, because Amazon Connect caches queue settings.
What callers experience
- Anyone already in the queue keeps their place and is answered as normal.
- New contacts go down your flow's At capacity branch: whatever your flow does there, such as a message with your hours or a voicemail. Standby plays nothing itself. Four ways to set it up.
- During a burst, a few contacts can slip in above the cap, and Amazon Connect allows up to 20% over for callbacks and transfers. Details are on What callers hear.
Extend it, or undo it early
Go to Settings → Actions in force, or tap View actions on Home. Each change shows its time left.
- +30 min keeps it going. Standby sends you a reminder five minutes before it ends. A change can't last more than 4 hours in total.
- Undo now puts the queue back straight away. If the queue looks recovered, Standby sends you a notification so you can decide.
Both ask for your fingerprint or face. If you do nothing, Standby puts the old cap back within about a minute of the end time, whether or not the app is open. If someone changed the queue by hand in Amazon Connect in the meantime, Standby leaves their change alone and tells you.
Try it safely first
- In business hours, pick a test queue nobody calls.
- Go to Settings → Queues, tap it, and cap it at 0 for 15 minutes.
- Wait a minute and call in. You should hear your At capacity branch.
- Tap Undo now under Actions in force.
Variations
- A colleague already capped it. You'll see who, when they applied it and when it reverts. Tap Replace it with mine only if you mean to overrule them.
- The problem is a total outage, not a busy night. Close the queue instead. See Close the lines in an emergency.