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This is the most common setup for a small contact center. In this guide, Alex and Blair take turns, a week each, and Casey is the backup. When you're done:

• Whoever's week it is gets paged first, and the other is tried next.
• If neither of them answers, Casey's phone rings.
• If Alex and Blair are both on vacation, Casey is on call for those days. Nobody has to remember to set that up.

What you'll set up

• Three people under On-call → People, each with a mobile number.
• A rotation called Backup with Casey in it. It isn't paged about anything on its own.
• A rotation called Front line with Alex and Blair, handing over every week, that hands to Backup if nobody answers.
• At least one alert rule that reaches Front line.

Steps

1. Add the three people. Go to On-call → People and choose Add someone for each of them, with a Mobile number. Each person needs to be invited first. See People.
2. Create the backup rotation first. The If nobody answers choice only appears once there's another rotation to pick, so the backup has to exist before the front line. Go to On-call → Rotations and choose New rotation.
   • Name: Backup. Set the Timezone.
   • Under Who is in the rotation, add Casey. You'll see a note that one person is on call permanently. That's expected here.
   • Under What this rotation is paged about, choose Nothing on its own. Don't pick the front line's queues. That would make Backup the first team paged for them.
   • Under When this rotation is on duty, choose Around the clock, and choose Save.
   Until the next step is done, Backup's card says Nothing reaches this rotation yet.
3. Create the front line. Choose New rotation again.
   • Name: Front line. Use the same Timezone.
   • Set First handover to when Alex's first week starts, such as Monday at 9:00 AM. Set Handover to Every week.
   • Under Who is in the rotation, add Alex, then Blair. The order is the rota (Alex has the first week). It's also the order people are rung in.
   • Under What this rotation is paged about, choose Every queue, or Choose queues and tick the ones they look after.
   • Under When this rotation is on duty, choose Around the clock.
   • Under If nobody answers, set Then ring to Backup, and choose Save.
4. Point a rule at the front line. In Rules, create or edit a rule and leave Pages set to Whoever covers the queue, the default. Front line covers your queues and Backup covers none, so the rule pages Front line. (Choosing Front line by name works too.) A new rule runs in shadow mode for 7 days before it pages anyone. See Alert rules.
5. Check both cards. On On-call → Rotations, open Front line. It should say If nobody answers: Backup. Backup's card should now list the rule, ending with here or on a rotation that escalates to this one.

What happens when an alert fires

Say it's Alex's week, the rule is set to Push, then call, and all three have the Standby app:

Acknowledging at any point stops the chain, either in the app or by pressing 1 on a call. In Blair's week, it's the same, with Blair first and Alex second.

• Someone without the app skips their notification steps, so their call comes straight away.
• During someone's quiet hours, a Push, then call rule sends them a quiet notification instead of ringing. Use Push, then call, even during quiet hours for things worth waking someone for.

When someone is away

Book time off on Front line's card with Book time off or cover. For more, see Vacations, shift swaps and asking for cover.

• Alex is away during their week. Blair is on call instead. The list of upcoming handovers shows Blair for Alex, who is away. Blair gets the full start: a notification, another at 4 minutes and a call at 8. If Blair doesn't answer, Casey gets a notification at 10 and a call at 11. Alex isn't rung at all.
• Alex and Blair are both away. Casey is on call for those days. The handover list shows Casey tagged Backup, with everybody here is away. Casey gets a notification, another at 4 minutes, and a call at 8.

Try it safely first

1. Go to Rules → Simulate. Pick a queue Front line looks after and a reading that would set off your rule. Under When, choose At a particular time, such as 2 AM on a Sunday, and choose Show what would happen. You'll see Handled by Front line and every step, with its timing. Nothing is sent.
2. Simulate again at a time when someone has time off booked, and check that the steps skip them.
3. Book a practice drill on the rule. It pages people for real and says plainly that it's a drill. To prove the backup works, ask Alex and Blair to let it ring out, so it reaches Casey.

The simulator only shows steps for a live rule. While a rule is still in its shadow week, it says the rule would page nobody. To check a new rule sooner, go to Audit → Practice drill, choose the rule and a time, and read the preview of who it would page. You don't have to book it.

Variations

• A different handover. Set Handover to Every day, Every two weeks, or Every few days….
• A bigger front line. Up to four people on a rotation are tried in turn before it hands to Backup.
• A second backup. Give Backup its own Then ring, such as a Managers rotation. A chain can be up to three rotations deep. Each person is rung once, even if they're on more than one rotation.

On the Team plan

Without a backup rotation, Alex and Blair are each called in turn, and then the incident stays open. If both are booked away at once, Standby rings them anyway rather than nobody. To give Casey a share of the pager on Team, add Casey to Front line as a third person in the rota.

Related guides

• Rotations, time off and cover
• Vacations, shift swaps and asking for cover
• A day team and a night team on the same queues
• Put on-call shifts on everyone's calendar

Next: A day team and a night team on the same queues