Every hosted phone system sold in Australia has some version of the same three features: ring groups, hunt groups and call queues. Providers name them differently, bundle them differently and occasionally use the same word for two different things. The result is that a lot of small businesses end up with the wrong one, usually a ring group doing a queue’s job, and only find out when a customer mentions they rang four times and got voicemail every time.
This guide explains what each one actually does, the ring strategies you will be offered, how to choose for a team of two or a team of twenty, and the handful of settings that decide whether callers reach a person or give up.
1. The Three Terms in Plain English
Strip away the marketing and the difference comes down to one question: what happens to the caller when nobody can answer straight away?
| Ring group | Hunt group | Call queue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does | Rings several phones at once | Tries phones one after another in a set order | Holds callers in line until an agent is free |
| Caller hears | Ringing | Ringing | Greeting, music, optionally their position or wait |
| When everyone is busy | Falls to voicemail or the next destination | Falls to voicemail or the next destination | Caller waits, can be offered a callback |
| Who answers | Whoever picks up first | The first free person in the list | The next agent chosen by the queue strategy |
| Reporting | Basic call logs | Basic call logs | Wait times, abandonment, service level, per-agent stats |
| Best for | Small teams where anyone can help | A clear first, second and third responder | Volume that regularly exceeds the people available |
“Hunt group” is the older telephony term and many modern platforms fold it into the ring group settings as a ring strategy (sequential rather than simultaneous). If your provider’s portal has no feature called a hunt group, look for a ring group with a linear or sequential option. It is the same thing.
2. Ring Strategies, Decoded
Once you have a group, the platform asks how it should ring. The names vary between providers, but these six cover almost every option you will see.
| Strategy | Also called | How it behaves | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ring all | Simultaneous, broadcast | Every member rings at once; first to answer wins | Two to six people, all equally able to help |
| Linear | Sequential, hunt, top-down | Always starts at the first member and works down the list | Reception first, then back-up staff |
| Round robin | Circular, rotary | Starts with the member after whoever was tried last | Sharing new enquiries evenly across a sales team |
| Longest idle | Least recent | Rings whoever has gone longest without a call | Busy queues where workload fairness matters |
| Fewest calls | Least calls | Rings whoever has taken the fewest calls today | Teams with uneven call lengths |
| Skills-based | Weighted, priority | Prefers agents tagged with the right skill or seniority | Mixed teams, for example a language or product specialist |
Ring all is the default on most platforms and it is the right default for a small office. It has one weakness worth knowing: with more than about six people, nobody feels responsible for the call. Everyone assumes someone else will grab it, and the call rings out. If your ring-all group is large and your missed-call count is climbing, that is usually why.
Mobile apps and ring all
If group members also have the provider’s mobile app, a ring-all group will ring their mobiles too. That is useful for a tradie or a two-person practice and chaotic for a twelve-person office. Most platforms let you include or exclude mobile devices per group, so set it deliberately rather than inheriting the default.
3. Which One Do You Need?
Use the size of the team and the pattern of the calls, not the size of the feature list.
One to five people, low to moderate volume
A ring-all group with a sensible timeout and a good voicemail is enough. Adding a queue here mostly adds a recorded greeting between the caller and a person who was about to pick up anyway.
A clear first responder
If reception or one coordinator should get every call first, use a linear ring group: reception for 15 to 20 seconds, then the back-up people, then voicemail. This is the classic hunt group and it suits medical and allied health practices, trades businesses with an office manager, and professional services firms.
Volume that regularly beats the people available
Once callers frequently find every phone busy, move that destination to a queue. A ring group cannot hold a caller; when everyone is on a call it simply gives up and sends them to voicemail. A queue keeps them in line and tells them so. Callers are noticeably more patient when they know they are in a line than when they are left listening to ringing or dropped into a mailbox.
Separate teams behind one number
Put an auto attendant in front, then point each option at its own group or queue. Sales might be a round-robin ring group; support a longest-idle queue; accounts a simple ring-all group of two.
The quick test
Look at last month’s call report for the destination. If calls are reaching voicemail during business hours because everyone was already on the phone, you have outgrown a ring group. If calls reach voicemail because nobody picked up while free, the problem is the ring strategy or the people, and a queue will not fix it.
4. The Settings That Actually Matter
Most of the difference between a group that works and one that leaks callers is in five settings that are easy to leave on their defaults.
Ring timeout per member
How long each phone rings before the system moves on. For linear and round-robin groups, 12 to 20 seconds per member is typical; much longer and the caller hears a minute of ringing before the second person is even tried.
Total ring time before overflow
The overall limit before the call leaves the group. Callers decide quickly whether anyone is going to answer. Keep total ringing to well under a minute before the call goes somewhere useful.
Overflow destination
Where the call goes next. Voicemail is the lazy answer. Better options are a second group (the wider office), a queue, a mobile, or a callback offer. Our guide to stopping missed business calls covers the overflow chain in detail.
Busy handling and call waiting
Decide whether a member already on a call should be skipped or should hear a call-waiting beep. For groups, skipping busy members is almost always better: a call-waiting tone during a customer conversation is a distraction that rarely gets answered.
Login and logout
Good platforms let people log in and out of groups from the handset or app. A part-timer who leaves at 2pm should not keep receiving group calls on a mobile until 5pm. Train people to use it, and check the presence status shows correctly to the rest of the team.
5. Configuring a Call Queue Properly
If you have decided you need a queue, these are the options worth setting rather than accepting.
- Greeting length. One short sentence acknowledging the call. Callers hear it every time.
- Position or wait announcements. Position is more reliable than estimated wait time, which can be wildly wrong on a small team with long calls. If you announce wait time, test it against reality first.
- Hold music and messages. Use licensed music (see below) and keep any messages useful: opening hours, a web address for common tasks, a reminder that a callback is available.
- Maximum wait. After a set time, offer voicemail, a callback or an overflow group. Nobody should be able to wait indefinitely.
- Callback. “Press 1 and we’ll call you back without losing your place” is the single most caller-friendly queue feature. Check whether your plan includes it.
- Wrap-up time. A few seconds between calls so agents can finish notes before the next one arrives. Too long and callers wait while agents sit idle.
- Empty-queue behaviour. What happens if no agents are logged in. The answer should never be that callers wait in a queue nobody is serving.
Music on hold needs a licence
Playing commercial music to callers on hold is a public performance in Australia and generally needs a licence; OneMusic Australia handles business music licensing. Many providers include royalty-free hold music, which avoids the question entirely. Check before you upload a playlist.
6. Reading the Reports
Queues earn their keep partly through reporting. These are the figures to check monthly; what counts as “healthy” depends on your business, so track the trend rather than chasing a benchmark someone else set.
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Average wait (speed of answer) | How long callers wait before reaching a person |
| Abandonment rate | Share of callers who hung up while waiting |
| Service level | Share of calls answered within your target, for example 30 seconds |
| Calls by hour | Where you are short-staffed; usually first thing, lunch and late afternoon |
| Per-agent answered and missed | Who is carrying the load, and who is logged in but not answering |
| Overflow and callback counts | How often the first line of defence is not enough |
Calls by hour is the most practical report for a small business. It usually reveals that the problem is not the total number of staff but a predictable 45-minute window where everyone takes lunch at once. A roster change fixes that for free. For larger teams, our call centre software guide goes further into wallboards, service levels and staffing.
7. Six Common Mistakes
- One giant ring-all group. Twelve phones ringing at once means nobody owns the call. Split by team, or move to a queue.
- Voicemail as the only overflow. Many callers will not leave a message; they ring the next business on the list.
- Leavers still in groups. A departed staff member left in a linear group means every call waits 20 seconds for a phone nobody will answer. Make group membership part of your offboarding checklist.
- No after-hours rule. Groups ringing an empty office at 7pm, then voicemail with a daytime greeting. Use time conditions and the state public holiday calendar.
- Queue with no agents logged in. Callers wait in silence forever. Always set the empty-queue destination.
- Never looking at the reports. The platform is already measuring your missed calls; someone just needs to read the figure once a month.
8. What to Ask Your Provider
Ring groups are included in essentially every hosted PBX plan in Australia. Queues, callbacks and detailed reporting are where plans differ, and where the cheapest tier often stops. Before you sign, ask:
- Are call queues included on every seat, or only on a higher plan?
- Which ring strategies are supported for groups and for queues?
- Is queue callback included, and does the caller keep their place?
- Can staff log in and out of groups from the handset and the mobile app?
- Which reports are included, and can they be emailed on a schedule?
- Can I change group membership and timeouts myself in the portal, or do I need to raise a ticket?
The last question matters more than it looks. A group you cannot change yourself on a Monday morning when someone calls in sick is a group that will be wrong for the day. Both Uniden Voice over Cloud and VOCPhone, the two platforms that lead our 2026 hosted PBX comparison, include ring groups, hunt sequences and call queuing in their standard feature sets, so you are not paying extra for the basics; whichever provider you shortlist, ask for a demo of changing a group yourself, because that is the task you will actually do most often.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a ring group and a hunt group?
A ring group usually rings several phones at the same time and the first person to pick up gets the call. A hunt group tries phones one after another in a fixed order until someone answers. Many modern hosted phone systems treat a hunt group as a ring group with a sequential or linear ring strategy, so the feature may not appear under its own name.
What is the difference between a ring group and a call queue?
A ring group can only ring phones; when everyone is busy or nobody answers, the call moves to voicemail or another destination. A call queue holds callers in line with a greeting and music until an agent is free, can announce their position, can offer a callback, and produces wait time and abandonment reports.
When should a small business move from a ring group to a call queue?
When callers regularly reach voicemail during business hours because every member of the group is already on a call. If calls reach voicemail while people are free, the problem is the ring strategy, timeouts or staff behaviour, and a queue will not fix it.
Which ring strategy is best?
Ring all suits small teams of two to six where anyone can help. Linear suits a business with a clear first responder such as reception. Round robin shares new enquiries evenly across a sales team, and longest idle balances workload in a busy queue. Large ring-all groups tend to fail because nobody feels responsible for the call.
How long should a phone ring before going to the next person?
For sequential and round-robin groups, 12 to 20 seconds per member is typical. Keep the total ringing time before the call overflows well under a minute, and send overflow somewhere more useful than voicemail where you can: a wider group, a queue or a callback offer.
Do I need a licence to play music on hold in Australia?
Playing commercial recorded music to callers is generally a public performance that needs a licence, which in Australia is handled by OneMusic Australia. Many hosted phone providers include royalty-free hold music, which avoids the issue.