Departments FAQs

Let's cover some of the most common questions around departments.

How many Departments can I create?

That depends on your Ai Voice plan:

• Standard Plan: 3 Departments
• Pro Plan: 25 Departments
• Enterprise Plan: Unlimited

What's the difference between a department and a Contact Center?

Great question! Departments are ideal for starting out. As call volumes grow, you'll probably benefit from the advanced capabilities of a Contact Center such as call monitoring and advanced analytics. Have a read through this Help Center Article for detailed information on the differences. 

Why are Department recordings ending up in my Operators' inboxes?

If call recording isn't enabled on your Department line (contact our Sales Team to upgrade) inbound and outbound recorded calls will route to the inbox of the Operator who handled the call rather than directly to the Admin.

Here's how to get recordings to route to Department Admins only:

1. Admin navigates to Dialpad.com > Admin Settings > Department > Advanced Settings > Call Recording
2. Check the 'allow call recording' option and select custom recording automated response

Now, when a call is recorded, only the Department Admin will see and be able to access the recording displayed under Recordings within their Department inbox.

How does setting my Department's timezone affect calls?

Setting your Department's timezone will affect the timestamp of incoming calls to your Department. This will not, however, reflect in your Department's analytics. 

By default, analytics use your Office's timezone to keep reporting consistent across the board.

I've set my business hours but I'm not receiving calls — why?

Make sure that you've checked your timezone — by default, this is set to Pacific Time. You'll also want to double-check that your Operators haven't set themselves to Do Not Disturb mode. 

To check which Operators are available, navigate to the Department in the Dialpad app and select the Operators tab.

Can I send a group message to our Main Line or Department?

No, group chats can only be sent to/from your primary Dialpad number. 

In addition, you'll see that Department chats do not display the name of the Operator—this is the default setting as these chats are meant to be used for external communications rather than between team members.

Why am I getting a Press 1 Prompt on Department/Main Line calls?

By default, Dialpad will ask for a Press 1 Prompt for any Department or Office calls that fan out to Operators answering on their mobile devices. Reach out to our team if you'd prefer to have this turned off.

Does Dialpad support circular call routing between Departments?

While you are able to route callers from one Department to the next, circular call routing is not currently supported in Dialpad.

But what do we mean when we say circular call routing? Let's take a look at the example below:

• John calls Department A
• No Operator answers the call
• Secondary call handling option is set to forward to another Department: Department B
• John is routed to Department B
• No Operators answer the call 
• Secondary call handling option set to forward to another Department: Department A
• John is routed back to Department A 

Since this isn't supported in Dialpad, once your caller is routed to your second Department and no Operators answer, they'll be routed to your Department's voicemail (another reason to make sure you've set that up before sharing the number).

Why do some of my calls go straight to voicemail?

If two calls come in at exactly the same time one call will ring out to the user or operator and the other call will go straight to voicemail. To avoid this, if you want to operate a call queue, instead of using a Department, add Contact Center instead.

Why do I see a department in my app that isn’t in the Admin Portal?

This is due to an Executive Assistant pairing. If you are assigned as an assistant, your Executive’s inbox will show up under Departments in your app.

If I place an outbound call from a department that doesn't have a number as a caller ID, what number shows up?

If a department doesn't have a direct number, outbound calls will default to using the mainline number.