Department 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 benefit from the advanced capabilities of a contact center such as call monitoring and advanced analytics. 

Read 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 be routed to the inbox of the operator who handled the call rather than directly to the admin.

To get recordings to route to department admins only, head to Dialpad.com and navigate to  Admin Settings

1. Select Departments
2. Navigate to Advanced Settings
3. Navigate to Call Recording
4. Check the 'allow call recording' option and select custom recording automated response

Now, when a call is recorded, only the department admin can access the recording displayed under Recordings within their department inbox.

How does my department's time zone affect calls?

Your department's timezone affects the timestamp for incoming department calls. However, this is not reflected 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 operator's name — 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/mainline 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 Support team if you prefer to have this turned off.

Does Dialpad support circular call routing between departments?

While you can 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:

1. John calls Department A
   1. No operator answers the call
2. The secondary call handling option is set to forward to another department: Department B
   1. John is routed to Department B
   2. No operator answers the call 
3. Secondary call handling option set to forward to another Department: Department A
   1. 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 ensure 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 a 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 appear under your app's departments.

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

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

Easily add a number from your Admin Settings. Once a number is added, operators will see the Caller ID noted when they place a department call.