RingFree Ring Groups: How to Create, Route, and Manage Calls

This guide shows you how to set up a Ring Group in RingFree and manage it. You will learn where to click, what each setting means, and what to choose for common real world call flows.

You can use ring groups to route calls to a department or team, like Sales, Support, Billing, or Reception.

What a Ring Group does

A ring group is a call routing group that rings multiple extensions using a strategy you choose. If nobody answers, RingFree can send the call to a backup destination like voicemail, another ring group, or an IVR.

What you will set up in this guide

You will learn how to:

• Create a new ring group

• Choose a ring strategy (Ring All, Linear Hunt, and other options)

• Set a max wait time (queue overflow limits)

• Choose a failover destination (where calls go if nobody answers)

• Turn on email notification for abandoned calls

• Set caller limits and overflow behavior when the group is busy

• Configure call options like transfer controls and ring vs music

• Set period announcements (music on hold with optional announcements)

Before you start

• Make sure you have access to RingFree admin settings.

• Know which extensions should be in the ring group (example: Support team extensions).

• Decide your backup plan if nobody answers (example: voicemail box or another ring group).

Step 1: Create a new Ring Group

Where to go

1. Navigate to Enhanced Ring Groups

2. Click New Ring Group (top right)

This opens the ring group setup screen.

Step 2: Add your extensions and plan for overflow

A ring group is usually your first line of defense. If the first set of extensions cannot answer, it helps to have an overflow plan.

A simple best practice is:

• Start with your core team extensions

• Add an overflow destination if they cannot answer in time

This prevents callers from waiting too long.

Step 3: Choose the Ring Strategy

Ring strategy controls how RingFree rings the phones in your group.

Ring All

• Rings all phones at the same time

• Best when any available person can answer fast

Linear Hunt

• Rings one extension at a time, in order

• If the first person is busy or does not answer, it rings the next person

• It continues until someone answers or it reaches the last destination

Other strategies available

You may also see these strategies in the dropdown:

• Least Recent

• Fewest Calls

• Random

• Round Robin

• Round Robin Ordered

• Weighted Random

Each option will show a description in the UI. Use the description in RingFree to choose what matches your workflow.

Step 4: Set the Max Wait Time (Queue Overflow Limits)

This setting controls how long a caller can wait for the ring strategy to run before the call is considered unanswered.

In the video, 300 seconds equals about 5 minutes.

Best practice for RingFree

A strong starting point is 30 seconds max wait time for most customer facing teams. This reduces caller fatigue and drop-offs.

You can adjust based on your business:

• High urgency support: 15 to 30 seconds

• Sales: 20 to 45 seconds

• Reception: 30 seconds

Step 5: Set the Failover Destination (If nobody answers)

Failover destination is where the call goes if nobody answers within your max wait time.

Common failover choices

• A rollover ring group (backup team)

• A general voicemail box

• An individual extension’s voicemail

• An IVR

How to set it

1. Find Failover Destination

2. Choose the destination type from the dropdown:

• Extension

• Ring Group

• IVR

• Queue

• Conference

3. Click Select Destination

4. Choose the correct option (example: 101 Sam Robertson)

Forward directly to voicemail

If you want the call to go straight to voicemail instead of ringing the phone again:

• Enable Forward to voicemail

Step 6: Notify on Abandoned Calls

Abandoned calls are calls that are not answered within the ring group.

If you want an email alert for abandoned calls:

1. Enable Notify on abandoned calls

2. Enter the email address

Current limitation: you can enter only one email address.

Best practice for multiple recipients

If more than one person needs alerts, ask your email administrator to create a group email like:

• support-alerts@yourcompany.com

That group email can deliver notifications to multiple people.

Step 7: Set caller limits and overflow behavior when the group is busy

You can control how many callers can wait in the ring group.

Simple rule of thumb

If you have 2 people answering calls in the ring group, try to avoid having more than 4 callers waiting.

If your caller queue is full and your staff is already on calls, you can redirect new callers to a different destination.

That destination can be:

• Extension

• Ring group

• IVR

• Queue

In the video example, the overflow destination was set to Extension voicemail 101.

Notes

• Adding more extensions to ring when everyone is busy is a best practice.

• Some companies have staff limitations, so this is recommended, not required.

Step 8: Call Behavior settings (optional)

Call behavior settings are optional if you already set a failover destination.

If you have failover configured, you can leave call behavior alone unless you need a specific rule.

Step 9: Configure Call Options

Call options let you control what callers and agents can do, and what the caller hears while waiting.

You may see options like:

• Allow agent to transfer caller (t)

• Allow caller to transfer call (T)

• Allow caller to hang up (H)

• No retries on timeout (n)

• Ring instead of music on hold (r)

• Prevent missed calls - Ring All (C)

Key options explained

Allow agent to transfer caller (t)

If you disable this, agents cannot transfer calls outside the ring group. This helps if you want tighter control of call routing.

Allow caller to transfer call (T)

If you disable this, callers on hold cannot dial local extensions while waiting.

Ring instead of music on hold (r)

Most commonly, callers prefer to hear ringing rather than music. If you want ringing, enable this option.

Prevent missed calls - Ring All (C)

This helps when all agents are busy but one becomes available while the caller is still waiting. Instead of sending the caller away to voicemail mid wait, the system can attempt to connect them to the newly available agent.

Step 10: Period Announcements (Music on Hold with messages)

Period announcements are useful if you want callers to hear:

• Specials

• Short announcements

• Helpful information

It is commonly used as music on hold, but it can be configured to mix announcements with music. We set it to Default here.

Advanced settings

Some ring group settings are advanced and are covered in a separate tutorial. If you see advanced options you are unsure about, use the advanced tutorial before changing them.

Video reference