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Run the Attendant Console front desk

The Attendant Console is the receptionist and switchboard workspace in the Orbit dashboard. Where a voice queue is an automated ACD that dispatches callers to a pool of agents, the console puts a human operator in charge: one screen shows every waiting inbound caller, the live presence of every extension, the shared park lobby, and the calls ringing unanswered on colleagues’ phones — and every action is one click. Find it under Voice → Attendant Console. Because the console lists caller numbers and names, it is restricted to the workspace’s owner, admin, and developer roles. Unlike the agent-facing browser softphone, the console never originates an outbound call. Every action re-targets an inbound call that is already in progress — answer, transfer, park, retrieve, pick up.

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When to use the console vs. queues

Use the console when a front desk — a receptionist, office administrator, or dispatch desk — personally decides where each inbound call goes. Use queues when inbound callers should distribute to an agent pool automatically, with FIFO order, skills matching, and SLA reporting. The split in practice: route a number’s inbound traffic to a queue (see voice queues) and let operators run their desk from the console; whatever the queue cannot dispatch becomes visible on the console’s Waiting calls panel for a human to handle.
Attendant Console with waiting calls, extension presence, parked calls, and pickup panels

The Attendant Console: waiting callers on the left, the extension lamp field in the middle, the park lobby on the right, and the pickup tray below.

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Open the console and read the layout

Open Voice → Attendant Console. Four panels load, and a header badge counts how many extensions are currently free:
  • Waiting calls — inbound callers still ringing or queued, sorted longest-waiting first. Each row shows the caller’s number (or a resolved name), a live elapsed-time counter, and the number or extension the caller reached.
  • Extensions — the lamp field: a grid of every extension and its live presence state. This tells the operator who can take a call right now.
  • Parked — the shared park lobby: callers placed into numbered slots, each with a running timer and a retrieve action.
  • Calls you can pick up — calls ringing on colleagues’ extensions that the operator can grab before they roll to voicemail.
Panels refresh automatically every few seconds; the Refresh button reloads all of them on demand.

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Presence states

Each extension lamp shows one of six states: Only Idle and Away extensions are selectable transfer targets.

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Handle an inbound call

A caller lands in Waiting calls and rings the operator’s own answering device (browser softphone or desk phone). The operator answers there, then uses the console to move the call.

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Transfer to a colleague — blind

  1. On the caller’s row, click Transfer. A banner opens naming the caller, and the Extensions grid enters pick-target mode.
  2. Click a free extension (Idle or Away). The caller moves straight to that extension’s ringing device and the operator’s leg closes.
  3. To back out before picking a target, click Cancel in the banner — the caller stays with the operator.
That is a blind transfer: the destination rings and, on answer, hears the caller with no announcement. When the destination should hear who is on the line first, use the warm-transfer control on the operator’s connected call instead — see the Attendant console reference.
Colleagues and their extensions appear in the lamp field the moment each one has an enabled SIP credential — the same credentials the extensions and colleagues reference pages describe. A colleague with no enabled credential never lights up and cannot receive a console transfer.

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Park and retrieve

Park moves a caller into a numbered slot in the shared lobby, visible to every teammate with the console open.
  1. Park the caller from the call controls. The caller lands on a free slot and appears in the Parked panel with the slot number and a running timer.
  2. Any teammate clicks Retrieve on the row, or dials the slot’s short code from their own device — the first retrieval wins.
  3. If the caller should never have been parked, click the release (circle-x) action and confirm. Release clears the slot and disconnects the held caller — it cannot be undone.
Agree on a longest-hold window team-wide (for example two minutes); the elapsed counter on each parked row makes it visible to everyone. The lobby holds nine numbered slots — a tenth parking attempt fails, so retrieve or release before parking more.

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Pick up a colleague’s ringing call

When a colleague’s phone rings unanswered, the call appears in the Calls you can pick up panel, with the extension it is ringing on and how long it has been ringing.
  1. Choose the operator’s answering device in the Answer on… selector (it lists the organization’s enabled SIP credentials).
  2. Click Pick up on the specific row, or Pick up oldest to grab the longest-ringing call without choosing a row.
  3. The call connects to the selected device and disappears from every operator’s panel.
This is directed and group call pickup from the dashboard — the same operation a desk phone performs with directed (*97-style) or group (*8-style) feature codes.

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Presence and voicemail handoff

The extension lamp field is the team’s shared presence board: any extension a teammate rings or parks is reflected for the whole floor in the Idle / Ringing / On call / Away states. When nobody can take a waiting caller, let the queue’s overflow move the caller to voicemail instead of holding them on the desk — overflow destinations are set per queue (see voice queues), and voicemail boxes are covered in voice voicemail boxes.

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Worked example: a front-desk transfer

Acme’s receptionist covers inbound calls on the main number.
  1. A caller asking for sales lands in Waiting calls. The receptionist answers on the browser softphone, speaks to the caller, and clicks Transfer.
  2. The banner reads “Transferring +14155550123 — pick a free extension below.” The lamp field shows the sales manager Idle, so the receptionist clicks that lamp. The sales manager’s phone rings; the receptionist’s leg closes.
  3. During a rush, both sales extensions are On call. The receptionist parks the next caller on slot 2 and tells the sales manager “client parked on 2.” The sales manager retrieves slot 2 from the Parked panel when free — no front-desk step needed.
  4. Meanwhile a colleague’s phone rings unanswered. The call shows in Calls you can pick up; the receptionist clicks Pick up, answers on the selected SIP device, and runs the same transfer flow again.

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Troubleshooting

  • Nothing appears in Waiting calls — confirm the signed-in role is owner, admin, or developer; confirm the inbound number’s routing lands callers on a queue the desk monitors; then hit Refresh once before assuming the lane is empty.
  • The Extensions grid is empty or missing people — those colleagues have no enabled SIP credential. Issue or re-enable the credential under Voice → SIP credentials and the lamp appears on the next poll.
  • Pickup actions are greyed out — the tenant has no enabled SIP credential to answer on. Add one under Voice → SIP credentials, then select it in the Answer on… selector.
  • Retrieve fails on a parked call — another teammate already retrieved it (first retrieval wins), or the caller hung up. The row disappears on the next poll.
  • A transfer target stays unselectable — the extension is ringing, on call, do-not-disturb, or disabled. Only Idle and Away extensions accept a transfer.

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See also