What is a hunt group?

What it is, and why "Hunt"

It's called a Hunt group because the PBX "hunts" for a free extension within the group. The other name, Ring group, describes what users see: several phones ringing because of one call.

The idea is simple: the customer doesn't need to know who is in the office today. They dial the business number, and the PBX rings everyone who can help. Whoever picks up first gets the call, and the other phones stop ringing.

A hunt group is one of the most basic and most widely used building blocks of a PBX. Almost every small business uses one, even if they don't know what it's called.

Ring methods

• Simultaneous — all extensions in the group ring together. The fastest option, suited to a small office.
• In order — first 101; if there's no answer within a few seconds, 102; then 103. Suited to when one person is responsible first.
• Tiers — a combination of the two: in the first tier the office extensions ring; if no one answers within 15 seconds, the managers' mobile phones join in; if still no answer, voicemail.

Tiers are the most powerful tool. They let you build a real chain of responsibility: who answers first, who backs them up, and when to stop trying. Each tier has its own ring time.

How it works: an example

An office in Bnei Brak with three employees and an owner who is on the road most of the day. The office hunt group is built like this:

1. Tier 1 (15 seconds): extensions 101, 102, 103 — the three desk phones, ringing simultaneously.
2. Tier 2 (20 seconds): the owner's SIM extension joins as well.
3. If no one answers: the office voicemail box, with messages forwarded to email.

The result: on a normal day the employees answer. During the lunch break or a busy hour, the owner gets the call on his mobile. And no call is left without an answer.

Hunt group vs. queue

Many organizations combine them: a hunt group for regular hours, and a queue when it's busy. Or a hunt group whose final destination is a queue.

Common mistakes

• Ring time too short — five seconds isn't enough to reach a phone in the next room. 15–20 seconds per tier is a good starting point.
• Total time too long — three tiers of 30 seconds is a minute and a half of ringing. Most callers hang up before then.
• A mobile that goes to the user's own voicemail — if a mobile in the group is switched off, its voicemail may "answer" and take the call. It's better to use a SIM extension or an app, or to check the setting.
• No destination at the end — what happens after the last tier? There must be a voicemail box or another destination.
• The same extension in several groups — allowed, but know that it will ring for each of them.

Practical tips

• Start simple: one simultaneous tier, with voicemail at the end. Add tiers only when you see a need.
• Use clear names: "Office," "Accounting," "Night Duty" — not "Group 3."
• Call the group from outside and measure how long it takes to reach voicemail. If it's more than a minute, shorten it.
• In a yeshiva or institution — one hunt group for the office, and a separate one for the staff members on duty.

Full example: tiered on-call coverage at an institution

The office example above is the basis. On-call duty is the case where tiers really earn their keep. An educational institution with a dormitory needs someone to answer at night too — but without everyone waking up for every call.

The "Night Duty" hunt group is built like this:

1. Tier 1 (20 seconds): the on-duty person's SIM extension. A fixed number on the PBX, "On Duty," and not the private mobile of whoever has the shift. At the start of each shift, the person on duty sets the extension to ring at their phone.
2. Tier 2 (20 seconds): the mashgiach and the dormitory supervisor join. The person on duty keeps ringing; they aren't dropped, others are only added.
3. Tier 3 (15 seconds): the head of the institution joins. He hears a ring only if the three people before him didn't answer for 40 seconds — in other words, almost never.
4. Final destination: an "Emergency" voicemail box, with messages sent to the email of all three, plus an SMS alert that a message is waiting.

That's 55 seconds in total until voicemail. It's long for an office, but right for night duty: someone calling at night is willing to wait, and the alternative — waking four people at once — is worse.

Changing the person on duty doesn't touch the group. You only swap the device behind the "On Duty" extension. That's the difference between a system you manage and a system you fix every week.

Second example: a family business with three branches

A bakery with three stores and one phone number for all of them. The customer doesn't know which branch is close to them — they just want to order a cake. The "Orders" group rings simultaneously at the three counters (tier 1, 15 seconds). The branch that's busy in the morning doesn't answer, but one of the other two does, and the order is taken and passed on internally.

Tier 2 (15 seconds): the app of the manager, who travels between branches. There is no tier 3 — after half a minute the call goes to the "Orders" voicemail box, and the manager receives the recording by email. On holidays, when orders are four times higher, they change the destination of the "Orders" key in the menu from the hunt group to a queue with the same people, so that no customer hears a busy signal.

The lesson from the example: a hunt group is the tool for everyday, and a queue is the tool for heavy load. Same people, same number — only the component in the middle changes.

Timing in seconds: how long to give each tier

• 4 rings on a regular phone is about 20 seconds. That's the time a person needs to reach a phone in the next room.
• First tier: 15–20 seconds. With less than 12 seconds, most people don't make it.
• Second tier: another 15–20. The first people keep ringing, so in total they get 35–40 seconds.
• Total until the final destination: 45–60 seconds in an office, up to 90 for night duty. Most callers hang up between 40 and 60 seconds of ringing.
• A mobile as an external number in a tier: add 5 seconds, because the cellular network takes time to start ringing.

One more number worth knowing: when a mobile is in the group as an external number and it's switched off, the carrier's voicemail answers within 2–3 seconds — and takes the call before everyone else. That's why the setup documents recommend using a SIM extension or an app, which the PBX controls.

When the group isn't working: symptom, cause, fix

Checklist of decisions before you build a group

1. Who must answer first? If the answer is "doesn't matter, whoever is free" — one simultaneous tier. If there's a responsible person — they go alone in the first tier.
2. Who backs them up? People who are willing to answer, but not on every call. They are the second tier.
3. Who shouldn't hear a ring at all? The manager, the warehouse, anyone on sales calls. Put them in the last tier, or outside the group.
4. How long is a reasonable wait? Office: up to a minute. On-call duty: up to a minute and a half. Beyond that — a queue with music, because long ringing sounds like "no one is there."
5. What happens at the end? A department voicemail box (not a person's), with a message sent to email.
6. When is the group active? Put a time group in front of it, otherwise it rings on Shabbat and at night too.

A rule that sums up the list: if you're debating whether to add a tier — don't. A one-tier group with voicemail solves most cases, and you can add a tier after two weeks of call history.

How this connects to the rest of the PBX

A hunt group almost never stands alone. It's the destination of a key in an IVR menu, of a caller rule, or of a template menu. In front of it is a time group that decides whether to ring at all. After it comes a voicemail box or a queue. And inside it are extensions of every type, including an extension that itself rings on several devices.

What follows from this: when something isn't working, the problem can be in four different places, and only one of them is the group. The "Call Route" screen shows all of them in sequence — the number, the hours, the menu, the group and the final destination — so it's the place to start, before you open the group itself.