Parking, Paging, Pickup Groups

Three related but distinct features

These three features all involve handling calls collaboratively across extensions:

• Parking lots — put a call on hold somewhere others can pick it up
• Paging groups — broadcast audio to a group of phones (overhead intercom)
• Pickup groups — answer each other's ringing phones

They sound similar but solve different problems.

Parking lots

A parking lot is a "shared hold." When you park a call, it goes into a numbered slot. Anyone who knows the slot number can dial that number and pick the call up.

When to use

The receptionist takes a call for "John in accounting." She presses Park on her phone. The platform announces "Call parked on slot 701." She picks up the intercom: "John, you have a call on 701." John picks up his phone, dials 701, gets connected to the caller.

Configuring parking lots

Top nav → Parking Lots. The page shows your slots — by default, slots 700-709 (10 slots) are pre-configured. Add or change slot numbers in Tenant Settings.

For each slot:

• Slot Number — the number to dial to retrieve a parked call
• Enabled — toggle on/off

Settings (Settings → Parking):

• Park Timeout — how long a call stays parked before something happens (default 60 seconds)
• Timeout Action — what to do when timeout hits: ring back the parker, send to voicemail, hangup
• Callback Ring Time — how long the callback rings before giving up
• Callback Fail Action — what to do if the parker doesn't answer the callback

Using parking on a phone

Most desk phones have a Park button (or programmable button you configure as Park).

While on a call, press Park. The phone parks the call on the next available slot and reads the slot number aloud.

Alternatively, dial *70 (or your tenant's configured park feature code) to park the active call.

To pick up a parked call: dial the slot number directly (e.g., 701), or dial *71 to grab the most recently parked call without needing to remember the slot.

Paging groups

A paging group broadcasts audio to multiple phones simultaneously. When you initiate a page, the recipients' phones automatically answer in speakerphone mode and play the page through the speaker.

When to use

• Overhead intercom replacement ("All sales reps to the conference room")
• Emergency announcements
• Quick group messaging without disrupting individual conversations

Configuring paging groups

Top nav → Paging Groups. Click New Paging Group.

• Name — display name (Sales Team, Floor 2, etc.)
• Code — feature code to dial to initiate the page. Must be in the reserved paging range: *83-*89 or *93-*99.
• PIN — optional, prompts for PIN before page is allowed
• PIN Bypass Extensions — extensions that can page without entering the PIN
• Members — extensions that receive the page

Save.

The platform ships with *81 already wired up as Page All Extensions — dial it from any phone to broadcast to every registered extension. Use Paging Groups when you want to page a subset of extensions (Sales team, Floor 2, etc.).

Initiating a page

From any registered phone, dial the paging group's code (e.g., dial *83 for the first paging group). If a PIN is required, enter it. Then speak — your audio is broadcast to all members' phones in speakerphone.

For an all-office page, dial *81 (no group setup needed).

Using paging well

• Keep pages short — 5-15 seconds max
• Don't page during a major call period (members on calls miss the page; it's only for who's idle)
• Use distinct paging groups for distinct purposes (don't have one "all" group used for everything)
• Set PINs on broad groups to prevent abuse

Pickup groups

A pickup group is a set of extensions that can answer each other's ringing phones via a feature code.

When to use

The receptionist is at lunch. The phone is ringing. Anyone in the same pickup group as the receptionist can dial *8 (default pickup code) on their own phone, and the call is transferred to them.

This is faster than walking over to the receptionist's desk, and works for any extension in the group.

Configuring pickup groups

Top nav → Pickup Groups. Click New Pickup Group.

• Name — display name
• Description
• Color — visual marker in lists
• Members — extensions in the group

Save.

An extension can be in only one pickup group at a time.

Using pickup

When any phone in your pickup group rings, dial *8 (your tenant's configured pickup code) on your phone. The call transfers to you.

There's no shipped "directed pickup" code (no **EXT pattern by default). *8 picks up whichever phone in your group is currently ringing — if multiple are ringing, you get whichever the platform answers first.

Combining these

Common combos:

• Pickup group + ring group — multiple people can answer; if they're all busy, the next person to free up can use *8 to grab the abandoned call.
• Paging + parking — page someone overhead, then tell them their call is on slot 701.
• Pickup + paging — page "ANN, you have a call" then if Ann is at lunch someone else uses *8 to grab it.

These three features compose into the muscle memory of a smoothly-running office.

Feature codes

The default codes are:

Action	Default Code
Park current call	*70
Pickup most-recent parked call	*71
Pickup parked call from specific slot	dial the slot directly (700-709)
Pickup any ringing phone in your group	*8
Page all extensions (system-wide)	*81
Intercom one extension	*80 [ext]
Initiate a paging group	The group's configured code (in the *83-*89 / *93-*99 range)

Customize these in Settings → Feature Codes.

Common pitfalls

• Park timeout too short — caller hangs up before the parker can find the recipient. 60-90 seconds is reasonable.
• No park-back — call gets parked, no one picks it up, caller waits in silence forever. Always set a timeout action.
• Paging without PIN — random employee dials the code and broadcasts to the entire office. Set a PIN on broad groups.
• Pickup group too large — 30 people can pickup each other's calls. Wrong person picks up, transfers to wrong destination, customer frustrated. Keep groups to 5-10 people, ideally same team.