Cisco Hunt Group vs Pickup Group: Difference and Comparison

Cisco Hunt Group and Pickup Groups are communication features used by platforms for delivering or distributing calls automatically or manually by the user.

These groups help decipher the call’s recipient and direct a call to an individual or a group. These come in use at call centres or companies that deal with an inflow of customer calls.

Key Takeaways

1. Hunt groups distribute incoming calls to users based on predetermined criteria, while pickup groups allow users to answer calls ringing on another user’s phone within the group.
2. Hunt groups improve call distribution efficiency, while pickup groups facilitate collaboration and prevent missed calls.
3. Hunt groups can use various algorithms to distribute calls, while pickup groups require users to pick up calls from other group members manually.

Cisco Hunt Group vs Pickup Group

The difference between Cisco Hunt Group and Pickup Group is that, while hunt group automatically delivers a call to the recipient, in a pickup group, the individual or the recipient user must manually dial a number using a keyboard button to answer the incoming calls.

Cisco hunt group helps in the diversion of phone calls from a single number to many numbers connected to the initial number via a network, thus ensuring the caller a definite chance of their call being answered.

Hunt group calls can be handled in multiple ways, where all the phones ring at the same time to the calls being sequentially transferred.

Cisco pickup group is a system where the calls need to be transferred to a group, enabling a selected number of people sitting within each other’s vicinity to receive incoming calls as a team.

And here, the call received by one person can be answered by another within the group if he/she is unable to do so.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Cisco Hunt Group	Cisco Pickup Group
Answering sequence	Calls shift from one phone to another until it is answered or it goes to voicemail.	As a group, where if one can’t answer then another can do so on their behalf
Organization	Lines are arranged in an organized manner, to let the calls be diverted if the preceding line is busy.	Lines are arranged into groups, sometimes leading to confusion.
Equipment(s) needed	Desk phone or soft phone	Soft phone
Call access	Access to the calls depends on the way the phones are arranged in the line.	Everyone within a group has access to an incoming call, thus allowing it to be answered by anyone.
Methods of line connection	Multiple ways are present to connect the line for different groups depending on efficiency.	A single way to connect for any group.

What is Cisco Hunt Group?

A hunt group is a hierarchically arranged group of lines where calls are sequentially transferred depending on the order of the numbers given on the pre-arranged system. 

In a hunt group, there are many ways by which a call can be received. Sometimes, all the phones connected in a group may ring at the same time, and the call is answered by those who answer it first.

At other times, the lines may be connected in such a way that the incoming call is first transferred to the phone that has been idle for the longest time. The call would naturally be re-directed by the system if it isn’t answered.

Another possibility of the hunt group line arrangement system is that the day‘s first call would be transferred to the first phone, the second call to the second phone, and so on.

But the limitation of this form is that the caller might not have a definite chance of their call being answered since the call will only be transferred if the next line is not busy. Therefore, prompting the call to go onto voicemail or not recorded at all.

What is Cisco Pickup Group?

In Cisco pickup groups, a manual answering method holds for the entire group. Pickup groups are only possible as long as those belonging to one group stay near each other. This, in a way, is a speciality of pickup groups.

The reason to be in one another’s vicinity is that if the call directed at a phone remains unanswered, then any other person in that group can use the manual method followed by the group to answer the incoming call.

This is a method to make sure that none of the incoming calls remains unanswered.

Another boon of pickup groups is that a person in one group can also answer calls of another pickup group on the condition that those groups and one of our own are connected in some way or the other.

While a user accepts the call ringing at another extension, the now-free line can accept new calls.

Being a pickup group member means that you are always logged into the system whenever you use the phone connected to the group. There is no manual logging in needed.

Main Differences Between Cisco Hunt Group and Pickup Group

1. Due to multiple ways of connection, the Cisco hunt group provides a more definite chance that the call can be answered. Whereas provided the lack of connection diversity in a pickup group, there are more chances that a call might remain unanswered or ignored on a comparative.
2. The Cisco hunt group has an automated way of distributing and re-directing the incoming calls where the calls are automatically delivered to the user, unlike a pickup group where a call needs to be answered manually by dialling or using buttons.
3. In the case of the Cisco pickup group, due to the presence of a group of people working as a team, a call not having a chance of being answered is less while considering this element.
4. Hunt groups come into use when the caller needs a specific recipient, unlike in a pickup group, where anyone could answer a call.
5. Compared to pickup groups, Hunt groups seem to be more of an organized system with fewer chances of confusion while answering.

References

1. https://alotofmanuals.com/files/122/607364/file.pdf

Last Updated : 13 July, 2023