Calls on the desk

With Smileline Voice

Marketing-line calls

Calls to your tracking numbers — the ones your adverts and website show — ring the desk with a Marketing line badge. The desk never assumes the caller is here about their patient record on these calls: nothing opens by itself. If the number matches a patient, their name is shown — click it to open them; if the number is unknown, the card offers Not a known patient — create a lead so the enquiry is captured while you talk.

Calling out

Every lead in the queue with a phone number has a call button in the work panel. Click it: your desk rings once and answers itself, then the patient's phone rings, and you are connected.

Calling any number

Keypad in the left rail dials anything — a lab, a referring practice, a number read off a note. Type it or tap it out, in whatever form you would read it aloud, and click Call; the desk sorts out the country code. Calling works the same way as calling a lead: your desk rings once and answers itself, then the number you dialled rings.

While you are on a call

The call sits in one place — a panel at the bottom of the desk — and stays there whichever screen you move to, so switching to the inbox or the calendar never drops it. Keypad on the panel sends tones down the live call, for phone menus and extensions. The arrow at its right collapses it to a small bar; click that to bring it back.

Pop out lifts the call into its own small window that floats above your other apps. Use it when you need the rest of the screen: leave the desk, look something up in your browser, and the call stays in view with mute, hold and hang up on it. Open desk brings Smileline back to the front and puts the little window away. It disappears by itself when the call ends.

Transfer hands the caller to a colleague — the list shows everyone with calling set up and whether they are on do-not-disturb — or to a number you type. Announce first rings the colleague while the caller hears hold music, connects you to them when they answer, and waits for Complete (hand the caller over) or Cancel (take the caller back); Blind moves the caller to the colleague's most recently used device at once and leaves yours. An inbound caller can also be sent to voicemail from here. The popped-out call window can answer or decline a ringing call and send keypad tones; its Transfer button brings the Desk forward to pick the colleague.

A call that was ringing you and was answered elsewhere closes with Taken by and the colleague's name. While you are on a call your other devices are left out of the ring for new calls.

On the Keypad screen, a practice with more than one number chooses which one the person you call sees under Show as. Left on Automatic, the call presents the number routed to your device's location, or the practice's default caller ID when that location has none.

Without Smileline Voice

The desk shows the same Start dialing button as the browser's Today page.

• Native sessions run the call audio in the desk itself — headset on, work the queue, and each lead you settle on is dialed.
• Assisted sessions hand each call to your practice's own phone app, which opens by itself. Mark Done, No answer, or Skip on the call panel as you go — outcomes are recorded in Smileline either way.

A dialing session shows in the same call panel as everything else, so it follows you between screens and pops out into the floating window too.

If calls don't ring

• Check the tray menu says Available, not Do not disturb — see Tray and availability.
• Check your computer's microphone permission for Smileline Desk (System Settings on Mac, Settings → Privacy on Windows).