When a customer calls your business, you want a real person to answer — not voicemail. Ring groups and hunt groups are both mechanisms for routing inbound calls to multiple employees, but they behave differently. Understanding the difference helps you configure your phone system to match how your team actually works.
What Is a Ring Group?
A ring group rings multiple phones simultaneously when a call comes in. All phones in the group ring at the same time, and the first person to answer takes the call. This is sometimes called "simultaneous ring" or "all ring."
Best for: Teams where all members are equally capable of handling any call and you want the fastest possible answer time. Common use cases include sales teams (first to answer gets the lead), small support teams, and real estate agent groups.
Example: A customer calls the main sales line. All 5 sales agents' phones ring simultaneously. The agent who picks up first handles the call.
What Is a Hunt Group?
A hunt group rings phones in a specific sequence. It starts with the first phone in the list, waits a set number of seconds, then moves to the next phone if no one answers, and so on. This is also called "sequential ring" or "linear hunt."
Best for: Teams with a defined hierarchy or primary point of contact. Common use cases include service desks with a preferred first point of contact, on-call rotations, and scenarios where you want to protect certain staff members from call volume unless primary contacts are unavailable.
Example: A support call comes in. It rings the support lead first (10 seconds). If they don't answer, it rings Support Agent 1 (10 seconds). If that fails, Agent 2. And so on until someone answers or all agents have been tried.
Round-Robin Distribution
A variation worth knowing: round-robin distribution maintains a queue position and distributes calls evenly across team members. Rather than starting from the beginning of the list each time, the system remembers who last answered and starts from the next person. This ensures no single agent receives a disproportionate share of calls.
Best for: Teams with equal workload expectations and no preference for first-contact assignment — inside sales teams, inbound support queues with SLA requirements, and similar environments.
Which Should You Use?
- Use a ring group (simultaneous) when fastest answer time is the priority and all members should take calls equally
- Use a hunt group (sequential) when there's a natural call-handling hierarchy or you want to minimize call distribution to some members unless necessary
- Use round-robin when equitable distribution across a team is important for fairness or workload balancing
Most businesses use a combination. For example: a ring group for the main sales line (simultaneous for speed), a sequential hunt group for the IT support desk (preferred first contact, then escalation), and round-robin for customer service (equitable workload). Broadtela's platform supports all three patterns and allows you to mix them across different departments and numbers.