Understanding retries for conference calls

Question 

If an on-call person is targeted by an xMatters event and they missed or declined the call, what is the frequency for the next attempt? How many attempts occur? Can the time between each call be configured?

Environment

All versions of xMatters On-Demand

Answer

By default, xMatters retries a failed call 3 times on our primary voice provider and 3 times on our secondary voice provider. It's important to note that if a call goes to voicemail or is answered and hung up, xMatters may not retry.

The default time between retry attempts is 10 seconds.

If the call goes to voicemail and a message is left, the call is considered delivered. You can customize the voicemail behavior options in the form handling settings (for example, you can configure xMatters to retry multiple times before leaving a voicemail).

If the user responds with escalate or decline, this is interpreted as not attending. In this case, xMatters does not attempt to call the user again, and calls the next person in the escalation chain.

It is still possible for the user to join a conference manually. If it is a high priority to have the user join the conference call, it's a good practice to send a follow-up email or mobile push notification with the conference details.

To discuss more customized configuration needs, contact our Support team.