Creating Auto Attendants

Let's begin this course by exploring the process of creating AutoAttendants.

Start by going to the Auto Attendant tab of the Domain you are working with.

Creating Single-Greeting Auto Attendants

1.     Click the Add Attendant button.

2.    Fill out the following fields:

1. Name: Give the Auto Attendant a name. If it is the only one on the account, call it Auto Attendant. If you have multiples, give it a name that indicates its purpose, such as Ottawa Auto Attendant, for example.
2. Extension: Give your Auto Attendant an extension. Generally, we use the 8000 range.
3. Time Frame: Since we are creating a Single-Greeting Auto Attendant, pick the Default Time Frame.
    

3.    Click the Add button.

Creating Multiple-Greeting Auto Attendants

If you need to create an Auto Attendant that plays unique greetings at different times, you must first create a Time Frame that we will later use. Here's an example:

1.      If you start from nothing, begin by creating the first Auto Attendant using the Default Time Frame as you have just learned.

2.     Click on the Add Attendant button again.

3.     Fill out the following fields:

1. Name: Give the Auto Attendant a name that matches the Time Frame, such as Office Hours Auto Attendant.
2. Extension: Give your Auto Attendant the same extension you used for the one using the Default Time Frame. You will see a warning because you have already used it, but this is normal.
3. Time Frame: Pick your newly created Time Frame.
   
    

SUCCESS: When you go back to the Auto Attendants tab, you should see something like this:

4.     Click on the Auto Attendant called “Auto Attendant” to edit it.

5.     Rename it to “After Hours Auto Attendant”. This is because this Auto Attendant, being associated with the Default Time Frame, will be active only when the Office Hours Auto Attendant is not. We label it as After Hours to make it easier for the Customer and other staff to know it's purpose. Click Save when you are done.

SUCCESS: The Auto Attendants tab will now look like this:

6.     Go to the Users tab, edit your Auto Attendant and go to the Answering Rules tab. Make sure they are in the correct order. Remember that from top to bottom, they should be in the order of most specific. Since Office Hours is more specific than Default (Always) it should be the first one on the list. You can re-order using the sliding icons on the lefT.

7.     Clicking Save when you are finished. 

Managing Auto Attendants

Let's now go over the process of managing an Auto Attendant.

From the Auto Attendants tab, click on the Name or the Edit button for the one you want to manage.

Intro Greetings

The first component of Auto Attendants that we can modify is the Intro Greeting, a message that plays in front of your main Auto Attendant greeting. 

Intro Greetings are tied to Time Frames, and you can add multiple ones. They should only be added to Single-Greeting Auto Attendants. If you attempt to use them on Multiple-Greeting Auto Attendants, you will break them. 

A use-case example could be to have a message that says "Good morning" between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and "Good afternoon" between 12:01 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

You can access Intro Greetings by clicking on the speaker icon/Manage button.

Now you can:

1.      Click on Add Greeting.

2.     Upload or Record a greeting.

3.     Choose an available Time Frame.

4.    Click Done.

Menu Prompt

While Intro Greetings are optional, Menu Prompt is not. Here is where your Customer uploads or records their main Auto Attendant greeting. On the right, you can also change the default language for all system prompts.

To prepare the Auto Attendant for your Customer, you can click on the Manage Audio button and do the following:

1.     Select Upload.

2.     In the Description box, enter Temporary Greeting.

3.     Browse for the AA Not Recorded Greeting.wav file that should be shared with you on Google Drive. (Talk to your manager for access.)

4.    Click on the Upload button.
 

We follow this process to upload a file that serves as a reminder to your Customer that they still need to upload or record their own greeting.

Once a greeting is in place, you will see something like this:

You can now see the length of the recording and buttons to play, download and Manage the existing greeting.

Dial Pad Menu

The Dial Pad Menu is where you can assign options that callers can press to be directed somewhere. Everything configured here should ideally be mentioned in the Menu Prompt Greeting.

To assign a function to a key, you must first click on it, and the following choices will appear below:

Let's go over each option in more detail.

●      User: The caller is directed to a specific extension.  Enter an extension in the field and optionally add a Caller ID Prefix. The extension can be for any regular user as well as Call Queues and even another Auto Attendant.

●      Call Queue: The caller is directed to a specific call queue.  Enter a queue in the field and optionally add a Caller ID Prefix. You can also choose to announce the number of callers or the average expected wait time before the caller is placed in the queue. Remember that if you choose the CallQueue to direct a caller to a queue instead of picking the User option, the answering rules will NOT be followed.
 

●       Directory: The caller is directed to a directory, where they can search for a user by dialling the first three letters of the user's last name.
 

●       Voicemail: The caller is sent directly to a voicemail box, bypassing the user's answering rules. You can enter the extension for any User that has a voicemail enabled.
 

●       External Number: The caller is forwarded to an external number. Enter a 10-digit external number without spaces or characters in the field.
 

●       Play Message: The caller hears a recorded message.  Once the message has played, the caller may be redirected to another key press's action, to the main greeting, or the call may terminate. Record the greeting by clicking the manage button, and choose the appropriate follow-up action.
 

●       Repeat Prompt: The caller will hear the Auto Attendant greeting again.
 

●       Add Tier:  This will add additional tiers to the Auto Attendant if more than 11 options are needed. Note that you can only go one tier deep. If your Customer wants an Auto Attendant structure that goes more than 1 tier deep, you need to create an additional Auto Attendant and point an option on your tier to it effectively simulating another tier.
 

●      Previous Menu: This option is only available on keys of a tier. It sends the caller back to the root of the Auto Attendant.
 

To remove an option, click on the key in question and click on Remove. Don't forget to hit Save at the bottom when you are satisfied with the configuration.

Options

You can access Options by clicking on the gear icon next to the Dial Pad Menu.

In this section, you can enable or disable the ability to dial extensions. For the majority of Auto Attendants, this should be left checked. You can also decide what happens when a caller doesn't press any keys or press on an unassigned key. The choices are to repeat the greeting prompt, hangup or automatically follow any of the keys you have configured.

Greetings Limit

It is crucial to know that every Auto Attendant User is limited to a maximum of 9 greeting files. This includes Intro Greeting, Menu Prompts, and Play Messages options. 

It's also crucial to remember that if you have multiple Auto Attendants using different time frames using the same extension number, they are all part of the same User. 

For example, you can't have a total of 5 greeting files on the Default Auto Attendant and 5 on the Office Hours Auto Attendant as this would exceed the limit. If you exceed the limit, the Auto Attendant will break.

The first thing to assess with your customer is the reason behind all these greeting files. 

• Do they all serve a purpose? 
• Can some be combined or eliminated? 

Think about the caller using the Auto Attendant. 

• Are they faced with a bloated setup? 

If you find that the Auto Attendant tree is clear and easy to follow and that all greetings are necessary, you need to create your Auto Attendants using different extension numbers to manage the Greetings limit.  

Common Auto Attendant Configurations

In this section, we will look at some of the types of Auto Attendants that you may be asked to configure. We will not go step by step on creating them since we just taught you everything you need to know, but instead, we will present each scenario to you in detail.

Basic Auto Attendant

The most basic type of Auto Attendant is the Single-Greeting one we saw earlier in the course. Since it is tied to the Default (Always) Time Frame, it will play the same greeting 24/7. The main advantage for the customer is that it's simple to configure and maintain. 

However, if some options are directing callers to Call Queues, there's a risk that they are waiting for their call to be answered after hours while no one is there. In this configuration, you would want to make sure there are Answering Rules in place on those Call Queues to send them to voicemail after hours. The Customer can configure this type of Auto Attendant further by adding Intro Greetings.

Here's an example of a Basic Auto Attendant:

Editing the Auto Attendant, we can see a sample of a basic configuration.

And when looking at the Answering Rules, we can confirm that we are just using the Default (Always) Time Frame.

Office Hours and After Hours Auto Attendant

If your Customer wants different messaging when they are opened versus closed, you will want to use this configuration. 

We have also covered this one previously in the course but let's go into more details here. By creating a Time Frame for the Customer's hours of operation, you can use it with an Auto Attendant to offer certain options to the caller while they are opened. The other Auto Attendant tied to the Default Time Frame can then act as the after-hours scenario and offer a different set of options. 

For example, during the day, you can have an option that sends the caller to a Call Queue and after-hours, the same option can go straight to the queue's voicemail box. 

One of the disadvantages of this more complex configuration is that a Customer could forget to make a change required in both Auto Attendants (for example, changing option 1 to a different user).

Here's an example:

Let's edit both Auto Attendants to see how they are configured. You can see that during Office Hours, options 1 and 0 are going to a queue and a user, while after-hours, they are going to the voicemail boxes.

Let's have a look at the Office Hours Time Frame we have created. We are using the Days of the week and times type and the hours are Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm.

The last thing we need to look at is the order of the Answering Rules. Here you can see that we have placed the Office Hours rule above the Default one since the more specific one needs to be at the top.

Holidays Auto Attendant

This is a type of Auto Attendant that you can create for your Customer to have their callers hear a special greeting during Statutory Holidays. It can be added to a basic Auto Attendant and an Office Hours/After-Hours configuration. 

This Auto Attendant is normally tied to a Specific dates or ranges Time Frame. In this Time Frame, the Customer could, for example, add all of the dates for the current year. They could then record a generic Holiday message on that Auto Attendant or record a unique one a few days before each Holiday. 

The other advantage of this configuration is that you can have options presented to the caller that you would normally not offer during regular after-hours. Remember that as the Auto Attendant's complexity increases, the Customer might forget to set new dates or record anew greeting.

Let's look at an example. In our case here, we have added a Holiday Auto Attendant to our previous OfficeHours/After-Hours configuration.

The After Hours and Office Hours Auto Attendants are configured the same as above. And here we have a different message uploaded on theHolidays, letting callers know we are closed for the Holiday. We have configured option 1 to go to a voicemail box in this case.

Here's a sample of a Holidays Time Frame configured for Christmas and New Year's using the Specific dates or ranges type.

And finally, we need to ensure that all the Answering Rules are in the correct order. Since we added this to our Office Hours/After-Hours configuration, let's consider where it belongs. 

Should it be above the Office Hours rule or under? 

If you guessed above, you are correct. Since our Holidays Time Frame is more specific than the Office Hours, we need to have it first.

In this example, Holidays is not yet active since, at the time of capture, the only true rule was the Office Hours one.

Fast-forward to December 25th, and Holidays is now active instead of Office Hours.

Special Occasion or Emergency Auto Attendant

With everything you have learned so far, you can now add any other scenarios to your Auto Attendant's configuration. 

If a customer needs to close the office for any reason, they might be tempted to temporarily change their After-hours or Holidays Auto Attendant for that purpose. But why do all of this work to then have to put it back to its original state when you can have an Auto Attendant dedicated to that purpose? 

The steps required are the same as creating a Holidays Auto Attendant. The results would look like this:

Bilingual Auto Attendant

Creating a bilingual Auto Attendant is a straight forward process and can be applied to any Auto Attendant configuration. All you have to do is use the Add Tier option and change the language on the 2nd Tier. Below you will find two types of examples.

In the first example, we have the Auto Attendant configured to use option 8 to go to the French tier. The same key on the French tier will bring the user back to the English one.

In the second example, we have the first tier prompting the caller to make a selection. Option 1 goes to the English tier, while Option 2 goes to the French tier. Both of those tiers have option 9 configured to send the caller back to the Auto Attendant's root.

Naming Conventions

We want to end this part of the course with guidelines to name Auto Attendants properly. If the account only has one, you can name it Auto Attendant. 

As we already mentioned in this course, if you start adding Time Frames to your configuration, add something like Office Hours or After Hours in front.  

If you have Auto Attendants for different products, cities or purposes within the company add a name in front that clearly indicates its reason.  

Finally, you might need to combine some of those guidelines. Here's an example of an account with multiple Auto Attendants. You can easily understand what each of them is used for.