How an Auto Attendant Works

If you are a small company without the budget to afford a receptionist to answer your calls, or even a medium sized company who does not need a receptionist, an auto attendant can handle your calls and route them to the correct person or department easily and effectively. With an auto attendant, your company can entertain, manage, and divert calls from any of your offices to any place you want.

Using an auto attendant to manage inbound business calls can be useful in providing companies with cost reducing solutions in automating and simplifying phone network management.  The purpose of the auto attendant is to offer  businesses the opportunity to enjoy the advantage of having a more affordable phone network managing solution, which helps establish lasting business and client relations without extra costs.

Professional Main Greeting & Efficient Call Routing

The first thing a caller hears when they are connected with your auto attendant is your companies main greeting. The main greeting will provide information and route call depending on their response to the options given to them. The main greeting or Main IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is usually recorded by someone in the company or professional voice talent. Once the caller chooses either an extension to be routed to, or an option, the auto attendant will handle the routing of the call.

An auto attendant, or digital receptionist, greets callers and efficiently transfers them to the correct person, call group, or extension.

Key Auto Attendant Features Include:

  • Automated call answering with professional custom greeting

  • Music or message while on hold

  • Intuitive and interactive voice prompts

  • Call forwarding

  • Transfer a call to an operator

  • Transfer a call to a call queue

  • Transfer a call to a hunt group (which rings multiple numbers simultaneously or in sequence)

  • Listen to the menu again

  • Overall ease in handling calls

Other Features May Include:

Informational messages

  • Dial by name directory

  • Voice recognition

If the business is a one person shop, an auto attendant with a professional main greeting and call routing can help the company make a great first impression.

Sound Big Even If Your Business is Small

Since the first thing the caller hears when they call your business is your auto attendant, even small businesses can make a great first impression. A professional greeting along with routing options that get the caller to the right person quickly and efficiently can help your business make a great first impression. 

Voice Recognition Integration

Voice recognition software enables the caller to say the number instead of having to dial it. With voice recognition software installed on an auto attendant, callers can also be given the option of saying a word or expression as well as a number. This makes routing of calls even easier for the caller especially if the caller is on a cell phone.

Music or Messages While on Hold

A variety of personalized greetings and messages or custom music on hold may be played while putting the call on hold, keeping the caller on the line while processing their requests. This way, companies can establish better relationships with their clients.

Time Based Call Routing

Auto attendant systems can be setup to observe time-based call routing. This enables offices to entertain all the business calls received by the company offices even when the offices are closed such as on weekends or holidays. Call routing is automatically set to offer a new greeting, and route calls differently while still giving the caller the option to leave a message for the right department or employee. Calls can even be routed to cell phones or home phones after business hours if the provider wishes.

Using an Auto Attendant In Your Virtual Office

With a virtual business, an auto attendant becomes even more crucial for routing calls. Employees can work from home and the auto attendant will route their calls wherever the employees are whether that is at home, at the airport, or at the coffee shop. The auto attendant can even transfer calls to other employees extensions or other hunt groups or even voicemail. 

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