Skip to main content

Auto-Attendant

The following information is for Admin users only. See User Access Levels to learn more.

Managing inbound calls is a crucial part of how an organization handles everyday business. Auto-attendants enable identification, segmentation, and routing of callers to the most appropriate agent within your team. It's a simple, effective, and completely customizable tool which will significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency within any company.

Auto-attendants are easy to build and modify. The editor lays out your routes into clear columns and rows so you can see exactly what you're building and how it all fits together. Changes are saved in real time, so you won't lose any edits — even if you close the window. Incomplete auto-attendants will also be saved so they can be edited and completed later.

Manage Auto-Attendants

In Business Cloud > Auto Attendant, you can see all the auto-attendants on the account, including the assigned phone number(s), extension, last modified date, and status. You can build and keep as many auto-attendants as needed.

While auto-attendants that are live and processing calls cannot be modified, you can open the editor to see how it's been set up (view-only) or duplicate the auto-attendant to modify the route, then activate the new one when you're ready. See Edit Auto-Attendants for details.

If you don’t see Auto-Attendant in the menu, please contact Customer Support.

Auto-Attendant_0325.png

Field

Description

[+ Add Auto-Attendant]

Start creating a new auto-attendant. The builder will open in a new window, so you can look back at the auto-attendant list if you need to reference it. See Auto-Attendant Setup for details.

Name

The name of the auto-attendant. If a name wasn't saved, it will be named "untitled auto-attendant" by default.

Assigned Phone Number

The phone number(s) directed to this auto-attendant. A phone number must be assigned before calls can be directed through the auto-attendant. If this is blank, contact Customer Support for assistance.

Extension

The unique extension (optional) assigned to the auto-attendant, which allows users to transfer calls back to the main menu to reach a different department.

Click this field to add or modify the extension.

Modified Date

The last date the auto-attendant was modified: month, day, year, time.

Status

  • Incomplete: There are open routes that need to be closed before the auto-attendant can be launched.

  • Ready to Activate: All routes are closed and it's ready to be launched (activated).      

  • Activated: The route has been launched and it can now be assigned to a phone number.

  • Live: A phone number is assigned, the auto-attendant is receiving calls.

Tools

The tools available are different for each status. For example, an incomplete auto-attendant cannot be launched, and a live auto-attendant cannot be deleted.

  • Icon_Duplicate.png Duplicate. Active auto-attendants cannot be edited, but you can duplicate it and make changes to the copy. The duplicate feature makes it easy to create a new auto-attendant based on an existing one.

    Extensions cannot be duplicated. The extension must be removed from the original before it can be assigned to the duplicate. See Edit Auto-Attendants for details.

  • Icon_AA_Deactivate.png Deactivate. Deactivate the auto-attendant and downgrade the status to Ready to Activate. To deactivate a Live auto-attendant, unassign the phone number first; the status will be downgraded to Activated, Assign TN.

  • Icon_AA_Play.png Activate. When the status is Ready to Activate, click the Activate icon to make the auto-attendant available as a destination in the Phone Number menu. Then go to Phone Numbers > Edit to assign a number to this auto-attendant.

  • Icon_Edit_Blue.png Edit. Open the editor to make changes to an inactive auto-attendant in Incomplete or Ready to Activate status. Activated and Live auto-attendants are view only.

  • Icon Trash Red.png Delete. Permanently delete this auto-attendant. This cannot be undone. Before deleting an auto-attendant, contact Customer Support to redirect the phone number, so calls aren't sent to an attendant that no longer exists.