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 , you can see all the auto-attendants on the account, including the assigned phone number(s), last modified date, and status. You can build and keep as many auto-attendants as needed, and an existing Auto-Attendant can be duplicated so it doesn't have to be rebuilt just to make a small change for a specific situation. Changes are saved in real time, so you can start building now and come back to finish it later.
If you don’t see Auto-Attendant in the menu, please contact Customer Support.
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 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 |
|
Tools
Hover over an auto-attendant to see the tools on the right. The tools available are different for each status. For example, an incomplete auto-attendant cannot be launched, and live auto-attendant cannot be deleted.
Field | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. ImportantThe phone number must be unassigned before the auto-attendant can be edited. Please contact Customer Support for assistance. |
| Make changes to an auto-attendant. For auto-attendants that are Live or Activated, only Group routes can be edited; all other routes are view-only. |
