Auto Attendant
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Contents |
Purpose
The auto attendant can be seen as a simple receptionist that helps to connect the incoming caller with an extension. This may include searching for the name, entering the extension number, protecting certain extensions and redirecting calls to external numbers.
All calls to extensions go through the auto attendant. When the PBX already knows the number, it just skips the prompts and goes directly to the phase when the account number is called.
The attendant does not use the SIP redirection mechanism. It starts a new call and passes the media through the PBX. This approach has several advantages, for example the caller can cancel the call and try another extension.
Until one of the destinations answers with a ring back message, the auto attendant plays comfort noise to the caller. This emulates the behavior of the old analog system and indicates the caller that the call is still active. Upon arrival of the ring back message, it changes the tone to a ring back tone.
When calling an extension, the caller has the possibility to press the star key while the extensions are ringing. In this case, it cancels all calls and prompts for another number.
The logic for handling DND and call forwarding is explained in the section about the star code handling (feature codes in the domain administration).
Identity
The identity settings are the same as the settings for the extension identity, see Extension Identity.
Behavior
When the user enters an extension number, the auto attendant has to determine when it should try to go to an extension. The following modes are available:
- "When Extension Matches" checks after every digit if the digit sequence matches an existing account. If this is the case, it will call that extension. This mechanism is useful when you use accounts with varying name length, however it might be annoying if the caller tries a non-existing number.
- "After 1/2/3/4/5 Digit Input" will count the number of digits and after the right number has been entered it will try to go to the account that has been entered. If that account does not exist, it will play an announcement.
- The "User Must Hit Pound" mode waits until the user hits the pound sign. This mode is useful in variable-length scenarios, where you explicitly tell the user to terminate the input.
If you turn the "Say Name" setting on, the PBX will play an announcement that repeats the user input, or, if the user recorded the extension name, will play back the user name.
The "Accounts that cannot be called" setting lists the accounts that are disabled for redirection. This setting is useful if you want to exclude incoming callers from using conference accounts or to dial VIP numbers. You can only literally enumerate the accounts that cannot be dialled, patterns are not allowed here.
If you want that the auto attendant does not offer direct dialing of extensions, enter a "*" into the setting "Accounts that cannot be called". The PBX will then also not play the text that asks the caller to enter the extension number.
To set up the auto attendant prompt, you have two choices. The first choice is to use the Record star code (described in the feature code section). This possibility is useful when the secretary wants to recording on her own or when that announcements may change often. In this case, you might want to list the "Accounts that may record a message" using a list of Wildcard Patterns. If you want to want to delete your recorded message and use the default annoucement again, you can use the Record star code and hit star before the tone to cancel the recording.
The second choice is to may load a prerecorded WAV file into the system. Please use a standard recording tool to record the message and make sure that you are using 8 kHz sampling frequency, mono 16-bit recording format. This choice is useful when you want to a studio recording or you want to deploy a recording into several accounts.
If the auto attendant redirects calls to a trunk, it needs a dial plan to do this. You may select the dial plan with the setting "Dial Plan for outbound calls". This dial plan will only be used if there is no account that can be charged for this call (for example, in night mode); otherwise it will use this account's dial plan.
The auto attendant supports environments with two languages. If you select a second language, the auto attendant will determine if the call already has a call assigned. This can for example be the case if the call went through a previous auto attendant or an extension calls the auto attendant. If there is no language assigned, it will first ask the caller for the language and then continue the dialog in that language.
Dialog Permissions are described in Dialog Permissions.
Timeout Handling
When the user does not make a selection for a certain time, you may redirect the call to another account. In order to do this, specify the time in seconds and the account name in the settings "Redirect Number" and "Timeout (s)". The timeout starts after the welcome prompt finished, so that you may change your recording later without changing the behavior or the auto attendant. If you want to redirect immediately after the prompt changes, you may enter a time of zero seconds.
If the user does not enter anything, you also might want to terminate the call. This feature is useful when the PSTN gateway has problems detecting that the call was already hung up (some gateways have problems detecting hangup on analog ports). Then the setting "Hangup Timeout" may help to clear the call relatively quickly. This timeout value works independently from the status the attendant is in.
Night Service
As in other accounts, you may redirect calls to the auto attendant to another account depending on the time of day or other events. This service is called "night service" and is used in conjunction with the Service Flag. If you want to use the night service feature, please set up a service flag and specify where you want to redirect the service during the night.
Dial By Name
If you want to offer the "Dial by Name" feature in the auto attendant, you need to enter a pattern that triggers the name search. If you are using a three digit extension code, 411 is a nice example. This mechanism searches only extensions that have their name set.
The setting "Start Search" tells the PBX how many digits it should read until is starts the search. If there are several matches after a timeout or further entries will not get a unique result, the PBX will list the available matches in a menu. The caller may always cancel the search with the star key.
Direct Destinations
You can specify direct destinations. When the user enters the destination, the PBX will call the provided number. The input can be one digit or it can be several digits. The destination can be an internal number such as an extension or conference room, or it can be an external number.
The PBX has some prerecorded announcements that will be read out along with the direct destination. This makes it much easier to set up an auto attendant that explains the available choices to the caller.
The PBX check immediately if there is a match with a direct destination as the user enters digits. This is a problem if there is a overlap between a direct destination and an extension number. For example if you have extensions starting with "1" and you want to have a direct destination "1", there would be no way of dialling that number. If general, the best way to avoid this situation is to choose extension numbers that do not overlap with direct destinations and mailbox prefix and outbound call prefixes. For example, the extension range 4xx-7xx does that.
If you cannot change the extension assignments (e.g. business cards with extension numbers are already circling around), you can use a timeout mechanism. If you put a pound sign behind the direct destination, then the PBX will wait for three seconds and then dial the direct destination.
