Automated Attendant and Direct Extension. 3

[pshull]

Hi,

I am now in the process of putting the automated attendant together. I have a Partner ACS R6 and Partner Messaging R1. I read elsewhere on the forums that you can't allow a caller to "dial an extension at anytime" if you also have the option to "Press 1 to speak to Sales, 2 for help, 3 For whatever." That you had to renumber and do "Press 7 for sales, 8 for help and 9 for whatever" so it didn't conflict with the extension numbers. Is this true?

Also, Can I have it so that dialing an extension is a submenu instead? I.e. Press 1 for sales, 2 for help, 3 for whatever and Press 4 if you know your parties extension. After you hit 4 you can then transfer to their extension by keying in the extension number 10-35?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Yeah, but why do you want to make your callers jump through another hoop? Now if I know my party's extension is 14 (for instance) and when I dial in I'm not really listening to the menu but dial 14, the "1" is picked up and my call is sent to sales instead.

I would make it be "if you know your party's extension number, you may dial it at anytime", and keep selector codes 1 through 5 at DXT. Then for sales, dial 6; for help, dial 7; for whatever, dial 8. You could use a submenu for a directory of extensions as well, so for a directory of extensions, dial 9. Send that to a submenu, and set selector codes 1 through 5 in the submenu as DXT as well.

If you are not going to go above a certain number of extensions, you can go lower in the selector codes, but definatly reserve 1 through 3 as DXT.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Don't forget the dial by name "*2" as an option. It already exists.
Another good option is the information announcement. Make an announcement that lists your fax # and address, possibly web site as well.
I have set many attendants up as described above and they work well. At night, send "0" to the general (or some other) mailbox.
-Chris

 

[skip555]

I generaly use 5 as DXT and just have the custmer put a 5 in front of their extension number

510 , 511 . 512 ect ect

that allows me to use the other selector codes

you could do it with any number I just started using 5 so thats what I alway's use

 

[pshull]

Your ideas are great. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for clarifing how the system works, Tommy. I don't want to make it too complicated for callers to call someone. My guess, though is that my boss won't like it that it won't be in order. As in, press 1 for sales, 2 for help, etc. But rather 7,8,9.

I think that ittphone and skip have excellent suggestions. I will probably include a short informational message and then use the method skip says for DXT. I will just tell the employees that their extension to outside callers is 510, 511, 512, etc. and then set menu 5 to be the direct extension key. I imagine what happens is that by pressing 5, you go to a submenu and then you set 1,2,3,4 as direct extension transfer?

 

[skip555]

no by pressing five your telling the auto attendent that the party is going to dial a extension number
5....10 goes to ext 10

the reson I started doing it is customers wanted to do things logically

1 for sales , 2 for accounting

not 5 for seles , 6 for accounting

plus I get some customers who want to utlize as many selectors as possible so this way we only eat up one for staion transfer

some places they just give out their extension numbers as 5+ 510 , 511,

I have one customer who didnt like that so when you reach the auto attendent the instractions say

"if you know your partys extesnion please press 5 then the two digit extesion number"

in small companys I have set it up where you could go to a submenu and then use the 9 selector codes to reach 9 employees

for bill press1
for sally press two

 

[skip555]

one problem with using the 5 (or any other high selctor code number) before the extension number is that internally they have to drop the 5

so If I want to call Touchtone tommy and I know he is 525 I have to remeber to drop the 5 internally and call him at 25

I think thats why we did the message at the second company where the users give out their ext numbers and we tell the callers to press 5 and then the two digit extension number

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi skip555,
Nortel trained? Their vm almost forces you to do the 1,2,3 sub menus to hell thing.
-Chris

 

[skip555]

chris

actually a have very little experiance and no training on nortell I have put in a couple of call pilots but thats about it.

 

[Roldan]

Hey guys, I just ran into this same issue with a customer. They have a 7.0 ACS with a 7.0 partner messaging, I tried doing what was suggested by Skip but my customer is using 7 selector codes so I made both 8 and 9 direct extension transfers and when I do this I get "your call cannot be transferred to ext 82 or 92" when entering 820 or 920 to reach extension 20 or any other extension for that matter. Any ideas or should I have the customer change the greeting to instruct the callers to dial the actual extension numbers instead of using selector codes?

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[skip555]

you need to use prompted transfer , not direct extesnion transfer

 

[Roldan]

Prompted transfer? It's only giving me the options of Selector Code Transfer, Sub Menu, Announcement, Direct Extension Transfer, Mailbox Transfer, and Centrex Transfer. What am I missing?

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[itpphoneguy]

If you are going to fight the system, why not just dial *8 + ext#. Most outside callers will just hammer the ext # as soon as they hear the attendant. Let them.
-Chris

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Prompted Transfer is no longer an option, since the Partner Mails.

Roldan, set selector 8 to go to a submenu (perhaps submenu 8), set selector codes 1 through 5 in submenu 8 to Direct Extension Transfer, and record the submenu greeting to be as much silence as the system will allow, and then say something like "please enter your party's extension number" and some more silence.

Now the callers will press 8 and the extension number, and get transferred to where they want to go.

 

[Roldan]

All suggestions are great, thanks guys, I will ask the customer which procedure they want to force their callers to use.

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[Roldan]

Ok, guys check this out, the customer is using the *8 then extension number to dial directly to extensions and that is working great. However we've discovered another issue, I have selector code 1 doing a Selector code transfer to ext 14 but when callers press 1 they get transferred to ext 10. I've changed the transfer to ext 12 and pressing 1 gets you to 12, but when I put it back to 14 calls go to ext 10 again. Am I missing something else?

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[Roldan]

Oh by the way, we have 6 other selector codes working correctly with selector code transfers.

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[Roldan]

Darn customer had extension 14 forwarded to ext 10, got fixed.

Louie Roldan

http://www.4vertex.com

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi Roldan,
I was just about to ask you to check that. ;-)

-Chris