Best Practice to handle Non-Routed Calls 1

[sbankscharles]

Now that I have cleaned up my phone system I find there are a number of calls coming in with no incoming call route. I originally setup my incoming call route table to route these calls to a test extension to see if any caller was trying to contact a legitimate extension I may have accidently deleted. When I first started I had voicemail from several callers who were trying to reach someone who is no longer with us; something someone should handle.

As the number of extensions were deleted the volume of calls has increased and I am not the one to handle some of the calls.

I would like advice from this group on what the best way to handle these calls would be. Ideally, they should somehow become available to an operator if it is a valid call, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone.

Thanks
Charles

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Create an Incoming Call Route with the proper Line Group ID, Bearer Capability is Any Voice, Incoming Number field is Blank. Pick you destination, such as the Automated Attendant or the Operator's hunt group. Add a Tag to indicate unassigned DID if you like.

Personally, I like to have an Incoming Call Route for ALL DIDs, even if they are not routed to a specific extension or hunt group. For the destination, type in the work AVAILABLE. Make a system short code AVAILABLE / Dial Extension / 200 Main or whatever you want the destination to be. Now when you add a new user, it is easy to see which DIDs are available to be used.

 

[sbankscharles]

It's nice to know that I think like people on this board! When I first started cleaning up the IPO I did, in fact, change the user to "Available - Ext#". The problem became I had over 40 users starting with "Available" between 3 systems. Currently, I have all non-routed calls going to Phone Room Phone and am not sure if I wanted to create an automated attendant or try to do something with a hunt group. I would like some way of screening the calls before going to an operator. Ie; Name a group "PossibleSpam" so an operator would see the call from "PossibleSpam". I believe having an auto attendant would force the caller to press 1 to be transferred. That would eliminate robo calls and some of the spammers.

I'm not sure what you mean by "add a Tag".

Thanks
Charles

 

[TouchToneTommy]

An incoming call whose digits don't match any entries will follow this entry, the one without any Incoming Number (The "Tag" will show on the phone's screen if the call makes it to a person to be answered)

Configure an unused DID thusly, it will match and route to the short code "AVAILABLE", which will then route to the destination of the short code (Add a Tag if you want):

 

[sbankscharles]

Wow! Thanks for that. I never knew what Tag was for.

I will work on what you sent.

Very much appreciative.
Charles