KevinMcCarthy
Vendor
Is there a set of rules or guidelines for setting up an efficient and effective immediate answer Auto Attendant that will work well for the staff but not drive the callers and customers insane with frustration?
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Best way to handle Auto Attendant 2
- Thread starter KevinMcCarthy
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montyzummer
IS-IT--Management
Yes.... find out what the customers requirement's/expectations are , go away with the requirements , set up on your test system and find three or four different variants that cover the requirements , test the three with other tech`s in your business come to a decision on what you all think is the best one that fits the customers requirements .
Present it to the customer in a dem environment , have the other two as back up solutions and fine tune until the customer is happy.
APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)
ACIS (UC)
Present it to the customer in a dem environment , have the other two as back up solutions and fine tune until the customer is happy.
APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)
ACIS (UC)
crumthwacket
Vendor
A high percentage of auto attendants are too complex and tend to make callers crazy.
If you really need them, keep them simple, and if at all possible, eliminate them altogether and use DID/DDM service instead, with a "dial 0" option in every mailbox which sends callers to a live person whenever possible.
Answering customer's and potential customer's calls is a good idea.
If you really need them, keep them simple, and if at all possible, eliminate them altogether and use DID/DDM service instead, with a "dial 0" option in every mailbox which sends callers to a live person whenever possible.
Answering customer's and potential customer's calls is a good idea.
phoneguy610
Programmer
short and sweet is usually the best idea.. nothing drives me crazier then an aa with 30 options
ddcommllc.com
syntelsolutions.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions
ACIS
"Will work for stars
ddcommllc.com
syntelsolutions.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions
ACIS
"Will work for stars
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1
- #5
allow 0 to connect to an operator
keep options to a minimum.
allow interruption of prompts.
Allow 0 to connect to an operator
list fault reporting options first (someone trying to report a fault is already under stress waiting for option 6 does not help).
allow 0 to connect to an operator.
no input to time out to an operator.
and did i mention 0 to connect to an operator? ;-)
A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear
keep options to a minimum.
allow interruption of prompts.
Allow 0 to connect to an operator
list fault reporting options first (someone trying to report a fault is already under stress waiting for option 6 does not help).
allow 0 to connect to an operator.
no input to time out to an operator.
and did i mention 0 to connect to an operator? ;-)
A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear
Oldtimephoneguy
Vendor
Most callers quickly disl "0" when a A/A answers so don't allow that until all the options are given. Keep the options to no more than 3 (or 4 maximum) and then branch off from the original options to 3 or 4 others. Keep the recordings clear and not too loud. Setting up Spanish or other language options usually will be selected by people who speak English but want to use their native tongue so have enough people to answer these callers. I prefer no language options: If the callers don't speak any English (which is rare) they'll get someone to call that does. Lastly, set-up a test A/A and let the decision makers listen to it before going live so changes can be made before hand.
Frank. City of Cape Coral, Florida
Frank. City of Cape Coral, Florida
Mountainbear
Programmer
I agree with most everything here. You should start with the options that most people are looking for then option 4,5 and 6 can be lower call volume options. If you get a lot of calls for information (hours, location) include an information mailbox. Always have "0" go to an operator.
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1
- #8
oldtimephoneguy
I personally disagree with disabling an early 0 out, if the caller is going to hit 0 without waiting then they obviously are not interested in using your AA & will select 0 as soon as the option is presented anyway.
disabling this usually also disables the ability to select other options in advance delaying callers who are familiar with the system unnecessarily(& also tying up your VM Ports for the duration).
The absolute worst thing to do is to disconnect callers once they have been answered, I have had at least one occasion where i received a message " our lines ar busy at the moment please call back later" then cut off. if I am a potential new customer you have just lost my business, if I am an existing customer I will be canceling my contract at the earliest opportunity.
A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear
I personally disagree with disabling an early 0 out, if the caller is going to hit 0 without waiting then they obviously are not interested in using your AA & will select 0 as soon as the option is presented anyway.
disabling this usually also disables the ability to select other options in advance delaying callers who are familiar with the system unnecessarily(& also tying up your VM Ports for the duration).
The absolute worst thing to do is to disconnect callers once they have been answered, I have had at least one occasion where i received a message " our lines ar busy at the moment please call back later" then cut off. if I am a potential new customer you have just lost my business, if I am an existing customer I will be canceling my contract at the earliest opportunity.
A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear
Oldtimephoneguy
Vendor
IP Guru, I understand your comment about early out dial "0" but most people (including many of us) by far will not listen to any of the greeting and immediatley hit "0". Some systems allow you to watch the activity on the ports and it's interesting to see the immediate dial "0" As long as there's allot of people to answer the zero out in a reasonable amount of time its okay but defeats the A/A. It totally depends on the type of business you have and what the callers are calling for. I work for a local government and there's no competition so I can be more "logical". In my A/A's and voice mails I don't allow zero out until they listen to all the options and after I explain why to mgmt they agree. If you get someones voice mail and hit zero it politely says "it's not a valid option and thanks them for calling and "gentley" hangs up on them unless they want it to go to someone else. Same with my A/A's until they listen to all of the options, they cannot zero out and if they just start hitting unused options the system says "goodbye". I know there's not many (if any) businesses that would want this but forgive me for saying, "I love it"! I know I could disregard any unused options but the old NEC voice mail we have doesn't have that option.
Frank. City of Cape Coral, Florida
Frank. City of Cape Coral, Florida
Depends on your business model.
We provide service desks to multiple customer and they NEVER have an operator, but it's usually a simple 1, 2 or hold, with hold going to the same as 1.
For other parts of the business, you may have it like:
1 for sales
2 for support
3 for credit control
or hold for assistance (5 second time out)
Again no option 0 getting around the having a block on 0 and yet still being able to get to operator, but making it the slowest choice.
Then as a final rule, never more than 2 deep.
so Option 1 maybe
for hardware press 1
for software press 2
or hold.
Oh and staff it correctly. Being B2B our ASA's are between 20 and 30 seconds, so holding more than a minute really ****'s me off, let alone an hour.
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
We provide service desks to multiple customer and they NEVER have an operator, but it's usually a simple 1, 2 or hold, with hold going to the same as 1.
For other parts of the business, you may have it like:
1 for sales
2 for support
3 for credit control
or hold for assistance (5 second time out)
Again no option 0 getting around the having a block on 0 and yet still being able to get to operator, but making it the slowest choice.
Then as a final rule, never more than 2 deep.
so Option 1 maybe
for hardware press 1
for software press 2
or hold.
Oh and staff it correctly. Being B2B our ASA's are between 20 and 30 seconds, so holding more than a minute really ****'s me off, let alone an hour.
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
That is the real biggie!
We had one customer that kept complaining there callers were being queued for too long so getting a high volume of abandoned calls
Cause: ALL staff were going to lunch leaving no-one to answer the calls ! The customer was still insisti9ng on a fix at the PBX but telling callers the office was closed was not an option.
A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear
IPGuru, I guess we all have sometimes idiots as customers 
I hated when I had to program the 0 option to hang up on people (government of course as they have no competition) just because they didn't want the operator overloaded with calls.
One more thing about the Auto Attendant, test everything after you are done as my cell phone provider has 1 option in their call tree that is broken for over a year even though i reported it a few times. Funny enough it is not a complaint option but an option to port in a number into their system which they should be eager to have.
Joe W.
TeleTechs.ca
FHandw, ACSS (SME), ACIS (SME)
“This is the end of the world, make sure to buy your T-shirt before it is too late"
Original expression of my daughter
I hated when I had to program the 0 option to hang up on people (government of course as they have no competition) just because they didn't want the operator overloaded with calls.
One more thing about the Auto Attendant, test everything after you are done as my cell phone provider has 1 option in their call tree that is broken for over a year even though i reported it a few times. Funny enough it is not a complaint option but an option to port in a number into their system which they should be eager to have.
Joe W.
TeleTechs.ca
FHandw, ACSS (SME), ACIS (SME)
“This is the end of the world, make sure to buy your T-shirt before it is too late"
Original expression of my daughter
I'm very late to the table on this one but I do have some input:
Mostly follow IPGuru's reasoning so consider my comments as an extension of his.
- List your options by priority of caller use (not priority of company use)
- It is a good idea to provide an option for hours of business and location (but not a priority)
- Before listing options, tell people how many there will be. e.g. Please choose from the following 6 options...
Most importantly, set expectations with the internal staff. Auto-Attendants are seen as a cost saving measure for the company and most executives feel that if you give customers a choice, they will use it. Reality is that most people will simply dial zero as thay can't be bothered trying to figure out which option will take them where they want.
**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.
Mostly follow IPGuru's reasoning so consider my comments as an extension of his.
- List your options by priority of caller use (not priority of company use)
- It is a good idea to provide an option for hours of business and location (but not a priority)
- Before listing options, tell people how many there will be. e.g. Please choose from the following 6 options...
Most importantly, set expectations with the internal staff. Auto-Attendants are seen as a cost saving measure for the company and most executives feel that if you give customers a choice, they will use it. Reality is that most people will simply dial zero as thay can't be bothered trying to figure out which option will take them where they want.
**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.
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