Manually set day and night auto attendantas needed???

[kphu]

Magix R2.0
Messaging 2.5

Hi All,

I'm new to telephony so I applogize for my lack of knowledge.

I'm in a physcian office that during non-office hours we send all calls to an off-site answering service. Charges are incurred for each call that is forwarded to them.

Our system is currently set up with a day attendant that provides the caller with menu prompts. When the office is closed we use a remote call forwarding feature provided by Verizon. This is turned on at night when we leave and turned off in the morning when we open.

To limit these calls we would like to set up the system so that instead of forwarding all calls we would like for the caller to hear a message during non-office hours to either call the answering service (if urgent) or leave a message in our general mail box.

I am aware that the system is capable of doing the day/night attendant based upon a schedule. I've found in another site that this didn't work so well on an ip office system. I was wondering if it would be possible to turn the day menu on by pressing something like *92# or what ever and then when we close we do *92# again to activate the night menu. It basically stays in the mode that its at until someone changes it.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Ken

 

[tdaugirdas]

Ken: You mentioned you have IP Office. On other Avaya systems, the way to change from day to nite mode is via a programmed button on the operator's console. If you have an operator's console, then you should have the option to program such a button. When the button is active (lit up), the voice mail knows to switch to the night attendant. When the button is pressed again to "off" (lite off), the voice mail switches to day mode. Of course you then have to record your night greeting and program the nite menu in voice mail. This assumes that the business schedule in voice mail is set to follow the ip office system, rather than a specific schedule.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[kphu]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the response.

Were already doing this on the IP Office which works much better then the schedule.

We're trying to do this on the Merlin Magix.

Thanks,

ken

 

[kphu]

Tom,

To clearify, I've gone through the manuals for the PBX as well as the voicemail system.

It wasn't clear on how this could be set up. I recall that the auto attendant is currently set as switch mode, in which I don't know what that means.

Thanks,

ken

 

[tdaugirdas]

Switch mode means the Magix will follow the Magix system - which is what you want. Set up (program) a "Night Service" button on the operator phone. Then go into the voice mail and set up the night autoattendant for AA1 - I will assume you only have one. The default after your message - which is ususally "Welcome to XYZ Co, our offices are currently closed. If you know your party's extension, please dial it now. If you want to dial by employee directory, press *2 and enter the 1st four letters of your party's last name. Otherwise, please press 0 or stay on the line to leave a message in our general mailbox". So re-record the above. and set up direct extension transfer based on the first digit of your extension numbering plan. That should do it.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[kphu]

Hi Tom,

Yes you are correct We only have 1 auto attendant and the day menu is configured.

I'll give your suggestion a try.

Thanks again.

Ken

 

[tdaugirdas]

Once your "night" autoattendant menu is set up and recorded - all you have to do is press the "night service" button on your operator phone so that it is lit - and the voice mail will switch to using the "night" autoattendant menu. It really should be pretty much the same as on IP Office. To turn back to "day" mode in the autoattendant, press the "night service" button so that the lamp is off.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[kphu]

Just wanted to give everyone an update.

I didn't do the changes myself as there was too many unknowns out there. Hired a company to do it which only costed $180. Way much easier then taking the risk of doing it in correctly. I did create the night attendant myself though, which was easy.

The company that made the change had an issue, it didn't go to the night attendant even after pressing the night button. Turns out that there was 6 phones that needed the night button on all of them and once the last phone was switched to night button, then it activated. Something to do with the first 6 ports on the system that by default was configured as configuration phones. They could of reconfigured the phones but that would of been more costly to do after-hours.

Thanks for the tips.

Ken

 

[tdaugirdas]

To go to "night service" mode - all "operator" extension on the system have to have a "night service" button - and ALL of them have to be activated. This was designed so that if even one secretary is still "on duty" - the system will not go into night service mode - until he/she presses that last button.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[merlinman]

Well, it;s a shame you wasted the $180.

IF you indeed have 6 ATTENDANT Phones, then there's a couple of ways to accomplish this.

You can have ALL 6 ATTENDENTS press their night service button - YUCK!

- OR -

You can use NIGHT SERVICE WITH OUTWARD Restrict, which means that any attendant can turn on NIGHT SERVICE for the entire system by pressing the Night Service Button and dialing a code.


- OR -

You can program the SYSTEM to use a SCHEDULE to turn night service on and off at preset times.

Which ever of those 3 options you choose, we can help you set up.