Switching between Auto Attendants on a Magix

[TaxLawStud]

I have Merlin Messaging 2.5 on a Magix system and would like the ability to easily switch between three auto attendants to answer our phones. We have a medical practice and want to use one attendant for regular business hours, one for lunch, and one for when we are closed. I do not want them on a time schedule, since our days are not consistent. What I was trying to do was assign each AA to a specific phantom extension, have the incoming calls routed directly to the extension with the regular business hours AA, and then remote call forward that extension to either the lunch AA extension or after hours AA extension. However, what I have found is that even if you assign an extension to an AA, if a call is forwarded to that extension, the call does not reach the AA. You can call the extension direct and reach the AA, but a call forwarded to the AA extension will not reach the AA. I have tried this with "real" extensions (with a phone attached) and had the same results, so it isn't a phantom extension issue. Any ideas why or other solutions? Thanks.

 

[franke]

You might try this:
In the Merlin Messaging, verify that the 'Call Answer Service Operator' is set for a non-existant number (by default, it is set for 768).

In the Merlin system, assign a 'Position Busy' button to each Attendant. When they are not to answer calls, have them 'busy-out'. The Merlin will distribute calls to all Attendants, so make sure they understand they MUST busy-out or calls will ring at their position.

 

[TaxLawStud]

Let me clarify the situation, since I think my first attempt was a bit murky.

We have one physical person who answers phones. We want to set up three auto-attendants on Merlin Messaging and then be able to switch all incoming calls on the PRI to whichever AA is appropriate for the time (i.e., normal business hours, lunch, or office closed). Thus, we only have one phone available. If the only solution is to create three physical extensions and switch among them, we can do that, but hopefully there is a solution that doesn't involve extra hardware.