We would like to go back to using a live person as our attendant but have the option to turn on auto attendant when that person is not there. Is there a way to do this through the current system?
Use a live attendant
We're interested in this as well. During business hours, we want a live person answering calls to our main number instead of an auto-attendant. For us, after-hours, we want it to go to an IVR/auto-attendant.
As a work-around we created a call queue and assigned our main number to the call queue. After-hours on this queue, we send calls to the site IVR.
We'd prefer to have our main number assigned to the site IVR and have the ability to send calls to a call queue during business hours. As of right now, you can't send calls to a call queue during business hours, only after-hours, which is backwards for what we need.
To clarify my last point, on an IVR, we do not have the ability to send calls to a call queue only IVRs.
We have now moved to a single level IVR and are by passing the greeting and moving calls directly to an extension (Our receptionist). So first part is complete all our business hours calls are being answered and handled by a real live person. Now if I can figure out a way for after hours to go to a two option IVR we will have what we want.
Under the Auto-Attendant > General Settings, select your site (or it will be displayed, depending on if you are using multi-sites feature). Under "Site Hours" or "Company Hours", set up your company hours. Then under below, select IVR Settings, and you can select your reception's extension to receive all calls directly during open hours, and you can select an IVR menu extension for after hours. Ignore the "Select IVR Menu" title on the button, it does actually allow you to select a direct extension. Similarly, ignore the "Select Extension" for after hours and by pressing this you will be able to select an IVR menu extension.
Hi,
For our setup, under IVR Settings, it only allows for us to select a top-level IVR for our site hours. It is odd that for after-hours, we can select an extension. I found a work around by adding a customer answering rule to send calls to an extension during business hours.
Reply
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.