Bypass greeting

First - need to make a BIG NOTE about Multi-site versus Single site.  Hopefully you created your main account as Multi - it’ll make the rest of this possible.  If you didn’t, note that when you switch from Single to Multi - some of your settings will get wiped out.

We are a home health company with several locations and our main IVR, dpending on the time, will route to various IVRs for each site.  Each of our sites then have their own number schema - 1000-1999 for one site, 2000-2999 the next, etc.  We used higher extension numbers for fax lines, call queues, mobile users, and so on.

If you have one main number - your auto-attendant can say ‘for the albany store, press 1 - for dallas press 2, etc.  The plus on this is that if/when you get repeat clients that know the number - they can press it and go directly to that stores IVR/menu.  If they know the stores/department extension - there’s an option to allow them to enter that directly as well.

For us, the stores are our departments, so we then break it down by the type of person they are trying to reach - nursing, schedulers, billers…

Just like the internet bible states, your IVRs should also follow the rule of websites - less than 3 clicks (keypresses) to what they want.

By having a multi-site setup, you can also then set custom hours and annoucement only extensions for store hours, fax lines, faq’s - all the fun!

This make sense?

The call queues would be for the final extensions that would be answering - the physical people that would get the calls.

example:

Main
1    Store 1
2    Store 2
     1   Clothing
     2   Pets
     3   Auto
             Auto call queue members
                 Joe
                 Dave
                 Sarah
                 Mary    

So the caller who wanted Store 2, Auto department would have pressed two keys to get to that department.  Then The four phones in Auto would ring according to how you want them set up, and if no one answers, the call could then go to the store operator. (all options in RC)

Something like that?

Let me know - I’ve wrangled RC with some rather interesting paths.  ;)  

I’m not entirely sure of how the account is setup, there was a lot of migrations happening before I took over. 

As for the stores themselves: They each have a number in their respective states with a local number for customers. So we essentially have like 30 numbers. Once someone calls in to the store, it starts the greeting and then after it finishes, rings the phones at the store for someone to pick up. We don’t really have a department (extension) as options at the store level. We are just looking to make it so when they call in, they can skip the greeting (which can be long depending on sales we have going on) so they can talk to an associate quickly.

Hopefully that helps clarify what we are trying to do here.

Wow - maybe Mary/Becky can help on this one - I KNOW there was an option that read ‘Allow callers to enter extension directly’  - but can’t find it now in the IVR or Main menus.

We had 53 numbers when we started with RC - the majority all go to the same menuing, 21 are faxes, and a few are being kept for marketing so that when they do a specific campaign they can use one of those numbers for tracking.

I would suggest then you have an IVR for each store - easy to change front end messages, and you can assign just one key press.

They’d hear the start of the message and can press 0 right away - [poof] - live person.  If the store grows or needs other extensions, you can still forward to a call queue or another IVR.

Hope that helps.

One note - we had a new site come on-line and before any of the extensions/queues/ivrs went live, I built it all in the background - keeping the main DID forwarding to a different site.  You can always ‘build’ a new RC model while keeping the old one - then with one quick edit, steer the number to the new menuing.  Once everything’s working as you want it - the old entries can be cleared.

One thing I learned with all this - you have to work backwards.  Extensions first, then queues, then IVRs.

Hey there, ​@Brian B Honestly, this is a tough one  but great question! 😊

​@Joe Cache, thank you for stepping in and sharing your expertise on multi-site setups and the importance of working backwards. Solid advice as always!

Let me try to help clarify the last part that seems to be causing some confusion for Brian.

Quick note: I haven’t tested this myself yet since my test account doesn’t have that many numbers, but based on what I know, here’s what I think might work:
 

Think of it like this: your store's phone number is the address, and right now, the mail (the phone call) is being delivered to the front desk (your team). We're going to put a receptionist (a simple IVR) at that front door.

Here’s the plan, step by step:

Step 1: Create a Call Queue for Each Store

• First, we'll create a "Call Queue" for each of your stores. This is the best way to handle incoming calls for a group of people.

• Go to your Admin Portal and create a new Call Queue (e.g., "Albany Store Associates").

• Add all the RingCentral users (the store's associates) who answer the phones to this new queue.

• You can set the ring order to ring all phones at once or one by one, whatever works best for your team.

Step 2: Build a Simple IVR for Each Store

• Now, we'll build that "receptionist" that will play your greeting and listen for the "press 0" command.

• Create a new IVR extension for each store (e.g., "Albany Store Main Greeting").

• Main Greeting: Record or upload the greeting you want callers to hear. This is the greeting that plays when someone calls the store.

• Key Press 0: Set this keypress to "Forward to Extension." The extension you'll forward it to is the Call Queue you just created for that store.

• No Key Press: This is the important part! Under "Callers with no key pressed," set the destination to "Forward to Extension." Once again, forward it to the same Call Queue you created.

Step 3: Assign the Store's Phone Number to the IVR

• This is the step that you were worried about, but it’s actually what makes everything work.

• Find the phone number for one of your stores (e.g., the Albany store's direct number).

• Change the number's destination from its current setting to the IVR Extension you just created for the Albany store.

What Happens Now?

When a customer calls the Albany store's number, the call is no longer sent directly to a user. Instead, it goes to your new "receptionist" (the IVR). The greeting starts to play, and callers have two choices:

• They press '0': The IVR immediately sends the call to the "Albany Store Associates" Call Queue, and the phones ring.

• They listen to the whole greeting: When the greeting finishes, the IVR's "No Key Press" rule kicks in, and it automatically sends the call to the "Albany Store Associates" Call Queue.
   

This method gives your callers the option to skip the greeting while keeping your store's existing direct phone number and ensuring the call is routed to the right people. It's a clean, scalable solution that sets you up for future growth, just as Joe suggested!

Afaik it is not possible yet to reduce the amount of times the IVR greeting plays - it will play 3 times and if caller enters no action it will either disconnect the call or connect to an ext.

This means with IVRs you’d get 2 outcomes:
1. caller presses 0, thereby skipping the greeting and gets connected to the store

2. caller doesn’t press 0, the greeting plays 3 times and only then the caller gets connected to the store. (you most likely want to avoid this)



My idea
Try ext-to-ext dialing. You will need:
- Multi Site. 1 site per store

- Site codes. Normally 0 is a reserved extension number but with site codes you can have ext. 0. for each site. When callers press 0  they will get connected to ext. 0 of the respective site. 

- Video Pro users. These are free users. They will just be playing the greeting. Pic below is how to configure the Video Pro ext.

Call flow1:
Caller → Video Pro ext. → Greeting plays in full → Call is missed → Missed calls are forwarded to  Store user ext.

Call flow2:
Caller → Video Pro ext. → Greeting plays … → Caller presses 0 → call is routed to ext. 0 which is the Store user ext.

This is how it would work:
Reassign the phone number from the actual Store user to a Video Pro ext. (this requires an ALN - additional local number)
The Store user should be without a greeting. The Store user should be set to be ext 0. for the site it belongs to.
The Video Pro ext will have the greeting. The Video Pro ext will be configured to miss all calls. 
The main advantage with this setup is that the greeting plays only once.

Pic below shows that it is possible to have ext. 0

Thanks everyone for explaining everything for me. It looks like in order for us to use the IVR we would need additional licenses that we do not have at this time. So we will have to go with our alternative option of just removing the “Press 0” to skip the message in the greeting until we are able to acquire the needed licenses to get an IVR for each store.