Call Handling: route calls to Auto-Receptionist if User Ext does not answer.

You can have it go to an extension as the operator extension yes. I don't think you can have it go back to the IVR if she does not answer without the caller pressing zero or another number

Rob is correct here.  An Extension cannot cannot be re-routed to the main number / auto-receptionist.  In this situation I recommend setting up a call queue (group) and have the members setup in a "fixed order"...that way if she doesn't answer it can be routed to the next available agent.  

Please let us know. 

Kim

What If We did this.. Set up a Call group with a ring order..  If Receptionist doesn't pick p it rings another extension.. But this extension forwards to a Phone number under our account assigned to auto attendant ?   Thoughts ????

THanks for the reply Mike. But I think you are missing what I am trying to accomplish . I have a receptionist that if she is on the phone it would ring over to auto attendant. lik eon their previous phone system. 

It is my understanding from earlier replies that this could not be done at this time with Ring Central... 

I perposed a work around by  

Creating a ring group with fix order  

If first ext.(receptionist)  doesn't pick up it Rings to the next ext. 

This next  Ext. is setup to forward all calls to another  number that is on my RC account and have auto attendant pick up that number  

In theory I feel this will work. Just want to see what others thought before I purchase a new line/number. 

 MTBrob80 ,   Chuck is correct.  "The ONLY way to get a call to go to the auto receptionise is via the company numbers.

that is it.  You cant forward to it the system will not allow."  If you try to do this, the system will give you an error.   Here is a page giving an overview of the Multi-Level IVR chuck mentioned in case it helps. Multi-level IVR Overview

Why is this blocked or not allowed to function. We replaced a 10- 15 year old Phone system which allowed  this to work.. I would think something so simple would be a capability. Is there a reason? If So I would like to understand it so I can go back to my customer and tell them why this can't happen. 

This just seems crazy that this feature is blocked for whatever reason.  I just pre-paid for 1 year for a dozen users.  I didn't realize we would lose this feature when I switched  to RC.  I'm going to get so much flack for this. I don't know that we will stay with RC when it comes time to renew if they don't decide to allow forwarding to the auto-attendant.

I agree with the extreme disappointment of this not being a basic feature.  I should not have to have the multi level IVR to allow this or spend hours trying to find a work around.  Please make this a standard feature. 

Our old phone system had the ability to ring our receptionist first and if she was away from her desk it would go to the IVR which I would think would be a standard option for Ringcentral as well but alas, it’s not. Anyway I was able to create a work-around in Ringcentral and wanted to share my configuration to help others out. Like others have proposed, this method uses a voicemail message for the initial greeting and requires multilevel IVR.

 

1. Create and record your voice prompts and save in the prompts library. I have an intro that says: “Thank you for calling company name. If you know your parties extension you may dial it at any time. For the employee directory, press one. For our office hours and location, press two. To hear these options again, press pound.” As well as an “hours and location” prompt, an “employee directory” prompt, and an “after-hours intro” prompt. You will also need to create an intro2 prompt that has the same information as intro but says something like: “Otherwise stay on the line to leave a message in our general mailbox” at the end. IMPORTANT: Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end of this intro2 prompt. As an alternative you could cut the “otherwise” sentence and have several minutes of silence at the end of the intro2 prompt then most callers won’t wait around to hear the beep and leave a message, especially when they’re not prompted to.
2. Next, create your IVR menu. I used the visual IVR editor and created an IVR with a menu prompt with the intro then a branch to “employee directory” and a branch for “hours and location”. I gave the employee directory an extension number of “1” and the hours and location an extension of “2”. Make sure to set your voice prompts for each under settings for each menu. I also created another IVR with the same options as the first but the intro was changed to the “office closed” voice prompt.
3. Create a call queue with your receptionist as the only member. Under “Call Handling” turn on audio while connecting (I used ring tones) and under the member availability and hold times section I set all three sections to 15 seconds. In the after-hours tab change it to connect to extension and select your intro IVR. Under “Messages & Notifications” I set the message recipient to my call queue extension and changed the voicemail greeting to custom and used “intro2” as the voicemail greeting.
4. Under Auto-Receptionist”/IVR settings, set your company greeting for both hours and after-hours to bypass greeting to go to extension and use your call queue as that extension.

 

That should do it. How this works is if the receptionist doesn’t answer the phone during business hours the caller gets the voicemail box of the call queue which is your intro2. When a voicemail is playing any extension can be dialed so when they press 1 or 2 it connects to the IVR extensions we created and they can now navigate those menus (this is also the reason for the 5 seconds of silence at the end so they have time to press the extension. After-hours calls will also now get forwarded to the regular IVR intro menu.

 

The only downside with this is you need to have a general mailbox voicemail, one you either check or not. The other problem I have discovered is if the caller tries to go back to the root menu after hitting 1 or 2 during business hours it will just replay that extension and not go back. To fix this you would need to give the main menu a one digit extension number and instead of using star to return you would say “to return to the main menu press 3” using 3 as the example extension number.

 

Anyway, hope this helps. I also hope Ringcentral adds the ability soon to include an IVR in a call queue which would solve this functionality problem the right way.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Company Call Handling: Need Ext to ring first and then auto-receptionist?.

Is it possible to have the system ring an extension first, and if that person DOES NOT pick up for whatever reason, it goes directly to the Auto-Receptionist?

Any update when RC will get there act together and add this basic feature?  I find it extremely distasteful to have to put the responsibly on the caller to get to the right prompt for the call to be answered correctly.  Making the users responsible to getting to the IVR leaves a lot of room for error.  If they don't understand or miss the prompt, it wont be repeated, and they will be transferred to a useless Voice mailbox.  This is not an acceptable workaround.  And i think the DTMF tone hack is unprofessional and buggy.  This is a simple feature and RC is choosing not to support their users.  Broadview and the other VOIP providers i have used in the past have no issue with transferring calls between EXTs, VMs, Call Groups, and IVR menus alike.  They are all treated as virtual extensions.  Just pick up your RC phone and dial the number of your IVR menu... It goes right there.  There is no valid reason for not supporting this feature!

Please Ring Central Build this out. Our old System our Auto Assistant(IVR) was a catch all. A lot of businesses want to have a live receptionist to answer calls and then for the system to go to the auto route in the event of unable to answer. 

I've been a RC client for 5 years. I was given a work-around then, which is at the bottom of this. I tried again for the last 2 nights trying to see if they have done any improvements to fix this. During these almost 4 hours of tech support, I've put together some ideas.

Idea 1: Have a general voicemail digital line created that is a free add-on for business clients -
When a call is received, the Auto Receptionist (AR) is still forwarding the calls to the live receptionist's (LR) ext. If the line isn't answered it moves to the IVR Group created, and if the caller doesn't choose an extension it will roll into the general VM.

Idea 2: Create a Live Receptionist Timeline -
Have the AR still forward lines to the LR, but only have that line ring for a certain amount of time before the call is rolls into the LR's VM. Instead, the phone call is transferred to the IVR Menu and allows the caller to choose a prompt or an ext. If they don't make a decision, it can route back to the LR who can either choose to answer or let it roll into VM. -right now the only way this idea works is to not enable vm for the LR's ext; which is not acceptable. 
 
My work around right now:
The auto receptionist forwards the calls to the LR ext, and if it isn't answered the call moves to the LR vm. Inside the VM are prompts created (through Groups: Others) so that the client can still leave the LR VM and go to another extension/press 3 for a list of extension, press 9 to dail by name or just leave a message in the mailbox for the live receptionist or the general mailbox.
 
The problem I have with this setup is sometimes, the prompts will not work so the client is super frustrated, calls multiple times, then leaves a message saying how they couldn't get the phone system to respond. 

It would be so great to have a better option for this; thanks!
Joanna

Hey everyone.... I now have a work around however we did have to push back on RC sales to get them to give me an exception for the extra extension.  My requirement was that I needed a group of live receptionists (LR) to try to answer the phones first and if none of them answered then it went to "Business Hours IVR".  The the group of LR should only ring while the business is open.  Otherwise the system should route the calls to the "After Hours IVR".

Point Main Number (MN) to Auto-Receptionist (AR).
This is a critical step to allow my main number to be used for outbound CID for every extension.  But we will create a rule later to redirect the inbound call traffic.

Setup Auto-Receptionist (AR)
Configure the following:

• Business hours
• Multi Level IVR
• During Business Hours: "Ext 1 - Business Hours IVR"
  
• After Business Hours: "Ext 2 - After Hours IVR"

Create (LR) Group as a Dedicated User Extension 100.
I had RC provision a new extension instead of using a RC Group because a Call Queue (CQ) does not have the ability to transfer to a IVR menu.  I then configured call handling on the extension to simultaneously ring the 3 receptionist desks during business hours and no extensions after hours and if no one answers in 4 rings (or there is no extensions to ring ie after hours) then transfer to "Ext 1 - Business Hours IVR".

NOTE I got RC to forgive the cost of this extension due to the fact that this feature was available in my previous VoiP provider (Windstream/BroadviewNetworks).  I explained to them that this is fundamental limitation of their platform that was their choice to impose and was not our fault they did not support this standard feature in VoiP platforms.  I proved to them that we could make the functionality work using their system but they had to give us a free extension to do it.

The Magic Step was to Configure a Custom Answering Rule on the AR.
This rule would override all the incoming calls to the the LR Group Ext 100.
Configured as such:

• Condition: Called Number = Main Number
• Call Handling: Live Reception Ext 100

Note you should be able to use the Custom Answering Rule to only redirect the inbound traffic during business hours, but we wanted the option to have an after hours receptionist if we need.  So all we would need to do is add their Extension to the call handling for after hours at extension 100 and it would automatically add them into the routing.

Other Notes:
Our IVR handles the voicemail options from inside the IVR.  Allow the user to leave a message by using a IVR prompt.  We have also created an Emergency After Hours Paging Routine using a simpler principle of an Extensions as the call group instead of a real call group.  RC call groups are not as flexible as they should be.  After deal with support for hours they told me that they limit the call group functionality so users do not create möbius loops in the logic.  However RC extensions can still do this if needed.  That is if you are willing to pay for the extension fee or get it waived in our case.  Good luck.

Brad Swindell