We are attempting to set our system to mimic our old system where some will call MAIN number, it rings to an extension ( Live Receptionist ) if she does NOT pick up after say 4 rings it goes to a Auto-Receptionist.
How can I accomplish this in Ring Central ?
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Rob Benn-Frenette, Champion
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Kim, Alum
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Please let us know.
Kim
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Mike, Official Rep
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RC-Installer, Champion
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The only way to get to an auto attendent is via a company number or Direct number. And You CANT forward to a internal company or direct number as many have tried that also.
Now if you are a premium office customer you have access to the multi level IVR which has greater functionality. I have tested this and it works out well.
Here is what I did.
People call your main number and it rings the receptionist extension (Live Body) if that person is unable to get the phone then the caller is put in to their voice mail.
What you would do is either in the voice mail greeting tell the customer to press the extension number of the IVR menu and the system will transfer them and you should be good to go. You may also be able to record the tones of selecting the menu extension and the system may do the transfer automatically. I have not tried this automated fashon but having the caller enter the extension works.
Hope this helps
Chuck
Certified Ring Central Installer
chuckfuscone@gmail.com
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Mike, Official Rep
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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.
RC-Installer, Champion
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that is it. You cant forward to it the system will not allow.
Now I have seen people when using the MULTI level IVR tell people via a voice mail greeting to Press a button, 8 for example, and then assign that to a menu and you could get to a auto receptionise but this needs to be configured.. Also the multilevel IVR only exists in premium and enterprise plans.
Hopefully this helps
Thanks
Chuck
Certified Ring Central Installer
Mike, Official Rep
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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
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Mike, Official Rep
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Anyone who would like to see this made possible, please click the "like" button above.
Mike, Official Rep
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Saadet, Employee
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Saadet, Employee
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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?
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