PBX / Virtual Office Custom IVR Settings - Number Extra Settings

Number Extra Settings

Every Phone number (Settings  Phone Numbers) can have one of three modes:

•    Play my Main Greeting: when the number is called, the caller will hear the recorded IVR greeting and will select an extension to call.

•    Transfer to Extension: the call will be transferred directly to the selected extension.

•    Custom Configuration: This enables a full-featured IVR / Auto Attendant.

To make the 'Custom Configuration' option available in the phone number settings, please go to Settings     Extras and enable 'Number Extra Settings.'

Figure 1. Enable 'Number Extra Settings'

Once done, you will see the option 'Custom Configuration' in the phone number settings (Settings     Phone Numbers     Edit) as shown in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2. Enable 'Custom Configuration' in the number settings.

When you are done with enabling this feature, you can follow the steps below to configure an auto attendant for your phone number:

1.    Click 'Settings' next to the phone number, and the 'Menus' window will open (see Figure 3 below).

Figure 3 Custom Configuration settings

By default, two menus are pre-created: ROOT and After Hours. The ROOT menu is always active, meaning callers can reach it anytime. If you need to define different settings for after business hours, you can perform the following steps:

2.    Click on 'Edit' next to the needed menu (we will modify ROOT in our example).

3.    Find the action 'Not Active', click on 'Edit', choose 'Menu After Hours' from the 'Action' drop-down list and save the changes (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Configure the 'Not Active' action

The 'Not Active' action gets activated when the ROOT menu is offline. Now, our ROOT menu is always active, let us define a business hours schedule for it:

4.    Choose the appropriate value from the 'Period' drop-down list or use the 'Custom Schedule' option to define your own period (Figure 5). The possible values are:

•    24 / 7

•    M-F, 9-5

•    Sat & Sun, 9-5

•    Always Not Active

•    Custom Schedule

Figure 5. Change the ROOT menu period

5.    Click on 'Save' in the 'ROOT' section (Figure 5).

Now make sure to configure the 'After Hours' menu by adjusting its options and uploading the needed greetings. The following options are available in each menu (they correspond to available keys on the phone dial pad):

•    Not Active: if the current menu is not active.

•    0-9, #, *: the user selection on a phone dial pad.

•    Timeout: no selection received from the user.

NOTE

The 'Fax' option defaults to ‘Voicemail,' and it must not be modified.

Menu Greetings

You can configure a few prompt types for each menu:

Intro: a welcome message that plays right after the caller reaches the menu. During your call, it is played only once.

Menu: a greeting that enumerates all available menu options (e.g., 'Press 1 for sales, press 2 for technical support'). When it is being played, the system expects to receive input from the caller. If it is not provided, the menu prompt is repeated two more times.

Timeout: if the system did not receive any input while the menu prompt was being played - the timeout prompt is played.

Figure 6. Menu greetings

After this, the 'Menu' greeting will be played, listing all the available options (e.g., 'Press 1 for sales, press 2 for technical support'), and the auto attendant will collect the digits dialed by the caller.

If no input is received (timeout), the 'Timeout' action is performed. If the 'Timeout' option has not been configured beforehand, the system plays the greeting about a missing input and takes the caller to the previous step (i.e., plays the 'Menu' greeting and collects the input).

The caller's input will match the corresponding menu option action to be performed. There are four actions you can configure for each menu option (please refer to Figure 7):

•    Disabled: the 'Disabled' action informs the caller that the selection is unavailable and plays the 'Menu' greeting.

•    Transfer: choose the extension to transfer calls to.

•    Voicemail: choose this action to send calls to a voicemail box.

•    Menu: choose another menu to forward calls to.

Figure 7. Possible actions for a menu event (event 2 in this case)

Adding a New Menu

In the 'Menus' window, you can add a new menu, such as greetings in different languages, e.g., English and Spanish. The configuration steps in this case will be:

1.    Click on 'Add Menu' and define its 'Name' and 'Period' (Figure 8, the menu 'Spanish Working Hours').

Figure 8. Add a new menu

2.    Click on 'Edit' next to this newly created menu.

3.    Click on 'Greetings' to upload the Spanish greetings (see Figure 60).

4.    Click on 'Edit' next to the needed event to configure events.

5.    Make sure to click on 'Save' under the menu name.

6.    Repeat the same steps to add the 'English Working Hours' menu.

7.    Click on 'Edit' next to the 'ROOT' menu.

8.    Upload the 'Menu' greeting which will prompt the callers to choose the preferred language ("Press 1 to proceed in English, press 2 for Spanish").

9.    Click on 'Edit' next to event 1 and set its action to 'Menu English Working Hours'.

10.    Click on 'Edit' next to event 2 and set its action to 'Menu Spanish Working Hours'.

11.    Make sure other events (except for 'Fax') are set to 'Disabled'.