Live Receptionist

[imt]

We have not made the jump to VOIP yet but considering Zoom Phone. When the office is open, we answer the calls live (No auto attendant). After x rings, if no one picks up it will go to voice mail. Non-Biz "Night ring" / "Auto Attendant" is activated and calls go to the auto attendant, where they can leave message in general mailbox, go to a particular extension etc. 

1) Is there a way to do live answering vs. auto attendant Menu answering all calls, when open? 

2) Is there a manual way to set when the business is open? Like via a programmed button on phone? I am thinking of times when office closed for weather or someone gets in late and no one avail to answer call(s) yet. 

3) Is there a way to set a special closed message in the event of an outage, snowstorm, etc to let people know? How is that set? 

[sachinzoom · Accepted solution]

Hello @imt ,

1.  Sure you can do that. And yes you can set Max wait time after which the calls can go to VM

2.  Here is the link:https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360059863351-Changing-auto-receptionist-settings ( go down to Routing options)

or if you prefer videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiltEhOoM2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJLtODFITyo 

3. Yes use the same Auto receptionist link or video above. Its very straightforward

If this response helps, please accept the answer as an accepted solution, so others can benefit as well.

[sachinzoom · Accepted solution]

Hi @imt 

Total 10 numbers however, you can open a support ticket and request for increasing the number of phone numbers per AR to say 50 numbers. 

Also, If I understand correctly, You can form multiple ARs not just one and similarly Call queues/ After that you can assign them numbers. 

Usually, you start at AR level ( where the numbers are assigned ) and that forwards to Specific call queues.

Outbound caller ids are chosen based on what the user selects while making an outbound call. By default, all AR numbers are available to them for selection.

Yes you can assign same employees to multiple Call Queues.

Again, You start at AR level -> forward it to Call Queue or Call Queues on multiple IVR options ( 0-9).

Hope that helps

[sachinzoom]

Hi @imt 

Welcome to Zoom Community. The answers below:

1. Yes

2. Answer is yes but instead of a programmed button on phone, it will need to be done via the zoom portal by the AutoAttendant manager ( Auto receptionsts can be assigned a manager )

3.  Yes again using the Web Portal

If this response helps, please accept the answer as an accepted solution, so others can benefit as well.

[imt]

Thanks for the quick reply. 

In dong some reading here on other posts. Am I correct that:

For #1) basically creating an AR that does nothing but forwards to a call queue during the open hours, where the receptionist(s) are part of to answer the calls live?  Then set timeout after x amount of time to go to voicemail for Queue if no one answers?

For #2) is there a link for a support article that describes how this is done? 

Lastly, I figure you can create an IVR for "closed hours" to dial a users extension (if known), direct to a particular VM (Sales, etc) or general mailbox. But... What about pressing a number on the IVR tree to "Get Directions".  or some other static message?   In our current PBX I think these are called fantom mailboxes. Can only listen to a message (not leave one) and then can press a key to go back to main menu or dial like 0 to leave a message in general mailbox.   Is there something similar in Zoom Phone and if so what is it called? Tried searching for support article on this. 

[sachinzoom · Accepted solution]

Hello @imt ,

1.  Sure you can do that. And yes you can set Max wait time after which the calls can go to VM

2.  Here is the link:https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360059863351-Changing-auto-receptionist-settings ( go down to Routing options)

or if you prefer videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiltEhOoM2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJLtODFITyo 

3. Yes use the same Auto receptionist link or video above. Its very straightforward

If this response helps, please accept the answer as an accepted solution, so others can benefit as well.

[imt]

Thanks for the video links. 

For #1 is there a better way? We are a small biz. Only 4 really in the office. (excluding paging and warehouse phones). However, we do have two companies here with shared resources. From the video about AR it said you can assign up to 10 additional numbers and toll free numbers. Not sure if that is 10 reg & 10 Toll free (20 total) or  if its 10 total between reg and toll free.  

We have 9 local numbers in a hunt group in our PBX, which includes the main number. I will be porting all 9 local numbers over since currently the caller ID shows the exact dialed out line  NOT just the main number. Thus, people called sometimes call back that number and not the main number. So need to keep all the numbers for now. So that would already be 9 numbers assigned to the main AR.  But. I then have about 6ea 800 numbers (3 for each company) . So not sure if all can be assigned to the one AR (9 reg & 6 Toll Free). 

But, If I wanted to at least separate the 800 callers by company, I figured I could use call queue's for that. Cn still assign same employees to both but would be able to see on screen based on call queue name which company is being called.  But then how would that be handled ? There would then be no AR or after hours IVR then for that queue correct?

Hope I articulated this correctly

[sachinzoom · Accepted solution]

Hi @imt 

Total 10 numbers however, you can open a support ticket and request for increasing the number of phone numbers per AR to say 50 numbers. 

Also, If I understand correctly, You can form multiple ARs not just one and similarly Call queues/ After that you can assign them numbers. 

Usually, you start at AR level ( where the numbers are assigned ) and that forwards to Specific call queues.

Outbound caller ids are chosen based on what the user selects while making an outbound call. By default, all AR numbers are available to them for selection.

Yes you can assign same employees to multiple Call Queues.

Again, You start at AR level -> forward it to Call Queue or Call Queues on multiple IVR options ( 0-9).

Hope that helps

[imt]

oh, then it is like AR's being created in parallel.  Makes sense. My mind wasn't thinking that way. I was thinking building out a tree from main account -> single AR -> multiples Queues.  or Man Account -> AR1 -> AR2 ->AR3 and off those AR's were the queues.

Curious, is there a way to duplicate an AR?  Thus, copying the same Opening and closing HR's and everything call handling but then can just add different cal Queue, so you don't have to recreate the same basic setting then for each number or group of numbers that would be part of these "parallel / top level"  AR's? 

[sachinzoom · Accepted solution]

Hi @imt 

Yes you can duplicate the ARs and even form templates if you plan to build multiple ARs ( under Company Info -> Settings -> Templates -> Select Auto Receptionist )

If this response helps, please accept the answer as an accepted solution, so others can benefit as well.

[M8]

Useful sure.

[sachinzoom]

Great to hear @M8