When configuring your auto attendant, observe the following best practices:

❑ Consider your callers. Do they know with whom they want to talk or what function they need (customer service, sales, and so on)? Taking your callers into account will help you determine how to configure your auto attendant.

❑ If callers know with whom they want to talk, assist them by providing options such as:

  • “Dial your party’s extension at any time. ”
  • “Press x for a dial by name directory. ”
  • “Press x for the first available person/general voicemail. ”
  • “Press 1 for Bob, 2 for Susan, ” and so on. However, this approach does not scale well.

❑ If callers do not know a specific person but need a function, provide options such as:

  • “Press x for a dial by name directory. ”
  • “For sales, press 1. ”
  • “For customer service, press 2. ”
  • “For accounting, press 3. ”

Note: Try to keep greetings brief. Do not flood callers with too much information (hours, directions, fax numbers). Instead, place that information into a “play message” option.