BETTER
PRACTICES
Association
Telephone Auto Attendants
If you make the first option on your
auto attendant speaking to a live person, people will do
that. They won't use the auto attendant menu system, and
that will defeat the purpose of the auto attendant. I'd
recommend the first option being "enter the extension of
the person you are calling." Then say something like
"press zero at any time for help." From there, go into a
very simple menu system, and avoid sub-menus if at all
possible. When programming your new system, make sure
zero is always available - sometimes you actually have
to program that in as you get to sub menus of the auto
attendant. People are generally used to auto attendants,
and they generally know that zero will get them a live
person.
I also recommend not removing any staff
from the auto attendant menu - that may send a subtle
negative message about "unreachability" out to your
callers. Have calls for your senior staff go to their
direct extensions, but have those calls covered and
screened by a live person. One person could handle several
senior staffers and be able to answer each line
appropriately ("Ms. Brown's office," "Dr. Jones' office")
as long as there is a correctly marked cover button for
each line on the screener's telephone set. Your screener
will need a phone with more call appearance buttons than
the rest of the staff in order to easily implement this.
The installer of your auto attendant system should be able
to help you program it accordingly. Time spent ahead of
installation planning call flow is time well spent.
We have a pretty simple system for our 10
person staff. We have four people covering the zero out
option on the auto attendant; two of them are also
covering for their bosses. Each has a 28 button phone set
that gives maximum flexibility in covering "live" callers.
We average 10-20 "live" calls per day, and my assistant
says that is a very manageable load distributed among four
cover positions.
Our auto attendant gives a little
historical plug for the organization and then gets right
down to business. Give us a call and say hi if you'd like
to hear it. I'd be happy to share the scripts with you if
that would help you get started. We've beaten them up and
refined them over the past five years and are pretty
satisfied with the way they sound.
ADD the item
about using a live person during the portion of the day
when the phones are busier, and the automated attendant
the rest fo the day (with the live person option).
Author info.
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