Overview of the Automated Attendant

APX Messaging includes an Automated Attendant to answer incoming calls when a human attendant is not available. The Automated Attendant includes a series of recorded messages describing actions that a caller can take to access particular services. You can customize the menu structure and record your own prompts and messages to fit the system to your business needs.

Automated Attendant Features
The NBX 100 Automated Attendant includes the following features:

Multiple Automated Attendants The NBX 100 supports multiple, independent Automated Attendant greetings. Different Automated Attendants can be assigned to different extensions, inbound lines or DID numbers.

Multiple-Level Menus Each Automated Attendant can support a main menu and up to 20 submenus. This enables you to configure an automated system in which inbound callers can select specific departments or groups, and then further select sub-groups or individuals.

Time-dependent prompts The Automated Attendant can greet callers with up to three different time-dependent messages according to the time of day. You set the schedule which controls the change from one message to the next.

Although the greetings can change according to the time of day, the actions assigned to dialpad keys remain the same.

Default timeout If a caller does not respond to the Automated Attendant prompts (for example, a caller using a rotary phone) the system automatically moves the caller to a designated extension.
Multi-level Automatic Attendant menus You can build a sophisticated interface that offers callers a hierarchy of options.

Shortcuts Experienced users can move to a specific function without listening to an entire greeting or prompt. For example, if you call to leave a message for a person, you can bypass the greeting by pressing the appropriate shortcut button.

Dial by extension or name A caller can reach a party either by dialing the person's extension or by using the telephone keypad to spell the person's name. The Automated Attendant searches the list of initialized mailboxes (mailboxes that have a recorded greeting), until it finds no more than three matches, prompting the caller for more information if necessary. The system plays the voice greeting of each person identified as a possible match and asks the caller to pick one.

Manual and automatic activation You can activate the Automated Attendant manually, by pressing the FWD MAIL button on the Attendant Console phone. The system also activates automaticallyaccording to the Business Hours feature, which you can set, or after an incoming call exceeds four rings. You can change the number of rings through the Personal Settings of the Attendant Console User Profile.

Routing calls to specific Automated Attendants You can configure Automated Attendants that are mapped to specific numbers or extensions in the Dial Plan, thereby routing incoming calls directly to specific Automated Attendants.

Automated Attendant Setup You use NetSet to configure and manage your Automated Attendant greetings and menu trees. You use an NBX telephone to record and play back system greetings.

Automated Attendant Voice Application Setup Utility You can use the Automated Attendant Voice Application Setup Utility to configure the Automated Attendant main menu. You cannot use this utility to configure submenus. It is most useful for making short-term changes to your Automated Attendant main menu, for example, in the event of a snowstorm.