Northland COMMUNICATIONS Tips for Creating an Easy Attendant User Guide
- October 27, 2023
- NORTHLAND COMMUNICATIONS
Table of Contents
Northland COMMUNICATIONS Tips for Creating an Easy Attendant
WHAT IS EASY ATTENDANT
Easy Attendant is an attendant receptionist service. When turned on, it answers your calls automatically, and offers your callers a list of options (a “menu”) that you define. You can allow callers to listen to messages, such as your hours of operation.
DEFINITIONS
- Actions: Define the menu choices a caller can make when listening to an announcement.
- FOR EXAMPLE: “Press 1 to reach the Sales Department.”
- Announcements: The recorded announcement that will play to callers when they dial your telephone number.
- Business Group: The account phones programmed for your business.
- Menu: Determines what options your callers are offered. You can configure up to eight different menus for your Easy At-tendant.
- Periods: Define when specific announcements will play (business/out of hours/holiday), etc.
- Schedule: Tells the system which announcement and menu to play during the specified time.
- Single Menu Mode: One menu is configured to be used during both business and non-business hours.
- Schedule Mode: One menu is configured for business hours and a different one for non-business hours.
- Special Days: Days outside the normal periods such as holidays, inclement weather days, etc. These can be defined a day at a time, or you can add all public holidays.
PREPARE YOUR EASY ATTENDANT
In order for Northland to configure your Easy Attendant in the system, you will need to complete a few steps ahead of your actual installation.
-
* Plan the details of what should happen when the caller selects a particular option. There is a section for this in the System Programming Form (SPF). Examples can be viewed on the next page.- Choose someone from your organization to record the announcements that your callers will hear.
- Plan the recordings your callers will hear when they are transferred to an extension or announcement.
Once these steps are complete, your Easy Attendant will come pre-configured by
Northland’s System Administrator with the pre-defined menu you provided on the
System Programming Form. You will need to record the actual announcements once
the System Administrator has completed the programming. You will be able to
make basic changes, such as chang-ing announcements, the menu or changing
between Single Menu Mode and Schedule Mode.
You should have your Easy Attendant and other announcements documented for
ease of recording.
SAMPLE GREETINGS
BUSINESS HOURS ANNOUNCEMENT
“Thank you for calling Training Specialists, Inc. If you know your party’s
extension, press 1 and enter
the extension number followed by the pound key. If you know the name of the
person you are trying to reach, press 2 and enter the name on the dial pad
followed by the pound key.”
- For Sales, press 3.
- F or Marketing, press 4.
- For Accounting, press 5.
- To reach our receptionist, press 0.
- To repeat this menu, press #.
NON-BUSINESS HOURS ANNOUNCEMENT
”Thank you for calling Training Specialists. Our office hours are Monday
through Friday from 8am to 5pm. If you know your party’s extension, press 1
and enter the extension number. If you know the name of the person
you are trying to reach, press 2 and enter the name on the dial pad followed
by the pound key.
- To reach our answering service, press 2.
- If you would like to leave a message in our after-hours voicemail, press 3 or call back during our regular office hours”.
MENU OPTIONS
Options 1 – 9 can be configured as follows: 0 is reserved for a receptionist
or operator.
Play Announcement: Transfer the caller to an announcement.
FOR EXAMPLE : Your Business Hours or Directions.
Transfer to Phone: Transfers the call to an extension (individual or
group) and follows the path of that extension.
FOR EXAMPLE: If unanswered, the call will go to voicemail. You can choose an internal account phone or you can Program an external number, such as an answering service.
Transfer to Voicemail: Sends the caller directly to a voicemail without
any ringing.
Dial by Extension: Callers will be able to dial extension numbers they
know.
Dial by Name: If a caller presses this key, they can choose who they want
to speak to within the organization by spelling their name using the dial pad.
If you assign a key for dial by extension or dial by name, you must also do
the following:
- Define the set of extensions that your callers can be transferred to.
- Do not attempt to do this until you have finished configuring your menu and have applied the changes.
NOTE: Include appropriate instructions in your menu announcement.
FOR EXAMPLE: “If you know your party’s extension, press 3 and the extension number followed by the pound key”.
Need support? Connect with us at
www.northland.net/support or
Dial 4357 (HELP) or 315-671-6262 to speak to a Northland Training
Representative