Glossary Phone system
What is Auto attendant?
Also called digital receptionist, phone menu, aa
An auto attendant is the automated greeting that answers an inbound call and offers options: press 1 for sales, 2 for support. It routes the call without a human receptionist, and it is usually the first thing a caller experiences of a business, which makes it worth more design attention than it typically gets.
Keeping it short
The common failure is a menu built around the org chart rather than the caller. Most people want one of two or three things, and departments they have never heard of are noise. Keep the top level to about four options, put the most-requested first, and always leave a way to reach a person. A caller who cannot escape a menu will hang up and phone a competitor.
Out of hours
Auto attendants are usually where opening hours get expressed, with a different greeting and routing outside business hours. Two things make the difference between useful and infuriating: state the actual hours in the message so the caller knows when to try again, and make sure holiday schedules are maintained. Nothing undermines a business faster than a cheerful weekday greeting on a public holiday.
Record it properly
Auto attendant audio is the first impression a caller gets of the business, and the difference between a recording made on a laptop microphone in an open-plan office and one made properly is immediately obvious. Use a decent microphone in a quiet room, keep the delivery unhurried, and re-record when the options change rather than bolting a correction onto the end. If you use a professional voice, keep their contact details, because matching a new option to an existing set of recordings later is otherwise impossible.