Many companies looking to save money on their overhead come to us asking what is an Auto Attendant. At the most basic level, Auto Attendants are literally automated facsimiles of an in-office receptionist that will route callers to the appropriate parties. We’ve been fortunate enough to provided thousands of businesses with the cost-savings of Auto Attendants, Follow Me Calling, and the rest of the features that are unique to VoIP plans like Dash. Last week, we discussed how companies save money by hiring an at home receptionist, which is a good segue into another option to streamline operations; Auto Attendants.
How do Auto Attendants Compare to Real Receptionists?
Auto Attendants can do mostly everything that you’d expect from any in-office equivalent though they operate as an integrated feature within a VoIP phone plan. Because Auto Attendants are digital programs, though, they don’t offer the same coverage for businesses that rely on inbound foot traffic as much as they do inbound call traffic. For companies that aren’t reliant on having a receptionist to field both calls and walk-ins, however, VoIP-based Auto Attendants are more than sufficient. In fact, because Auto Attendants are programs, they’ll never need vacation time, bathroom breaks, and they don’t mind working overtime. Heck, they’ll even operate on a 24-hour window with only a few clicks of the mouse. Of course, we aren’t suggesting that you can replace all of the joys of a member of your team with a computer, but from a strictly functionality standpoint, Auto Attendants are excellent at giving your callers repeatable and consistently good experiences.
So How do Auto Attendants Work?
Much like all of your own business decisions, Auto Attendants will work as you desire them to. All of the features of an enterprise grade VoIP system like Dash are totally customizable to your exact specifications. That means that you can rotate pre-recorded greetings to coincide with holidays, promotions, or even emergency events. You can also arrange for clear, quick, and efficient extensions to be introduced early in the call, and you can even offer bilingual recordings if your market benefits from them, as well. The core functions of the Auto Attendant system are all designed to make the inbound call experience as smooth and effortless as possible, all while retaining the branding and personality that best presents your company to the public. And because Auto Attendant is powered by cloud-based communications, all of its duties can be accessed and manages remotely, from anywhere there is an internet or data connection.
While the Auto Attendant can’t also chit chat about the game last night or weekend plans, yet, we are always working on improving all of our core features. You can add any recommendations to existing services and even get a glimpse of what we have on the horizon, as well, all by checking out our VirtualPBX Product Roadmap. Or, you can always fee free to let us know directly on Twitter or Facebook, too. Either way, we hope that next time you hear someone ask, “What is an Auto Attendant?” you’ll be able to point them in the right direction.
