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Want to give the impression you are a multi-million dollar company? | WhichVoIP

Auto Attendant - multi-million dollar company

When that fancy espresso maker you bought breaks down, and you call the customer service department, you'll usually get an automated voice that will guide you to the appropriate solution to your problem. That automated voice is called the "auto attendant." There was some resistance to the auto attendant model at first, and still today, some people still become frustrated and shout, "I want to talk to a human being!" But, for the most part, the auto attendant has become accepted as a normal business practice.

The reason for employing an auto attendant goes far beyond wanting to eliminate the receptionist position. The receptionist, once a common sight in all businesses of almost any size, is rapidly becoming obsolete, and why not? After all, the receptionist desk is basically a routing function, and routing can be done very efficiently by computers. Add a voice to the computer's routing capabilities, and there is no longer a need for a human to occupy that position.

Beyond that, the auto attendant can be programmed with intelligence, so that it can understand human voice responses, and based on those responses, go through a filtering system that determines exactly what each caller needs. As any customer service manager knows, many calls can be answered with routine answers from a knowledgebase. And if these routine calls can be filtered by the auto attendant to an accurate, pre-recorded answer, the call center staff can devote more time to those calls that do need a human operator.

For SOHO and small businesses, the auto attendant has an added advantage. Smaller businesses may not be able to afford as much staff as a larger company, and they may not be able to maintain as many brick and mortar locations, but the auto attendant can create the illusion of being a much larger company. It would for example, be possible to create the illusion of having a branch office in Seattle, merely by deploying a hosted PBX system, having a Seattle phone number that rings through to your real office in Hoboken, and deploying an auto attendant that determines ahead of time what each caller is looking for.

When considering auto attendant functionality, look for one that allows you to easily configure the system remotely or from the Web. Many such auto attendant systems do not require specialized knowledge, and can be programmed by unskilled personnel. Also, while many such offerings require on-premises equipment or software hosted on your server, there are also hosted systems available at low cost.

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