BT Cloud Voice
Auto Attendant
What is the Auto Attendant?
The Auto Attendant is like an automated receptionist. Callers hear a greeting with a menu of options: connect to the
operator; dial by name or extension; or connect to extensions that may be other Auto Attendants, Hunt Groups, Call
Centres or Users. You can choose to use standard system messages or upload your own messages.
As an administrator, you can set up a Time Schedule for the Auto Attendant so that it behaves differently during
business hours and non-business hours. For instance, you could change the greeting or menu options to callers at
weekends. If the office is closed on specific dates over a given period, you can create a Holiday Schedule that’ll kick
in on the dates when you’re not open:
Holiday Schedule – you can create more than one Holiday Schedule, but you can only apply one at a time to an Auto
Attendant profile. Each Holiday Schedule can cover up to 20 dates or date ranges.
Time Schedule – you can create more than one Time Schedule, but you can only apply one at a time to an Auto
Attendant profile. Each Time Schedule can cover up to 20 time ranges within a week (for things like business hours,
call centre hours, after-business hours, and so on).
Auto updating of user information in a site - any moves, additions, and changes of Users in a Site are automatically
available for Auto Attendant ‘name dialling’ and ‘extension dialling’.
Multi-site support – when you’re configuring your Sites, you can allocate each Site a ‘Location Dialling Code’, which
Auto Attendant will use to route calls across Sites.
Support for Users without DDI (Direct Dialling Inwards) – if you don’t have an external public directory number,
Auto Attendant will route external incoming calls directly to you through its ‘Name Dialling’ and ‘Extension Dialling’
options.
How can I get Auto Attendant?
Auto Attendant is available as a BT Cloud Voice Add-On Feature Pack. Have a word with your administrator …
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How to set up a new Auto Attendant
To set up a new Auto Attendant 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Login to the BT Cloud Voice portal
Select ‘Sites’ menu
From the ‘Employee’ list select who you want to activate ‘Call Director’ for
Select ’Features’ from the menu on the left hand side
Select ‘Auto Attendants’
Click ‘Add’
Enter an ID for the Auto Attendant (minimum of 6 letters, lowercase)
Enter a name for the Auto Attendant (this should be the same as the ID)
Enter the Caller ID First Name and Caller ID Last Name in the fields provided
This name is what will show on the phone when you call a colleague within the Site through the Auto
Attendant
10. If you have a public number, select it from the ‘Directory Number’ drop down list
11. If you have an extension number, enter it in the ‘Extension’ field
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12. Set the requirements for Name Dialing from the ‘Name Dialing’ drop down box. The default setting is
Last Name-First name.
13. Set the restrictions for Name Dialing and Extension Dialing to within the Site by ticking the boxes as
required.
14. If you have created a Time Schedule, select it from the drop down box. The default is ‘Every Day, All Day’.
This can be applied or changed at any time.
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15. If you have created a Holiday Schedule, select it from the drop down box. The default is ‘None’. This can be
applied or changed at any time.
16. Click ‘Save’
How to configure the Auto Attendant dialling menu
To set up the Auto Attendant dialling menu 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Login to the BT Cloud Voice portal
Select ‘Sites’ menu
From the ‘Employee’ list select who you want to activate ‘Call Director’ for
Select ’Features’ from the menu on the left hand side
Select ‘Auto Attendants’
Select the Auto Attendant you wish to edit by selecting its name
Select ‘Business Hours Dialling Menu’ from the menu on the left
8. If you want callers to be able to dial an extension directly if they know the extension number then tick
‘Allow callers to dial extension immediately after greeting’
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9. Tick ‘Use Personal Greeting’ and click ‘Browse’ to upload any pre-recorded greetings that you may
have (any pre-recorded greetings must be in WAV format with 8kHz, 8Bit, Mono attributes, and must
be no larger than 1MB).
10. Now you can assign menu options to the numbers on a phone handset (so that’s 0-9 plus the ‘#’ and ‘*’
symbols). Use the options available in the drop down boxes:
Operator


set the destination number of your ‘operator’
your caller will hear ‘Please wait while your call is transferred to the operator’
This is the destination that callers will be transferred to if they do not press an option, or press a
non-configured option twice. If this option is not configured and incoming callers do not press an
option or press a non-configured option the call will be disconnected.
Dial by Extension

the caller will be prompted to enter the extension number they’re after
Dial by Name

callers will be prompted to enter the name of the person they want through the alpha numeric
keys on their phone (the default search is ‘last name-first name’)
Transfer with Prompt

set the destination number for where you want to transfer calls to
This can be a User, a Hunt Group, a Call Center, another Auto Attendant, or any valid number.
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If you want an option to go directly to a mailbox, you must send the call to a User with either
‘Do Not Disturb’ set, or prefix their extension number in the destination box with the Feature
Access Code, ‘Transfer Call to Voice Mail’, (default *55).
The caller will hear ‘Please wait while your call is transferred’.
If the option destination is a User with Voice Mail the caller will hear the ‘Personal Name’ the
User recorded inserted into the system announcement.
Transfer without Prompt

set the destination number
This can be a User, a Hunt Group, a Call enter, another Auto Attendant, or any valid number.
Repeat Menu

the menu will be repeated to the caller
Exit Menu

ends the call
11. Click ‘Save’
12. If you’ve set up and applied a Time Schedule, click ‘After Hours Dialling Menu’ from the box on the left
Repeat Steps 2-6 to configure a dialling menu specifically for ‘after hours’.
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Error messages

If the destination number entered for any option is not valid, the caller will hear ‘Your call cannot be
transferred, please try again later, thank you’, and the call will be disconnected.

If an incoming presses the wrong button, they’ll hear ‘This key is not valid, please try again.’ If they do it
again or don’t select an option they’ll transfer to the ‘Operator’.

If you haven’t set up an ‘Operator’ option, the caller will hear ‘Your call cannot be transferred, please try
again later, thank you’, and the call will be disconnected.
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