Auto attendant
Is your business drowning in phone calls? Need a reliable way to direct these calls to the right department or person without any hassle? Dialpad's AI-driven collaboration platform includes an auto attendant feature that streamlines how UK businesses communicate with customers.
What is an auto attendant?
An auto attendant (also known as an automated or virtual receptionist) is your business's first line of defence in handling incoming calls efficiently.
When a customer rings your phone lines, it greets them with a professional message and menu options to swiftly connect them to the right service agent.
This feature is especially valuable for contact centres, where the bulk of your company’s inbound calls land, because it ensures your customer’s first touchpoint is a pleasant experience.
Imagine cutting down hold queues and freeing up your staff to focus on more pressing tasks, all while ensuring every customer is directed to the best possible call handler. With Dialpad's auto attendant, not only will your call management be streamlined, but your customer satisfaction could also see a significant boost.
It's like having a 24/7 automated receptionist who never needs to stop for a tea break!
When you're trying to decide between an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and an auto attendant, an easy way of thinking about it is in the context of going to the supermarket.
An auto attendant is the sign at the entrance telling you where to find what you're looking for—it answers calls, provides a list of options, and routes the caller based on their choice. Simple, yet effective.
IVR, on the other hand, is the shop assistant who not only points you in the right direction but can also answer more detailed questions about what you’re looking for.
Beyond just directing calls, IVR systems can process payments, locate specific account information, and even handle customer queries through voice recognition or keypad inputs.
Both have their place, but they serve slightly different purposes. With auto attendants, your customers get a streamlined interface for call routing. With IVR, they get a more enriched (and autonomous) interaction with your business’s customer service department.
A common approach for many businesses is to start with an auto attendant and upgrade it at a later date with IVR features or a complimentary service.
Auto attendant features and functionality from Dialpad
Dialpad brings to the table a suite of auto attendant features that live up to the expectations of the modern customer. Take a look at the contact centre service you could be offering:
Set business hours and customise auto attendant accordingly
Dialpad’s automated attendant lets you set specific business hours and deliver a wholly customisable service. If your website states that customers can contact you from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, your virtual auto attendant system diverts calls to agents during those times. For after-hours calls, it directs customers to voicemail, encourages them to email, or whatever you choose.
Call queue prioritisation
Dialpad gives you flexibility in handling calls based on urgency or importance. Whether it’s a high-value client needing immediate assistance or a support request that demands urgent attention, you can ensure that critical calls jump to the front of the queue.
Varied call routing options
With Dialpad, the concept of directing calls extends far beyond the traditional first-come, first-served basis. Dynamic call routing lets you direct calls based on your own criteria, such as to agents who have been idle the longest, those with the highest skill levels for particular queries, or even straight to voicemail while providing visibility of caller details.
Custom greetings
The power to craft and upload bespoke greetings via Dialpad’s dashboard lets you shape how customers perceive your brand. A personalised message reflects your brand's unique voice and guides callers through your system just as a human agent would. It's an easy win for making every call hit home, whether it’s a call from a new customer, loyal brand advocate, or business partner.
Analyse and optimise IVR menus
Dialpad’s analytics feature offers a window into caller preferences and behaviours. For instance, you may find that certain menu options (say, “Press 5 to continue in French”) are seldom used, which could inform better decisions around your business communication plan.
Far more than simply an auto attendant
Dialpad’s customer communications platform goes much further than your typical business phone system. Sure, a phone system auto attendant is great, but it’s even better when you pair it with the following:
Truly unified communications
Unified communications brings your various channels—phone, text, video, and more—under one roof, courtesy of Dialpad. This makes communication easier for everyone, your customers and agents included. It brings together efficiency and convenience into one neat package.
Built-in AI
Consider the edge you'd have with a virtual receptionist that not only greets callers but also feeds caller data directly into an AI-powered customer communications platform. With Dialpad, you get exactly that. Your customer service will be levels above the rest, with the ability to personalise interactions based on real-time data, engaging your customers in a way that was never possible before.
Integrations with your favourite business tools
Connect Dialpad’s customer communications platform with your existing CRM, calendar, email, and project management software to bid farewell to the hassle of app switching. No longer will you be tied down by data silos—you’ll get a fluid workflow that keeps everything focused on the customer.
Work on any device or OS
We all have different preferences when it comes to our digital devices. Whether you're tapping away on a tablet, finishing up reports on your laptop, or making calls from your smartphone, Dialpad ensures you're always connected. It’s compatible with all major operating systems, letting you log in and get straight to work with ease.
The benefits of efficient auto attendant features
Auto attendants are an essential feature of the modern call centre because they streamline the first step of the customer journey. But that’s not the only reason why businesses choose auto attendants—check out this list of benefits you may not have considered:
Saves employees time and lets them focus on important tasks
Switching to an auto attendant can be transformative for your team’s productivity. You’ll no longer need to waste hours manually handling every call when the system can manage the bulk of it for you.
When your agents are free from time-consuming processes like data entry and call forwarding, they can dedicate their attention to tasks that genuinely require human insight.
Using the same resources and staff as you had previously, you’ll then be in a much better position to deliver excellent customer service. For example, the time saved can be redirected towards personalising customer interactions or paying extra care and attention to get to the bottom of critical enquiries.
Happier, more engaged workforce
One of the biggest complaints from call centre staff is the monotony of answering repetitive calls all day. It’s easy to understand why—we all crave variety and interesting human interactions in the workplace. Thankfully, an auto attendant is the perfect solution to cut down on the tedium.
Filtering calls and prompting customers who can to engage in self-service means your service agents can focus on the more challenging and rewarding cases.
Naturally, this creates a culture where your employees feel their skills are being used well—delivering a first-class service. Once you’ve cultivated a happy workforce, your staff will be more engaged, invariably creating a positive feedback loop that benefits everyone involved.
Fewer spam calls
An often-overlooked advantage of auto attendant features is their ability to reduce spam calls.
By requiring callers to navigate through a menu before reaching a live person, many automated spam bots are filtered out automatically. This not only saves time for your team but also ensures that your business only deals with worthwhile queries.
The result is a smoother operation that concentrates your team’s energy on real customers and their needs.
Faster, more efficient call handling
There’s no such thing as a magic wand when it comes to efficiently handling customer calls, but an auto attendant can prove truly beneficial.
It directs calls to the right department with more accuracy, reliability, and speed than a human agent ever could. No more long waits or misrouted queries—just your customers getting the help they need faster.
Improved customer experiences
Customers today expect quick and personalised service. An auto attendant ensures they're not left hanging on the line, routing them to the right person who can solve their issue straight away.
This proves to callers that you value their time and custom, and every customer-oriented business understands the importance of value and respect.
Allows you to handle higher call volumes
Growth is great, but it can strain your customer service. That’s because your phone lines can easily be overwhelmed if you don’t have the staff numbers to handle high call volumes.
Instead of leaving your customers to get fed up listening to the hold music, an auto receptionist removes the major bottleneck at the first stage of customer service.
Plus, Dialpad’s customer communications platform is fully cloud-native, meaning it’s simple to scale your operation with demand. Forget installing fixed lines or telephone cables in your contact centre; Dialpad makes everything digital, and setting up new hires is a breeze.
Cost-efficiency
The humble auto attendant is the team member that never sleeps, takes a break, or asks for a raise. It replaces the entire initial call-handling process with a cost-effective solution that does the job just as well (if not better) than the manual approach.
You won’t need to hire and train large numbers of reception staff to answer every call. Your only question will be what to do with all the resources you’ve just freed up to spend more effectively elsewhere – like providing exceptional support to improve customer satisfaction.
What else to look for from your provider of auto attendant functionality
Don’t just settle for any telephone with auto attendant services. A rich features list is a good place to start, but you also want a solution that will live up to your expectations in the long term. Otherwise, you’ll be in a tough spot—wanting to switch providers while also being reliant on their system.
Get it right the first time by selecting an auto attendant provider with the following:
Reliable support
Auto attendant software isn’t difficult to set up, but you’ll still want the peace of mind of having effective tech support at your back. That way, if any of your call centre agents get stuck on how to use it or you experience a technical hiccup, you can get tailored support for your needs and schedule.
With Dialpad, help is always just a moment away. Every customer benefits from 24/5 live chat and web support, while those on Pro and Enterprise plans enjoy 24/7 phone assistance.
Whether you’re troubleshooting, adding new team members, or delving into call analytics, Dialpad’s friendly support team is equipped to handle it. Plus, with an extensive online Help Centre, finding solutions on your own has never been easier.
Security and compliance
Cybersecurity is a hot topic for a reason—there are more data breaches now than ever before (plus a regulatory backdrop to boot). It follows that a robust auto attendant service must ensure that every conversation is protected with the highest standards of security and privacy.
Dialpad’s customer communications platform is built to enterprise-grade security levels from the ground up. From TLS encryption for VoIP calls to AES 256-bit storage on the Google Cloud Platform, your data is always secure, whether it’s in transit or at rest.
You’re also empowered to protect against internal threats with role-based access controls and single sign-on options for your team.
Ease of implementation and use
Look for an auto attendant service that promises straightforward setup and easy operation. The whole point of these systems is to reduce workload, not increase it.
For starters, it needs to have a user-friendly interface so the initial learning curve for your staff isn’t too steep. As for the management side of things, you want an easy way to tweak settings, add new users, or update call routing protocols.
Dialpad does the lot, and the convenience will be your contact centre’s greatest asset.
Scalability
Your business is dynamic, and your communication system should be too. Scalability—up and down—is essential. You need an auto attendant solution that moves with your business, whether you suddenly need to take more calls or are forced into a temporary pause.
Cloud auto attendant examples like Dialpad give you huge flexibility. You can test it out with a 14-day free trial and then pay on a monthly basis with no hidden fees like cancellation charges. Upgrade at any time to the Pro or Enterprise plans if you want to add support for multiple office locations, departments, global SMS, and more.
Handle calls more efficiently with auto attendant features
An auto attendant simplifies how you manage calls and empowers your team to focus on what truly matters—delivering an unforgettable experience for the customer.
Dialpad’s auto attendant comes as part of an AI-powered platform with an extensive features package. With unbeatable 24/7 support, top-tier security measures, and user-friendly functionality, your contact centre will be ready to rise to any challenge.
Getting started is simple; there’s no need for business phones or landlines. If you want to upgrade, just say the word and increase capacity effortlessly as your office grows or shifts.
Ready to see Dialpad in action? Request a custom demo today.
Auto attendant FAQs
How can auto attendant features help businesses offer 24/7 service and support?
An auto attendant lets you offer round-the-clock service and support by automatically routing calls to the appropriate department, message system, or emergency contact.
Even if your office is closed, there’s still a channel for your customers to find the resources they need (i.e. referring them to a help centre for self-support).
Want to streamline your business communications with an auto attendant?
Request a personalised demo of Dialpad’s unified communications platform that includes a VoIP business phone system and an easy-to-use auto attendant feature.