Virtual Phone System

An auto-attendant feature is a telephony feature that acts as the business virtual assistant for greeting callers, answering inbound calls, rerouting calls and providing instructions to reach the proper contact person. Some automated attendants even offer an organized menu system (for orders Press 1, for inquiries Press 2) or allow callers to reach a live operator or receptionist.

IVR (interactive voice recognition) and an auto-attendant are different systems. An auto-attendant is actually a part of an IVR. While an auto-attendant replaces the voice of a real operator to redirect callers to proper destination, an IVR, on the other hand, uses recognition technology to detect voice and key inputs for hands free operation.

While most telecommunication providers offers both of these features on their phone system each provider’s auto-attendant feature varies in terms of characteristics and strength.

Kall8 activates all of its features, including the automated attendant, when a subscriber upgrades its toll free service to a virtual PBX system.

RingCentral allows caller identification, message logging, call forwarding, custom message recording, etc., with its automated attendant.

The auto-attendant, of AccessDirect, provides instruction and information like dial-by-extension, dial-by-name directory and call transfer.

TollFreeForwarding’s auto-attendant specializes in call routing to different extensions.

Just like RingCentral, Freedom Voice System allows customized voice recording to be used for greeting callers.

My1Voice offers free custom greetings to subscribers of their Essential and Premium virtual PBX plans.

DSC (Database Systems Corporation) offers the most modern feature by providing a complex software and development kit to allow programmers to create unique auto-attendant applications.

These are just few of the most interesting features offered by different providers. Always remember to choose the best auto-attendant because this will be the business’ virtual assistant.