In telephony

Telephony

In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....

, an automated attendant (also auto attendant, auto-attendant, autoattendant or AA, or virtual receptionist) allows callers to be automatically transferred to an extension without the intervention of an operator

Telephone operator

A telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...

/receptionist

Receptionist

A receptionist is an employee taking an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office desk of an organization or business...

). Many AAs will also offer a simple menu system ("for sales, press 1, for service, press 2, etc.). An auto attendant may also allow a caller to reach a live operator by dialing a number, usually "0". Typically the auto attendant is included in a businesses phone system such as a PBX, but some services allow businesses to use an AA without such a system. Modern AA services (which now overlap with more complicated interactive voice response

Interactive voice response

Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs....

 or IVR systems) can route calls to mobile phones, VoIP virtual phones, other AAs/IVRs, or other locations using traditional land-line phones

Plain old telephone service

Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....

.

Feature Description

On a purely technical level it could be argued that an automated attendant is a very simple kind of IVR, however in the telecom industry the terms IVR and Auto Attendant are generally considered distinct. An Automated Attendant serves a very specific purpose (replace live operator and route calls), whereas an IVR can perform all sorts of functions (telephone banking, account inquiries, etc).

An AA will often include a directory which will allow a caller to dial by name in order to find user on a system. There is no standard format to these directories, and they can use combinations of first name, last name, or both.

The following lists common routing steps that are components of an automated attendant (any other routing steps would probably be more suitable to an IVR):

• Transfer to Extension
• Transfer to Voicemail
• Play Message (i.e. "our address is ...")
• Go To a Sub Menu
• Repeat Choices

In addition, an Automated Attendant would be expected to have values for the following

• '0' - where to go when the caller dials '0'
• Timeout - what to do if the caller does nothing (usually go to the same place as '0')
• Default mailbox - where to send calls if '0' is not answered (or is not pointing to a live person)

Time-based routing

Many auto attendants will have options to allow for time of day routing, as well as weekend and holiday routing. The specifics of these features will depend entirely on the particular automated attendant, but typically there would be a normal greeting and routing steps that would take place during normal business hours, and a different greeting and routing for non-business hours.