Auto Attendants
An auto attendant (also called an IVR) is the automated voice that answers a call and offers a menu: "Thanks for calling Acme — press 1 for sales, 2 for support, or 0 for the operator." It's how you route callers without a human picking up first.
Building a menu
- Create an auto attendant and record (or type, for text-to-speech) a greeting.
- Assign each keypress a destination — key 1 → sales queue, 2 → support ring group, 0 → the receptionist's extension.
- Point an inbound route (a DID) at the attendant.
When a call arrives, VoicerOnePBX answers, plays your greeting, waits for the caller's DTMF (the touch-tone from their keypad), and sends them where you told it to.
Some trunks answer a call before handing it over. VoicerOnePBX handles that hand-off cleanly so your greeting always plays from the start.
No selection & invalid keys
Decide what happens when a caller presses nothing (maybe they're on a rotary phone or just waiting) or presses an unassigned key: repeat the menu, send to the operator, or go to voicemail. A short, clear menu with a timeout to a human is usually best.
Business hours & holidays
Pair an attendant with time-of-day routing so daytime callers get the full menu and after-hours callers get a "we're closed" greeting with an option to leave a message.
Callers remember about three options. For anything deeper, use a sub-menu (next page) rather than a single long list.