Automated Attendants and Voice Mail

As firms continue to use automated attendants and voice mail to keep costs down and increase efficiency, they often pay a price in lost opportunities and poor client service. Often times, they will never know the negative impact or the extent of the loss of opportunities. Callers may simply go elsewhere.

Automated attendants and voice mail play two different roles . An automated attendant answers the phone in place of a live person. Voice mail takes detailed messages from callers and can provide them with information that a receptionist or operator may not have or be able to provide.

The downside of getting automated attendants is that they tell you that as a client , you are not important enough to the company for them to have a real live person answering the phone during normal business hours.

An automated attendant after hours is OK and should have a message "if you know your party's extension, you may dial that at any time." That will take you to the person’s voice mail. Think about the last time you had to call your phone company, your bank or your insurance carrier and what it was like to go through that maze. 

Make it as easy as possible to negotiate the automated attendant. Give people "outs" as quickly as possible. If you do have someone who can take calls, tell that to the caller early in the message so they can get out of the automated attendant quickly. Make exit to a live operator their first option. Calling my Internet service provider tech support walked me through seven options before they gave the live operator option. One of these was to ask my question on line at their web site. My problem was that I couldn’t connect to their web site and that was the issue I needed to talk about. I knew I needed to talk to someone from the very beginning. 

Sometimes, people are not sure to whom they need to speak and if they can explain what they need, someone can usually route their call properly. Automated attendants aren’t able to do that. 

Voice mail is a totally different situation. It is a powerful communications tool. It's become a necessity as people spend more time out of the office and need to be able to get a good complete message.

Outgoing messages from your staff on voice mail need to indicate immediately that the caller is in their voice mail ("You have reached voice mail for Jane Doe...") and not sound like a person answered the phone. It's frustrating to get into someone's voice mail after his or her phone rings and hear "Hello. (pause). This is Jane Doe. I can't take you call right now..." You find yourself talking to the voice mail. Outgoing message should remind callers to leave their phone number to expedite a call return.

When staff is out of the office for meetings, business trips or vacation, have them create a new message that lets the caller know when they will be back. It helps the client understand that they might not get an immediate call back. Make sure that they change it when they get back. I have heard a vacation or business trip message several days after I know the person is back in the office. In one case, two weeks after the person returned from vacation message, her "I'm on vacation," message was still the outgoing message.

If it is possible to get out of "voice mail never-ending loop" have that information in the message (i.e. press 0 at any time to exit voice mail and speak to someone). If there is someone in the office who might be able to help the caller, put that in the message ("if you need immediate assistance, please press 0 and ask for Emily Jones at extension...").

Above all, impress upon staff that their message should be something they would like to hear if they were getting someone's voice mail.


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