I can
give you my experience: It was a hard hurdle to gain acceptance of Asterisk in
my office (6 companies) simply because a receptionist position is a weak point
in Asterisk. Old time receptionists used to Meridians hate learning anything
new, even FOP is not acceptable. However, what *did* work and what my users
love, is DID's. We now give a user a DID number and a DID fax number that those
numbers will now follow them around for the term of their employment. Here's how
we set it up:
1.
Assign DID to user
2.
Instruct user to tell everyone that the DID number is the *only* number that
they can get ahold of them, so callers *always* call the DID
3. If
the user does not pick up, an IVR menu kicks in asking them to press 1 to try
the user on their cell or 2 for voicemail
4.
Callers to the "main" number get an IVR menu asking 1 for sales 2 for
whatever...and press 0 to go to the receptionist.
5.
Transfer procedure for receptionist: Xfer key > Internal extension > OK.
If the guy is on the phone, the IVR menu kicks in.
6.
Receptionist has FOP on her screen for extension state
This
is a 4 way win:
-Users
love having their own "personal" number and fax number (faxes are emailed
directly to them)
-Receptionist loves it because her call volume has dropped 80%. Transfer
is not too egregious so receptionist complies
-Callers love it because they don't have to call a
receptionist
-Callers are screened automatically, anybody that you want to be screened
you give the main number to NOT a did number.
DID's
are $24 per user per year. We are using Snom phones, transfer right out of the
box. hth
-----Original Message-----
From: Alain Major/Simard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:05 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist
Hi,
Quick question. With an old phone system a receptionist receiving a call has 1 button to push to transfer calls to a specific extension, with Asterisk, a receptionist would actually put the caller on hold, pick up another line, call the extension, ask if the person is available, hang up pick up the caller again and transfer. To me it's seems a long way to simply do a receptionist job. Is there a way we can program the system, or make an application, that would provide the same functionality ?
I am currently looking at buying 4 pbx for my offices across Canada and this particular feature is preventing us from choosing Asterisk. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Alain Major,
Directeur,
Département de l'Informatique et des Télécommunications
Manager,
Information Technology and Telecommunications Department
L. Simard Transport Ltée
Simard Transport and Warehousing
1212 32nd Avenue
Lachine, Québec, Canada
tél : 514-636-9411
email : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web : http:\\www.simard.ca
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