[Asterisk-Users] Receptionist

[Colin Anderson]

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:amajor at simard.ca]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:05 PM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
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 : amajor at simard.ca
web : http:\\www.simard.ca

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