Managing auto receptionists

Overview

Auto receptionists answer calls with a personalized recording and routes calls to a phone user, call queue, common area phone, or voicemail. You can also set up an auto receptionist to route to an interactive voice response (IVR) system to allow callers to select routing options.

This article covers:

• Customizing the main auto receptionist
• Changing the main company number in the main auto receptionist
• Creating a new auto receptionist
• Changing auto receptionist settings
• Customizing business, closed, and holiday hours
  • Call routing settings
• Viewing an auto receptionist's voicemail inbox

Prerequisites

• Pro, Business, or Education account
• Account owner or admin privileges
• Zoom Phone license

Customizing the main auto receptionist

After completing the initial setup of Zoom Phone, it will create an auto receptionist (named Main Auto Receptionist) and assign it to the main company number. All calls to the main company number will be answered by the main auto receptionist.

Note: If you have multiple sites, Zoom Phone will automatically create a main auto receptionist for each site. Calls to the main company number will be answered by the main auto receptionist of the main site (the first site you create after enabling multiple sites).

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist that displays Main Auto Receptionist after its name.
4. Change the auto receptionist settings as needed.

Changing the main company number in the main auto receptionist

If you have a main auto receptionist with more than one direct number, you can change which phone number is used as the main company number.

You can also re-assign a phone number from another phone user, call queue, auto receptionist, common area phone, or Zoom Room.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist that displays Main Auto Receptionist after its name.
   Note: If you have multiple sites, each site has it own main auto receptionist. However, the main company number only belongs to the main auto receptionist of the main site. You can see your main site in the Company Info page.
4. Click the drop-down menu to change the main company number. You can either:
   
   • Choose from numbers assigned to the main auto receptionist. The previous main company number will remain assigned to the main auto receptionist.
   • Click Select an unassigned number and choose a number from the list of unassigned numbers then click Confirm. You can also click Get Numbers to purchase phone numbers.
     Note: The previous main company number will become unassigned. You can re-assign the number that was previously the main company number.

Creating a new auto receptionist

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click Add.
4. Enter the following information:
   • Site (only visible if you have multiple sites): Select a site for the new auto receptionist.
   • Name: Enter a name to help identify the auto receptionist.
5. Click Save. 
6. Change the auto receptionist settings as needed.

Changing auto receptionist settings

Note: Use Zoom Phone role management to allow a phone user to access or manage an auto receptionist's settings. You can also change policy settings to control certain features.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal,
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist's name.
   You will see the following information and options in the Profile tab:

• Display Name: Click Edit beside the auto receptionist's name and enter a new one.
• Site (only visible if you have multiple sites): Displays the site that the auto receptionist belongs to.
• Extension Number: Click Edit to change the extension number assigned to the auto receptionist.
• Number(s): Click Add to assign direct phone numbers to the main auto receptionist. Numbers in blue text are direct phone numbers assigned to the main auto receptionist.
  Note: If you're editing the main auto receptionist, the phone number with the drop-down menu indicates the main company number. To change the main company number, click the drop-down menu and select another direct number assigned to the main auto receptionist. If you have multiple sites, the main company number is assigned to the main auto receptionist of the main site.
• Time Zone: Click Edit to change the time zone used for the Business Hours option below.
• Business Hours / Closed Hours / Holiday Hours: Customize how inbound calls are routed during business, close, or holiday hours.
• Voicemail: Share the auto receptionist's voicemail inbox. 
  Note: To allow callers to leave messages in the auto receptionist's voicemail, change the Business Hours or Closed Hours setting to route to the current extension's voicemail.
• Content Storage Location and Metadata Storage Location: Manage the storage location of Communications Content.

Customizing business, closed, and holiday hours

You can customize times that the auto receptionist is available to route calls.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal,
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist's name.
4. Customize these settings:

• Business Hours: Check Edit to change the times when the auto receptionist will answer calls. You can set business hours to span past 11:30 PM. This could be used if the auto receptionist routes to phone users or call queue members that work night shifts. You can also set business hours in increments of 10 mins by manually entering a time; for example, 11:10 PM.
• Closed Hours: If you set business hours, customize calls are routed outside of business hours. Click Edit and select a routing option, then use the text box to specify the route.
• Holiday Hours: Click Set or Edit to designate certain days are holidays. You can customize how calls are routed during holidays. For example, you could directly route calls to voicemail or play a custom message to tell the caller that the office is away on holiday. 

Call routing settings

You can also customize how inbound calls are routed during business, close, or holiday hours:

• Greeting Prompt: Select a greeting prompt from the drop-down menu or click Audio Library to select, record, or upload custom audio. The greeting will play before routing the caller. You can also select Disable to not play a greeting prompt.
  Note: Some of the routing options have a secondary audio prompt. For example, if you route to an IVR, the greeting prompt will play first, followed by the IVR's audio prompt.
• Route to: Click Edit to select where the auto receptionist will route to after playing the greeting prompt. By default, calls are routed the auto receptionist's dedicated voicemail inbox.
  Route to drop-down menu: Select a routing option, then use the text box to specify the route. You can route to any extension in the account:
  
  • Voicemail
    
    • Leave voicemail to: Route the caller to the voicemail belonging to one of these extensions.
      • Current extension (auto receptionist's voicemail)
      • User
      • Auto Receptionist
      • Call Queue
      • Shared Line Group
    • Voicemail Greeting: Click Audio Library to select, record, or upload custom audio. The greeting plays before routing the call.
      Note:
    • If routing to another extension's voicemail, the voicemail greeting you set will override the greeting set for that extension.
    • If you're routing to a phone user's voicemail, select Follow User Voicemail Greeting in the drop-down menu to use the phone user's greeting instead of selecting a replacement.
  • Message: Click Customize to record or upload audio that will play after the initial greeting prompt set above.
  • User
  • Zoom Room
  • Common Area Phone
  • Auto Receptionist
  • Call Queue
  • Shared Line Group
  • Contact Center
  • Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
  • Phone Number (external phone number)
    Note:
    • To enable this option, you must have a direct number assigned to the auto receptionist.
    • Calls routed to an external phone number will be billed at the plan rate.
    • Make sure to select the correct country/region in the drop-down menu so you can add the external phone number. Some countries share the same country code, but appear has separate entries in the drop-down menu.

Viewing an auto receptionist's voicemail inbox

Note: To allow callers to leave messages in the auto receptionist's voicemail, change the Business Hours or Closed Hours setting to route to the current extension's voicemail.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist's name.
4. Click the Voicemail tab.
5. You can identify voicemail messages using the following:
   • If the number has a caller ID name or belongs to your organization, you'll see a name above the number.
   • Voicemail entries marked by a blue dot haven't been played yet.
6. Use the search options at the top to search for a specific contact or phone number, or click the drop-down menu at the top to filter by read or unread messages.
7. Click the following options to view and manage voicemails:
   • Play icon: Play the voicemail message and display a transcript of the voicemail message if Zoom Phone was able to transcribe it.
   • Download: Save the voicemail message (MP3 file).
   • Delete: Delete the selected voicemail message. To delete several entries at once, click the checkbox beside the status column and click Delete at the top of the table.

Deleting or duplicating a auto receptionist

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click an auto receptionist's name.
4. Click the ellipses icon (...) in the right-side column, then click one of these options:
   • Duplicate: Set up a new auto receptionist by duplicating an existing one. All settings will be copied from the original except for the extension number, phone numbers, and display name.
   • Delete: Delete the call queue. Any phone numbers assigned to the call queue will become unassigned. If you want to keep the call queue but deactivate it, use the Active Status setting.