Idea

Hi Ben,
I think I understand but how can you put the Auto Attendant greeting as a voicemail greeting and have it help callers be routed to other extensions?  When I dial into my voicemail, for example, I hit # which takes me to recording my message; if I hit * it prompts for a PIN.  So if I now have my voicemail say, "you have reached the widget corporation, for Tom, press 105; Joe, press 104" that doesn't work.  How can I make this work?

Hi Kristy,   This is a pretty old thread and Ben  no longer works on the Community. Several things have changes since this thread was started over a year ago.  Can you explain in more detail what you want to happen or how you want your calls routed and we'll try to help you out. 

Mike 

Hi Mike,

We want all calls to ring on our Receptionist's extension, 101.  Then, if her line is busy or she doesn't answer we want the call to be transferred to the auto attendant where the caller can select which extension to be transferred to after that.  So, to recap, phone rings on ext. 101 directly. The call isn't answered by a human so it transfers to auto attendant which says, you have reached the auto attendant, for Tom, dial 105, for Joe, dial 102 or dial by name dial 9...

Does that explain it?

I have all calls coming in to ext. 101 and then after that, forwarding to a "dummy" extension, named Auto Attendant, and have it's voicemail greeting say " you have reached the auto attendant, for Tom, dial 105, for Joe, dial 102 or dial by name dial 9" but when you do get into any of our voicemails there's no option to press a number while in the greeting and be transferred to another extension.  So I'm not sure how to make this work.

Thanks.
Kristy

Hi Kristy,   Take a look at this page. I think this is what you are looking for:  Multi-level IVR Overview

Hello.

I also need this functionality.  It's such a basic need for many small businesses, I still cannot fathom why this is not achievable through the ring cental GUI or other methods.  The work arounds are VERY clunky, and I have yet to get a working system.

I need this basic functionality:

Caller dials our main #
Call is sent first to ext.101 (receptionist)
a) Receptionist answers and handles the callers needs, transferring to other extension, helping caller, etc.
b) Receptionist is not able to personally answer the call, so the call is routed to the IVR, which is the main company greeting and directs caller to choose an appropriate extension, etc.

We simply want to answer as many calls as possible personally, however we're not always able to do that.  When we cannot answer a call personally, that is when we want the caller to be routed to our IVR so they can then route themselves.

In a nut shell:
incoming call > rings extension > extension does not answer after # of rings > call is sent to IVR for further self handling.

Hi Jeremy,

I haven't seen an issue with the workaround for scenario b) when recorded as suggested below.  Obviously the caveat is that you can only list extensions that are built within your phone system.  To confirm, have you recorded the receptionist's voicemail greeting as follows?

"Thank you for calling {company name}.  If you know the extension of the person you are trying to reach, you may dial it at any time.  To dial by name, press 9.  Otherwise, please stay on the line to leave a message in our general mailbox"
***Leave 5 seconds of dead air***

Within that 5 seconds (before voicemail beeps on the caller forcing them to leave a message), the caller would be able to select any extension within the company.

-Andy Thompson

I agree with all the above - this needs to be an integrated feature, not some clumsy work around that you have to search the KB to get an answer for

Now I see the work around is only available to premium/ enterprise subscriptions.  Is that correct?

Correct. The multi level IVR is only available on RingCentral Office Premium and Ultimate.

That's the way RingCentral makes their money.