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--- voicemail [2022/03/14 17:00] – created jim
+++ voicemail [2025/11/02 18:49] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-======Receptionist======
+=====Voicemail=====
-{{ ::screen_shot_2020-04-02_at_7.38.39_am.png?200|}}
+There are many ways to manage voicemails in the ring-u small business phone system.\\
-One of the most powerful capabilities of a small business phone system is the **Receptionist** (also known as a phone menu or automated attendant). The ability to have customers and associates effectively reach the right people or listen to information can have a big impact on productivity. A typical configuration has different greetings and logic for open and closed business hours. A common configuration is for humans to answer the phone during business hours, and an automated receptionist when closed.
+First, let's go over some basics.
+====Which Voicemail Box Do Messages Go To? Extension or Company Level?====
+{{ ::port_editext.png?200|}}
+**Extension Level Mailbox**\\
+Every extension on your phone system has its own voicemail box.
+This is selected individually from each extension under the **Advanced: If No Answer/Unavailable** dropdown.
+Every extension and group has this option, and you can point the action to other phones, groups, other phones' voicemail boxes, or to the Company Mailbox.
-===Open/Closed Receptionist===
+**//A quick note: If your phone has a voicemail indicator light or some kind of Message Waiting Indicator (MWI), that will only indicate if there is a new message in that extension's voicemail box.//**
-{{ ::screen_shot_2020-04-02_at_7.47.41_am.png?200|}}
-Any time you navigate to **"Configuration"** => **"Receptionist"** in the ring-u customer portal, you will see the **"Open Receptionist"** and the **"Closed Receptionist"**. These two receptionists cannot be deleted or renamed because they are tied directly to your system's defined **"Schedule"**. If you look under **"Configuration"** => **"Schedule"**, any hours you see defined are your "Open Hours" when your **"Open Receptionist"** will be used. During any hours outside of what is defined in the schedule, your system will use the **"Closed Receptionist"**.
-If you only want one receptionist, delete the open schedule items and use the Closed Receptionist for everything. The example to the right demonstrates a long 2 hours closed period for Friday lunch.
-===Configure a Receptionist===
+**Company Mailbox**\\
-//This example walks you through editing the **Open Receptionist**. This is the default recording/phone menu that people who call you will hear during business hours (Business hours are defined in the system's schedule which is accessible from the Reseptionist page.). Even though this is explicitly for the **Open Receptionist**, setting up other receptionists is largely the same procedure.//
+The easiest way to understand the Company Mailbox is to see it as an extension on the system without a phone attached. Since every phone on the system has its own voicemail box that will activate if the phone is unreachable, you can think of the Company Mailbox as an extension that has nowhere to go but to voicemail.
-{{ ::screen_shot_2020-04-02_at_8.16.40_am.png?200|}}
-To configure a receptionist:
-  - Log into the [[https://portal.ring-u.com|Customer Portal]].
-  - Click **Receptionist** from the **Configuration** menu on the left.
-  - Here you will see the Open and Closed Receptionists. Click **Edit** to the left of **Open Receptionist**
-  - Next, you will type in the greeting people will hear into the **Script** text box. Remember, this should be informative, but for the sake of your customers' patience, it should also be brief.
-  - Next, choose the **Audio Source** of your greeting. **Robot** will convert the text in the **Script** box to computer-generated speech. Several voices supporting customer-requested languages are available. Ring-u uses the Amazon Polly speech engine, we think it's the best available.  You can also:
-      * **Record using a phone:** elect an extension to record your message from, and press record. The extension will ring, and after picking it up, you can read aloud the message you've typed in the **Script** section or your own document. When you're finished, hang up. This recording is made directly on the Hello Hub. It is not available from the web interface.
-      *  **Use an uploaded recording:** Upload an audio file (MP3 or WAV) using the **[[recordings|Recordings]]** menu item, then select it. Uploaded recordings are saved and available for re-use at any time. Useful if you change them often.
-      *  **Upload a recording:**  You can also upload directly into the receptionists. This method overwrites previously uploaded recordings for this receptionist.
-   - **Caller Options** need to reflect the options you've presented in the **Script**. On the right are all 10 buttons of a telephone ordered 0-9. For each button, select the drop-down and choose either an extension, group, or receptionist to send the caller to. Do this for every option you've presented the caller with through your **Script**. The **X** option is what happens if they do not make a choice after the reception audio plays 2 times.  We suggest leaving it set to inactive so it hangs up on robo-callers.
-   - Finally, click **Save Changes**. Your system will update in a couple of minutes with your changes.
-===Override Options===
+The company mailbox was created to have a common voicemail box for calls to groups that go unanswered. Since these calls never reach a particular person, it makes sense to send them to the voicemail box for the company.
-{{ ::scheduleoverride.png?125|}}
-Normally. what the receptionist does is controlled by the schedule, but for holidays and special events you can create a new receptionist which deviates from the normal schedule by enabling a schedule override. These can do anything that a normal receptionist can do.
-{{ ::toggleoverride.png?125|}}
+If you want every voicemail to go to the Company Mailbox, you must configure all of your Extensions' and Groups' **Advanced: If No Answer/Unavailable** function to go straight to **"100 VM Company Mailbox"**.\\
-In some cases, you may want to activate a receptionist manually, for example when you go to lunch, or close early.  Checking this box allows this logic to be toggled on and off, ad-hoc, by dialing 001 from a phone on the system.
+Likewise, you can configure a group to go to an individual extension's voicemail such as **121 VM Nick***. The **VM** indicates that you're sending the call to that extension's voicemail instead of ringing that extension.
+====Managing Voicemail====
+{{ :email.png?direct&200|}}
+**By Email**\\
+By far, the most popular way to receive voicemail is to configure each extension to send them to that user's email. This option sends both an audio file and a transcription of the message.  You may only configure this option to go to one email address through the ring-u portal. If it needs to go to multiple addresses, please configure that in your email client via a filter or forwarding protocol.\\
+**By Phone**\\
+You can also manage voicemail through the extension itself.\\
+===From Inside the System:===
+Dialing **800** from any extension will reach that extension's voicemail box.\\ Many phones have a voicemail button on the front of them, and they essentially do the same thing as dialing 800 to reach that phone's voicemail.
+To manage another extension's voicemail, you dial **8 + the extension number**.\\
+So, to check extension 101's voicemail, you dial **8101**.\\
+Since the **Company Mailbox** is also **extension 100**, you can check and manage its voicemail by dialing **8100**. You can do this from any extension on the system.
-===Human Receptionist===
+===From Outside the System:===
-So, let's say that you're a business with real people employed for the purpose of answering the phone during business hours.
+Dial in to the company phone number.\\
-{{ ::screen_shot_2020-04-02_at_8.19.02_am.png?200|}}
+From the receptionist, dial **8 + the extension's number.**\\
-Simply define the **"Schedule"** for the hours your employee will be answering the phones. Then, navigate to **"Configuration"** => **"Receptionist"** => **"Open Receptionist"**, and change the **Receptionist Type** to **"Human Receptionist"**. Select where to direct inbound calls to: a single phone, a group of phones or any other system choice including external phones (mobile phones for example).
+You will then be asked for a password. Every extension's default voicemail password is its extension number.\\
+For example, the default password for the Company Mailbox is **100**.
-Finally, click **"Save Changes"**.
-Now, all calls that are directed to the **"Open Receptionist"** for your defined "Open Hours" will immediately be sent to that phone or other feature. For businesses with more call traffic, you can point the **"Human Receptionist"** to a group of phones instead of just one phone. With this configuration, people who call after hours will still get your **"Closed Receptionist"**, however, you can also set it to **"Human Receptionist"**, and send callers directly to a phone, group, or even straight to a [[voicemail|voicemail box]].
+====Voicemail Transcription====
+We tried building our own, but the pizza and beer we have been offering the 2 computational linguists we know wasn't getting any attention. We then did what every small company does: we outsourced it to our favorite "Big Friendly Giant," Amazon.
+====Caveats:====
+**Things that are important to us, and should be important to you:**
+   * Transcription works reliably and usefully.  "Useful" and "accurate" are not the same thing. We (and Amazon) are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcription. There are just too many variables. It should work well enough frequently enough that you gather useful information, or know that you need to listen to the recording carefully yourself.
+   * We (ring-u.com) do not store your voicemail recordings or transcriptions longer than is useful to make it work. Currently this is a 30 minute window. It allows us to monitor and tune things if the system breaks.
+   * We try to remove the .wav files and transcription jobs from Amazon (our BFG) as quickly as possible, typically as soon as your transcription is received.
+   * You should not use voicemail transcription, or email forwarding for voicemails that may contain sensitive financial or medical data. There is nothing inherently secure or "HIPAA Compliant" about this service. Such things do exist, but require some technical and documentation expertise that we do not want to attempt or misrepresent at this time.
+====Voicemail Menu Quick Reference====
+**1** New Messages
+  * **3** Advanced Options
+  * **5** Repeat Current Message
+  * **6** Play the next message
+  * **7** Delete this message
+  * **8** Forward message to another user
+  * **9** Save this message
+  * ***** Help
+  * **#** Exit
+**2** Change Folders
+  * **0** New Messages
+  * **1** Old Messages
+  * **2** Work Messages
+  * **3** Family Messages
+  * **4** Friends Messages
+  * **#** Cancel
+**3** Advanced Options
+  * **5** Leave a Message
+  * ***** Return to Main Menu
+**0** Mailbox Options
+  * **1** Record Unavailable Message
+  * **2** Record Busy Message
+  * **3** Record Name
+  * **4** Record Temporary Greeting
+  * **5** Change Password
+  * ***** Return to Main Menu
+***** Help
+**#** Exit