Auto-Attendant design considerations

Since auto attendants often serve as the primary customer-facing element of a company’s phone system, it is extremely important to design a system that will not scare away customers. Some of the general rules you should follow when designing an auto attendant are:

• avoid long greetings. If possible, record different greetings for work hours, after hours, and holidays.
• keep it simple and avoid having too many choices – more than 5 choices is probably too much.
• include a handler for people who are going to press 0 whenever they encounter an auto attendant.
• provide adequate context for callers to navigate the menu. Be as descriptive as you can so that the callers know which choice to make.

It can also be helpful to design a call flow diagram when designing an auto attendant. One such diagram is shown below: