Author Topic: Looking for ideas, suggestions, options for "roaming attendant"  (Read 1128 times)

Offline MStepan

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All,

I'm looking for some brainstorming for our office's main incoming phone calls. Our receptionist is the primary person that answers our main incoming office line, but we're not large enough that she can stay at her desk all the time. That is, she makes copies, etc, such that she isn't always at her desk when the main line rings. Our company has a philosophy of personal touch, so the use of an "auto-attendant" (I think that's what it's called) is out of the question. What we've done to address this currently is to have multiple phones throughout the office all ring when the main line rings. Obviously these are located in places where she's most likely to be (by copiers, etc). But having 8 phones ringing for every inbound call can be a little disruptive for those that are near those phones. Lastly, there are a series of folks that share responsibility for answering the main line when the receptionist is either not available (off, on break, etc) or just swamped with calls.

There. Now that I've described the situation, does anyone have any thoughts, comments, ideas on what we might be able to do? Here are a couple of MY ideas, but I don't know if they're realistic or not.

  • Some form of "pager" that would vibrate or whatever on incoming calls (for use when she walks away from her desk)?
  • I'm sure there are headsets that would enable her to know remotely that there's a call, but can she then use a PHONE that's near where-ever she happens to be to HANDLE the call?

The other factor is that when she's NOT available, we'd need a way for those that are backing her up to be aware of calls and somehow know when to help. Note that this might involve a separate solution (IM, etc).

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Please only offer ideas that you would consider yourself and are practical. Thanks! Mark


Offline dwayneg

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Re: Looking for ideas, suggestions, options for "roaming attendant"
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2016, 05:16:07 PM »
My first suggestion would be a wireless headset, if that's practical (distance from her desk is a factor, since she'd need to go back to her desk to handle calls).  Another choice would be a wireless phone, which would allow her to actually transfer calls while away from desk.  If neither of those work a great choice is to put a SECONDARY CALL KEY for her phone on the other devices she might be near.  This key will flash and give a distinctive ring tone when she has a call ringing, and everyone but her must press the key to take possession of the call.  This insures your mind is in gear: it's a new outside call, not your personal call, so answer in the approved manner.

One more suggestion to reduce ringing at all these other stations is to instead make the SECONDARY CALL KEY represent a phantom extension.  Build the attendant HG so it's linear (always starts at top), she's first member, second (and third, fourth, fifth) member is a PHONE EXTENSION LIST, which rings both her and the phantom.  If she remembers to put her phone in DND when she steps away, all those SECONDARY keys will ring immediately.  If she doesn't, it will only ring her until NO ANSWER ADVANCE TIMER expires, then rings her + SECONDARYS until answered.

Offline acejavelin

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Re: Looking for ideas, suggestions, options for "roaming attendant"
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2016, 07:11:59 PM »
Mitel makes cordless devices that are compatible with the 5000 such as twinning a Mitel 5610 Wireless DECT phone, or an analog or SIP cordless phones can be used, twinning to cellular phone, ringing to overhead paging, and host of other possibilities. Remember that all the receptionist has to do is know the call is ringing, then she can simply pick it up from any phone and this can be accomplished with a variety of ways such as a common area ringer or flashing strobe light as examples.

As far as notifying others when she is away, this can be handled by some (maybe not so) simple programming, or Mitel Magic, as many of my fellow techs call it... Program the lines to ring directly to her phone, then depending on your setup, you can use call forwarding or night mode to send the calls to a an all ring hunt group when she is away from the desk or office. The system could also be programmed to say ring the main receptionist for XX seconds, then a group of phones for XX seconds, than all phones for XX seconds, then if all else fails, go to something else like a voicemail box or auto attendant as a last resort.

And everything dwayneg said is completely valid as well, there are literally half a dozen ways that this can be accomplished depending on your setup, licensing, office area, etc. and every one of them is correct and valid.

So this begs the question, are you an end user or a technician, and what is your comfort level with programming the system?

Offline MStepan

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Re: Looking for ideas, suggestions, options for "roaming attendant"
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2016, 11:58:14 AM »
Thanks dwayneg and acejavelin. I'm going to try to spend some time doing a little more research as soon as I can. To answer your question (ace) relative to who >>>I<<< am, I'm an IT Developer by trade, so am fairly comfortable with programming in general, and getting more and more familiar with the Mitel as we go. With a reasonable level of detail, I can make things happen even if I'm forging into new territory. Thanks a bunch for your ideas. I'll be back as soon as I can ...

Offline io

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Re: Looking for ideas, suggestions, options for "roaming attendant"
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2016, 12:51:59 PM »
We accomplished what you are chewing through with an iPad and a Bluetooth headset. We created a "Liaison" user account in MiCollab that receives calls and can handle chat as well. The user isn't responsible for receiving calls as much as intercepting customers coming into our main facility and tracking down the person they need to speak with, but I think it would work for what you are needing as well.


 

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