TRY THIS How do you create an IVR 'office directory'?

[AndyInNYC]

If I wanted to create an IVR option 'press 4 for a directory' and have the directory say
Anthony Apple 1000
Brian Bottom 1010
Cali California 1020

and allow them to press 1020 (for example) and have the call sent to Cali - how do I accomplish this?

I don't want to have to manually create each name/extension as part of a .wav file since people may get added/removed.

Is there a way to 'automagically' do this given information the system has?

Thanks all - google isn't my friend on this one.

Andrew

 

[rossiv]

You can have it prompt the user to enter parts of their name built in. That's the Directory module in FreePBX. Otherwise, I'm not sure without custom code

 

[Robert-BCC]

Look for "IVR Entries" at the bottom of your existing IVR definition. Enter "4" in the "Ext" field. On the pulldown menu, select "directory".

 

[AndyInNYC]

Robert,
I'm aware of the 'directory' entry, but that, as Ross points out, requires the user to type the name rather than pull the name from the recording users create in their voicemail.

I would have thought there would be an entry somewhere which takes the extensions in the list and pulls that recording and plays it so the list is read:

"Joe Bob" (in Joe's voice) "extension 1000" (in Allison's voice)
"Fil Rand" (in Phil's voice) "extension ..." (in Allison's voice)
... (you get the idea).

If I set up a 'directory' called 'Staff', the system should know what recordings to pull.

 

[Robert-BCC]

Sorry about that, should have read your original post more carefully.

 

[wardmundy]

Look at the CallWho module in Incredible PBX.* It goes you one better. Dial 411 and say the name of the person to call. It looks up the entry in AsteriDex and places the call. Or the speed dial ODBC sample does the same thing by letting you key in the first three letters of the contact name in AsteriDex. Just dial 223 for sample and type A-M-E for American Airlines.

* Probably a license problem using this in a commercial setting now that Google shifted gears.

 

[Robert-BCC]

Andy, I have a customer that just asked for the exact same thing you wanted (a spoken directory). What did you end up doing?

 

[AndyInNYC]

Robert,

It was a small office and I'm not a guru. They just recorded a list of name/extension and routed the call. It will need to be re-recorded if/as their employee roster changes. Inefficient solution, but it works for them.

Andrew

 

[Robert-BCC]

Trust me, I'm no Guru. But I agree with your approach, it's simple and it works. I'm going to modify the initial IVR with "press 4 for a list of employees" unless I can think of something snappier. Then the recorded list will play, and the inbound caller will just dial the extension they need.

What's interesting to me is that apparently there's a lot of hatred for the spell by name directory. I know it works perfectly as I use it from time to time, but I think the older generations is flummoxed by have to map the "A" in Andy to the number 2, etc. I'm not using Incredible PBX but I think the Callwho solution would upset them even more!