# About Multi-Level Auto Attendants
(Embedded Voice Mail)

## Description

Multi-Level Auto Attendants (MLAA) allows you to set up a hierarchical menu structure that provides callers with better self-service access to the department or person they're trying to reach. In an MLAA system, callers reaching the Auto Attendant are routed from the main menu through to one or more additional sub menus (menu nodes) until their call is answered.

You can program up to 10 multi-level menus, each with its own greeting and prompts. The greeting at the top level (called the main menu node) is the primary company greeting with the usual prompts to dial an extension number, "0" for an operator, and other digits to reach destinations such as Sales or Technical Support.

MLAA allows the following features to be accessed from any level of hierarchy of menu nodes:

- Directory feature
  You can program the Directory feature for any menu option between 1 to 9 in VM Multi-Level Auto Attendants form. The menu option 9 is the default Directory feature that is accessed by dialing 9. To prevent confusion between dialing a mailbox that starts with 9 and the Directory feature, an inter-digit timer of 4 seconds is started when the first digit entered is 9. If no other digits are entered during these few seconds, the user is transferred to the Directory.

- Language Toggle
  You can program language toggle key between 1 to 8 in the menu options of VM Prompt Languages form to allow callers to switch between primary and the alternate language. The default value for language toggle is 8.

NOTE: The language change is only applicable to the system prompts and not the system greeting.

In addition to the above features, MLAA also supports Dial by Extension feature where the caller can reach a mailbox directly by dialing an extension. For more information, see Setting up Multi-Level Auto Attendant (MLAA).

NOTE: Dial by extension is only applicable for a root menu node. The root node is the first node accessed when user dials an extension to reach MLAA.

At the subsequent levels (menu nodes) the greetings prompt callers to make further selections. The greeting for a Technical Support node might offer choices based on product type as follows:

"For MiVoice Business technical support, press 1. For MiCollab Nupoint UM technical support, press 2. For all other products, press 3. To return to the previous menu, press star. To repeat the choices, press pound."

From this menu, dialing 1 or 2 transfers the caller to a technical support representative. Dialing 3 might route the caller to yet another sub menu node with more choices.

Menu node mailboxes support a separate Business Open/Business Closed greeting, played based on the system's day/night mode or the VM Business Hours Settings ( ). Both greeting types can be recorded via mailbox Telephone User Interface (TUI) or uploaded using the System Audio Files Update ( ) form.

NOTES

- The * (star) and # (pound) prompts help ensure that the system is easy to use. Be sure to include them in your greetings, particularly the * prompt if you have multiple menu levels.

- Calls from rotary phones are not supported by the Auto Attendant. If a caller calls into the auto attendant using a rotary phone, the system will eventually transfer the caller to the operator. However, if the system has routed the call to a level within a mailbox menu tree, the caller will hear the mailbox greeting three times before being transferred to the operator.

- Menu node mailbox greetings cannot be recorded from the administrator's mailbox.

### Menu Node Mailbox Time Out Handling

For each menu node, you can determine the system's behavior if a caller does not (or cannot) enter anything:

- divert the caller to the operator (default), or

- terminate the call

Diverting a call to the operator

The greeting is repeated three times, then the call is forwarded to:

1. The menu node operator or the menu node mailbox (programmed in the VM Multi-Level Auto Attendants ( ) form).

2. If the menu node operator is not programmed, the call is diverted to the system operator or system operator mailbox (programmed in the VM Mailboxes ( ) or User and Services Configuration ( ) form).

3. If the system operator is not programmed, the call is sent to mailbox 0.

NOTE: If both the menu node operator and the system operator are programmed, preference is given to the menu node operator.

Terminating the call:

The greeting is repeated three times, then the call is terminated.

## Conditions and Feature Interactions

None

## Programming

Refer to Setting up Multi-Level Auto Attendant for programming instructions.

## Operation

None

Related Topics

- About Voice Mail

- Auto Attendant

- Programming Embedded Voice Mail