How to Create a Menu of Informational Messages

You no longer need to spend time answering the same questions over and over. Your callers can select the information they want to hear without waiting. This is known as Voice-On-Demand. 

You can record up to 99 informational messages by using any of the 99 greetings in the VoicePro. Then you assign the greetings to various menu options. Your main greeting will instruct your caller to press the appropriate keys to hear the information they need.

Answer Common Questions Automatically

You can make announcements to answer common questions, such as descriptions of your products, details of your latest promotions, announcements about your community events, or directions to your office. 

These greetings are different from voice mail greetings. They are used only for announcements. The VoicePro also has 99 mailboxes that have their own greetings. 

The difference is important to understand: 

• Play information only: When you just need to play a message to your caller, and you don't need to have them reply or to leave a message for you, then use the informational Voice-On-Demand greetings. These greetings just play the recorded announcement and then wait for the caller to select another menu item.
• Play information and take a message: If you want to allow your caller to leave a message after listening to your information, then record your message as a greeting of a Voice Mail box.

Let's discuss how you would use both cases:

1. Play Announcements only -- and return to menu

If you just want to allow the caller to listen to a recorded announcement and then go back to the main menu, you would use one of the announcement greetings, not mailbox greetings. Announcement Greetings can be recorded with Function 25 and assigned as menu selections with Function 44. 

Note that this is the same way that you can record your company greetings for day, night or weekend. But there we are using the greetings for various informational announcements. After we create them, we also need to assign each one to a specific menu option. That's the key you want the caller to press in order to select the proper announcement message.

Say you want your caller to press 5 to get directions to your office. You would record a greeting using Function 25 discussing the way to drive to your office. 

Let's use greeting number 5 (just to be consistent). Then with Function 44 you would assign menu option 5 to play greeting number 5. 

At any time during the playback, your caller can select another option. There is no need to wait for a recording to finish. Callers can dial extensions if they want to talk to someone or they can select another menu option from the mail menu. 

The caller will be in the mail menu after the greeting finishes. So you should also include some menu prompts at the end of each announcement message, probably the same prompts you used in the main greeting. Otherwise the caller will hear dead air and not know what's happening.

2. Play Announcement and take a message

If you want to let the caller leave a message after listening to an announcement, then use a voice mailbox instead. 

In that case you would record your announcement in the greeting of one of the mailboxes. Then you would use Function 44 to assign the desired menu option to use that mailbox. 

Function 44 is used to assign menu keys to any of three things. We already discussed assigning to announcement greetings. Here we just mentioned assigning a key to a mailbox. You can also assign a key to transfer to an extension. But that's another subject. 

In the case of using mailboxes, when the caller presses the key you assigned, it will play the greeting in the assigned mailbox and then it will take a message into that mailbox. 

If you have message notification enabled for that mailbox, you will be notified about the message the caller had left.

How Does Fax Detection Work?

The VoicePro includes the capability to detect incoming fax calls. When this feature is enabled, it will route those calls to your fax machine. 

The VoicePro saves you from the need of having a separate fax line since it will handle regular voice calls as normal, and it will send fax calls to your fax machine. 

If you want to use your fax machine on a dedicated line, then there is no need to program the fax detection. But if you want to share your phone lines to be used as both fax and voice, then you would connect your fax machine to one of the extension jacks on the VoicePro and enable fax detection. 

How To Program Fax Detection

Once you connect your fax machine to a chosen extension jack, you also need to enable Fax Detection and specify where you connected your fax machine so it routes those calls correctly. Incoming fax calls will automatically be routed to that extension where you have your fax machine connected. 

To enable Fax Detection with the VoicePro you need to do the following...

1. Use function 31 to specify which CO lines may receive incoming fax calls. This causes a slight delay when answering, in order to wait for a CNG signal that is sent by the sending fax machine.
2. Use function 7 to specify the extension where you connected your fax machine.

When the VoicePro detects a fax CNG signal on any of the lines you specified in step 1 above, the call is automatically routed to the extension you specified in step 2. 

If no fax CNG signal is detected, or if the caller makes a regular voice call, then the Automated Attendant will answer the call. In that case the caller can manually dial any extension or press keys for any menu option you created. 

Fax Detection Overrides All Other Call Routing Assignments

When you enable fax detection, the VoicePro is forced to use the Auto Attendant to process the routing. This means that if there is no fax detected then the Auto Attendant company greeting will play to the caller, and he or she can select from the menu options you provided. 

For this reason it is important to understand that fax detection overrides any other call routing you try to program that would cause a conflict. 

More specifically, if a fax tone is detected the call is automatically switched to the extension where you have your fax machine (specified with function 7). 

Enabling fax detection with function 31 overrides functions 4, 27 and 30 since the Auto Attendant will answer the call if it's not a fax.

Function 4 is used to program ringing assignment (which phones ring) before the Auto Attendant. Most people don't use this since they want the Auto Attendant to answer and handle all calls. 

Function 27 is used to disable the Auto Attendant. But when you enable fax detection you are forcing this back on. 

Function 30 is used to specify how many times the phones should ring before the Auto Attendant answers. But, again, when you use fax detection you are forcing the Auto Attendant to handle all calls on the fax line, therefore making this function meaningless. 

Bottom line: If you want to bypass or delay the Auto Attendant, you cannot also use fax detection. 

How Fax Machines Work

Fax machines communicate with one another before starting the data transmission. The originating fax machine sends a CNG signal (1100 Hz) to indicate that this is a fax call. Then the receiving fax machine sends back a CED tone (2100 Hz) to say it's ready to receive. This is known as handshaking. 

If you connect your fax machine to an extension jack on the VoicePro, and you enable fax detection as explained above, then the VoicePro will 'listen' for the CNG fax signal before the auto attendant answers. 

• If it does not hear a CNG fax signal, it will handle the call as a regular voice call. 
• If it hears the CNG signal then it immediately passes the call to your fax machine, along with the Caller-ID if you have that service. 

Your fax machine will then detect the repeating CNG signal and 'handshake' by responding with a CED tone (2100 Hz) to indicate that it's ready to receive the transmission.

Special Considerations

Delayed answering while waiting for fax:

When fax detection is enabled, there will be a short delay before the auto attendant answers. This is because the VoicePro is listening for a CNG signal, which is what a fax machine sends to make itself known. 

If no CNG tone is received after a few seconds, then the VoicePro will answer the call and handle it as a human caller. It will play your company greeting and wait for the caller to dial an option. 

Missing CNG Tone with incorrect voice dialing:

Some people make the mistake of dialing the destination fax number with the fax machine's handset off hook. The VoicePro will incorrectly detect this as a voice call. 

The sender needs to press the "Send Fax" button on their machine, or simply dial without using the handset, in order for the VoicePro to properly know this is an incoming fax. 

If the call was determined to be a voice call because the originating fax machine did not send the CNG signal within the first few seconds, then it's too late for the caller to switch to fax mode. This is why it's important to not call by voice first.

How To Send a Fax

You can use your fax machine to send faxes, as you normally would do. When it starts to send a fax, the VoicePro will automatically provide dialtone on any available outside line. 

If you want to force your faxes to always go out on a specific line, program the extension where you connected your fax machine so that it will always select that line for outgoing calls. Use Program Function 3 to specify which outside lines can be accessed from each extension.

Can I use multi-line phones?

The VoicePro is designed to work with single-line phones. It gives these phones multi-line access via program functions. 

If you insist on using two-line or four-line phones, read on...

If you use two-line phones, for example, you have a choice of connecting just one extension to each phone and using it as a single-line phone, or you can connect two extensions to each phone. But in that case you can only have three phones on the VP206 (two extensions each).

It really doesn’t make sense to have two extensions going to the same phone because the VoicePro is a phone system that lets any single-line phone get access to any outside line.

Incoming calls are handled by the Auto Attendant and routed intelligently based on your custom programed menu, as explained above. So, once again, no need for two lines going to a single phone anymore.


Problems With Using Multi-line Phones

If you have a special need that requires two-line phones to be used, make sure you understand what you want to accomplish.

Usually you would not need an intelligent phone system such as the VoicePro if you just want each incoming line to connect to each phone. This is because the phones have button to select the line you want. If you do this, you would be bypassing the functionality of the VoicePro.

More importantly, if you place one line on hold to answer the other, the VoicePro will not know you placed someone on hold. So it will not play music-on-hold (assuming you connected a music source).

It will also not remind you that you left someone on hold by ringing you back.

These are functions of the VoicePro, but they only work if you place someone on hold via the flash button.

How do multiple callers get through?

The VoicePro can handle two or four simultaneous callers, depending on which version you buy. But you need multiple lines from your phone company so that multiple callers can ring in at the same time.

In addition, you will want the phone company to enable rollover, so that you use just one number for your business. If the first incoming line is being used, the next caller rolls over to the next line and rings in on that line.

The VoicePro will answer any ringing line and help route the caller, either with your custom auto attendant menu, or by ringing direct to extensions based on your programming.

How can the Automated Attendant be used?

The VoicePro VP206 has 6 extension jacks to connect in-house phones. The VP412 has 12 jacks. You really only need a single-line phone for each extension.

When you pick up any phone to make a call, the system gives you dial tone from wherever it finds a free line. You don't need to think about it.

Incoming calls can be handled in two different ways based on your needs:

1. Either program the unit to automatically send specific incoming lines to specific extensions. The Caller-ID of the incoming call will be sent to the extension phone.
   
   
2. Or let the auto attendant answer all incoming calls the same way (with your company greeting and a prompt menu). The caller can select from the menu or dial any extension direct if they know it. The line they came in on is not an issue.

Can we set the Daytime Greeting by the day of the week as well as for the hours?

Yes. The automated attendant has three greetings that can be used. 

You can specify what the daytime hours are for weekdays and you can specify what those weekdays are. You can create a greeting that plays to callers during daytime hours and another that plays at nighttime.

Anything else is considered a weekend and you can also record another greeting that plays on weekends.