Auto attendants let people call into your organization and navigate a menu system to speak to the right department, call queue, person, or operator. You can create automated attendees for your organization with the Microsoft Teams admin center or with PowerShell.
Make sure you’ve read the plan for team auto attendants and call queues and followed the getting started steps before following the procedures in this article.
Auto attendants can redirect calls, based on caller input, to one of the following destinations:
- operator: The operator defined for the auto attendant. defining an operator is optional. the operator can be defined as any of the other destinations in this list.
- person in organization: A person in your organization who can receive voice calls. this person can be an online user or a user hosted locally using the skype for business server.
- voice application – another auto attendant or a call queue. (Choose the resource account associated with the auto attendant or call queue when choosing this destination.)
- voicemail – The voicemail box associated with a group from Microsoft 365 that you specify. you can choose whether you want voicemail transcripts and the “leave a message at the tone” option. system indication.
- in the m365 admin center enable “allow people outside your organization to send email to this team” for the microsoft 365 group you specify
what’s new in auto attendants in the last 6 months
- September: force listen option is now available with play menu option for call flow, after hours call flow and call flow during the holidays.
- August: The play menu options in the call flow, the call flow outside of business hours, and the call flow during the holidays. Holidays now support * (star) and # (pound) keys.
- July: Holiday call flow now supports playback menu options.
steps to create an auto attendant
The steps to add an auto attendant are:
- set up general information.
- set up a basic call flow.
- set up an after hours call flow.
- set up vacation call flows.
- configure dial scope.
- configure resource accounts.
The steps in the article create automated attendees using the Teams admin center. For instructions on how to create auto attendants with powershell, see how to create auto attendants with powershell cmdlets.
follow these steps to set up your auto attendant
resources for complex scenarios
external phone number transfers: technical details
See the prerequisites for allowing auto attendants to transfer calls externally. in addition:
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For a resource account with a calling plan license or carrier connection number, the external transfer telephone number must be entered in e.164 format (+[country code][country code]). area]
).For a resource account with a Microsoft Teams Phone license and a direct routing online voice routing policy, the format of the outbound phone number depends on the configuration of the session border controller (sbc ).
The displayed outgoing phone number is determined as follows:
- For Calling Plan and carrier connection numbers, the caller’s original phone number is displayed.
- For Direct Routing numbers, the submitted number is displayed. based on the asserted identity p (pai) setting in the sbc, as follows:
- if off, the original caller’s phone number is displayed. this is the default and recommended setting.
- if enabled, the resource account phone number is displayed.
In a hybrid skype for business environment, to transfer an auto attendant call to pstn, create a new local user with call forwarding set to pstn number. the user must be enabled for enterprise voice and have a voice policy assigned. For more information, see Transfer calls from auto attendant to pstn.
auto wizard diagnostic tool
If you are an administrator, you can use the following diagnostic tool to validate that an auto attendant can receive calls:
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select run tests below, which will complete the diagnostic in the microsoft 365 admin center.
In the diagnostic run panel, enter the resource account in the username or email field, then select run tests.
tests will identify tenant account settings, policies, or resources that prevent the auto attendant from receiving calls and provide steps to fix identified issues.
related topics
This is what you get with Teams Phone
get service phone numbers
country and region availability for audio conferencing and calling plans
an introduction to windows powershell and skype for online business