Set up a Microsoft Teams Auto attendant

Auto attendants let people call your organization and navigate a menu system to speak to the right department, Call queue, person, or an operator. You can create Auto attendants for your organization with the Microsoft Teams admin center or with PowerShell.

Be sure you've read Plan for Teams Auto attendants and Call queues and followed the getting started steps before you follow the procedures in this article.

Auto attendants can redirect calls, based on callers' 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 the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls. This person can be an online user or a user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server.
  • Voice app - 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 voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify. You can choose if you want voicemail transcriptions and the "Please leave a message after the tone." system prompt.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See external transfer technical details.
  • Announcement (Audio file) - Play an audio file. The system plays the announcement, and then returns to the Auto attendant menu. See Supported audio file formats.
  • Announcement (Typed) - Type in a message. Text you want the system to read. You can enter up to 1000 characters. The system plays the announcement, and then returns to the Auto attendant menu.

Note

When redirecting calls to a Person in the organization, that person must be voice enabled. For details on enabling voice, see Assign Teams add-on licenses to users.

Important

While defining an Operator is optional, it's recommended. Auto attendants redirect calls to the operator if there is an error in the Auto attendant configuration due to a user or shared voicemail account being deleted or if the caller doesn't make any selection after listening to the menu three consecutive times.

If an operator isn't defined, the Auto attendant drops the call.

In addition to defining an operator, the operator needs to be one of the configured menu choices.

What's new for Auto attendants in the past six months

Steps to create an Auto attendant

The steps to add an Auto attendant are:

  1. Set up general information.
  2. Set up call flows.
  3. Set up dial scope.
  4. Set up resource accounts.
  5. Set up authorized users.

The steps outlined in the article create Auto attendants using the Teams admin center. For instructions to create Auto attendants using PowerShell, see Creating Auto attendants with PowerShell cmdlets.

Follow these steps to set up your Auto attendant

Step 1: Set the Auto attendant's general information

To set up an Auto attendant, in the Teams admin center, expand Voice, select Auto attendants, and then select Add.

  1. Type a name for the Auto attendant in the box at the top.

  2. To designate an operator, specify the destination for calls to the operator. This designation is optional but recommended. Set the Operator option to allow callers to break out of the menus and speak to a designated person.

  3. Specify the time zone for this Auto attendant. The time zone is used for calculating business hours if you create a separate call flow for after hours.

  4. Specify a supported language for this Auto attendant. This language is used for system-generated voice prompts.

    Important

    When using Text to Speech, the text must be entered in the selected language as the system doesn't perform translation.

    All words are pronouced in the selected language.

  5. Choose if you want to enable voice inputs. When enabled, the name of every menu option becomes a speech-recognition keyword. For example, callers can say "One" to select the menu option mapped to key 1, or they can say "Sales" to select the menu option named "Sales." If you choose a language in Step 4 that doesn't support voice inputs, this option isn't available.

Once you've set your Auto attendant's general info, select Next.

Resources for complex scenarios

External phone number transfers - technical details

Refer to the Prerequisites in order to allow Auto attendants to transfer calls externally. In addition,

  • For a resource account with a Calling Plan license or Operator Connect number, the external transfer phone number must be entered in E.164 format (+[country code][area code][phone number]).

  • For a resource account with a Microsoft Teams Phone License and Direct Routing online voice routing policy, the external transfer phone number format is dependant on the Session Border Controller (SBC) settings.

The outbound phone number that's displayed is determined as follows:

  • For Calling Plan and Operator Connect numbers, the original caller's phone number is displayed.
  • For Direct Routing numbers, the number sent is based on the P-Asserted-Identity (PAI) setting on the SBC, as follows:
    • If set to Disabled, the original caller's phone number is displayed. Disabled is the default and recommended setting.
    • If set to Enabled, the resource account phone number is displayed.

In a Skype for Business hybrid environment, to transfer an Auto attendant call to the PSTN, create a new on-premises user with call forwarding set to the PSTN number. The user must be enabled for Enterprise Voice and have a voice policy assigned. To learn more, see Auto attendant call transfer to PSTN.

Auto Attendant Diagnostic Tool

If you're an administrator, you can use the following diagnostic tool to validate that an Auto attendant is able to receive calls:

  1. Select Run Tests, which populates the diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

  2. In the Run diagnostic pane, enter the Resource Account in the Username or Email field, and then select Run Tests.

  3. The tests identify tenant, policy, or resource account configurations that are preventing the Auto attendant from receiving calls and also provide steps to fix any problems identified.

Here's what you get with Teams Phone

Routing calls with Auto attendants and Call queues

Getting service phone numbers

Country and region availability for Audio Conferencing and Calling Plans

An introduction to Windows PowerShell and Skype for Business Online