Benefits Of A VoIP Reception Console

An attendant console is not a new concept in enterprise phone communication systems. Typically it was a hardware unit that could handle advanced administrative tasks related to call management, call transfers etc.

The console can be a specialized unit or a regular PBX unit with additional modules. The attendant generally has numerous buttons that can be associated with particular lines or specific functions.

VoIP Reception Console

Any enterprise that is used to the presence of an attendant console will not like to lose the benefits when upgrading to VoIP and neither do they have to. In fact, many VoIP services offer specialized reception consoles with enhanced features that can do more than the traditional hardware attendant.

In some cases, the reception console may be a hardware unit but more often it is a piece of software that can be installed on the enterprise computers or servers.

These modern, upgraded reception consoles come with many advantages such as:

Auto attendant

Companies generally need a receptionist or administrative assistant in order to access or complete many of the built-in attendant functions.

However many VoIP reception consoles are able to automate the majority of these functions so that the employee can be freed for other tasks, instead of wasting their valuable time in transferring routine calls.

The auto attendant is capable of monitoring lines to determine if they are free or not, transferring calls to the appropriate extensions or putting the caller in the hold queue.

Complete restricted calls

The reception console will usually have additional administrative privileges when compared to the other VoIP units. They can be configured to complete restricted calls or automatically re-route calls made to an invalid extension.

The most common use case for this function is for phones that are in a public reception area or lobby. Customers can make use of these units but generally cannot make long-distance or international calls. However they can call the attendant in order to complete the calls if necessary.

Diagnose failures and problems

The reception console will have a complete view of the entire phone network and capable of determining if there is a hardware failure or some other problem in the system.

It can alert users to such issues by means of a blinking light, playing a prerecorded message or sending a notification to the system administrators.

Call and trunk management

VoIP reception consoles can monitor calls in a hosted setup or trunk groups in an on-premise environment. If all the trunks in a particular group are busy, they can route additional calls to the attendant console to avoid congestion.

This option can also be useful in keeping certain trunks free for high-priority or emergency calls.

Call monitoring, transfers and conferencing

The VoIP auto attendant can perform advanced functions like monitoring concurrent calls on multiple lines, transferring certain calls directly to voicemail (if the employee is on vacation or unavailable) or completing conference calls with multiple participants using different devices etc.

In fact, smaller organizations may have all their VoIP programming in the attendant console itself to handle all call management functions.