Companies that want to use an Auto Attendant and make use of additional routing will need to create a Hunt Group which controls the scheduling. The number that callers use to reach the Auto Attendant needs to be assigned to the Hunt Group.
The way the Hunt Group will be configured is to instantly forward calls to the Auto Attendant using the No Answer Action feature. When No Answer Action is set to forward calls after 0 seconds any call into the Hunt Group will be instantly forwarded. This means during opening hours calls will be directed to the main Auto Attendant Menu.
When we want the calls to be routed elsewhere the schedule and additional routing that is applied to the Hunt Group will ensure this happens. This is done by setting an alternative routing destination in the schedule such as voicemail or an out of hours Hunt Group.
Let’s break down the key steps for setting this up:
Create the Hunt Group: #
- Log into the Horizon Portal
- Navigate to Call Groups → Hunt Groups
- Click + Create
- In the Account tab configure the group details
- Set the name as something that will be easy to identify as this one-off Hunt Group
- In the Options tab configure No Answer Action as follows
- Forward calls to [Enter the Auto Attendant DDI or Extension]
- after [0 seconds]
- Complete the rest of the Hunt Group setup
- Note: You won’t need to add users to this group
Configure the Hunt Groups schedule #
If you are creating a basic scheduling setup you will need to add your business closed hours to the schedule of the Hunt Group. If you are doing advanced scheduling and the Hunt Group you are configuring is at the bottom level of the schedule you will still need to add at least one day to the schedule to ensure additional routing is triggered. To get started with group schedules see Create a Call Group schedule.
To configure what happens during one off events like Christmas you will need to configure Additional Routing. For help with this please refer to Configuring Additional Routing for Christmas Schedules.
Set the number for the Hunt Group #
The number that callers use to reach the Auto Attendant needs to be assigned to the Hunt Group. For example, if callers are calling the main company number and reaching the Auto Attendant we need to move the number to the Hunt Group and set the No Answer Action as the extension of the Auto Attendant. With the above configuration callers will not notice a difference.
