Save time routing calls and filter out spam with an auto-attendant phone system designed for small businesses.
Auto-attendants are telephony tools that guide callers to the right destination using audio menus. Also called IVR systems or virtual receptionists, they play menu recordings like “Press one for accounting” to route calls efficiently.
An auto attendant phone system automates answering and routing calls to the right person or department. Acting as a 24/7 virtual receptionist, it ensures every call is answered and accurately directed without human intervention.
Simplify your call management process at any call volume — no live receptionist required. OpenPhone’s auto-attendant is available on any plan.
Help your business make a good first impression with professional phone service tools. Create a customized auto-attendant greeting that provides information about your business and its current phone menu options.
Set up call flows in minutes with our call flow builder. Drag and drop call flow steps, including an auto-attendant, directly into your existing call flows.
Give customers the ability to navigate your auto-attendant by using their keypad or saying each menu option aloud with voice prompts.
Split responsibility for incoming calls with shared numbers. Forward calls to backup options like a forwarding number, voicemail, or our AI voice agent Sona.
Customize how you automatically welcome callers. Provide a recorded greeting message that helps callers navigate your auto-attendant system.
Set up multiple menus in your call flows based on time of day. Route calls to one menu during business hours and another one for after-hours calls.
Easily update the phone menu destinations when teammates are on vacation or as your team grows.
Unlimited calls and texts
Free calling and texting to US and Canadian numbers
Port your existing numbers for free
No stress with free number porting to OpenPhone
AI call transcripts and summaries
No more note-taking on customer calls
SMS and MMS messaging
Continue the conversation over text
Business hours
Set up call flows during and after your working hours
Third-party integrations
Share your call and message logs where you need to
OpenPhone makes it easy to enable an auto-attendant in just four simple steps:
Navigate to your phone number settings.
Choose any owned phone number to equip a phone menu or auto-attendant function.
If you haven’t already, set your business hours associated with that phone number.
Add your menu options accordingly, including audio recordings, call destinations, and voice commands.
See why thousands of businesses choose OpenPhone as their business phone system.
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Add as many business phone numbers as your team needs with OpenPhone. Choose between local US and Canadian phone numbers, as well as North American toll-free numbers.
Build credibility in local regions by choosing phone numbers with recognizable area codes. Pick numbers that match your target cities or states and add them instantly in your OpenPhone account. If you serve multiple regions, a toll-free number is a good option to provide dedicated customer support. Plus, you can stand out from the competition by adding a vanity number that customers will remember.
All OpenPhone plans include a number for every user who joins your workspace. Plus, share numbers if you want dedicated lines for your customer support and sales teams. Add more numbers as your team grows — additional numbers cost $5 per number per month.
Tackle customer relationships as a team in OpenPhone. Handle incoming calls and texts together with shared numbers. Share visibility into customer interactions across your team with a shared inbox.
Assign follow-up tasks to your colleagues and troubleshoot issues in real time with internal threads. No need to message teammates directly to find out if they’re aware of what’s going on; see whether they’ve reviewed a conversation with inbox viewers.
Work together effortlessly on live calls. Hand off callers to colleagues with the right amount of context using warm transfers. Connect stakeholders on the same call with group calling.
Never miss an inbound call again with our call routing and management features. Choose how your team receives incoming calls with ring groups. Ring them simultaneously or in custom batches. Give callers the option to reach team members directly with our automated attendant feature.
If your team is busy or unavailable, route callers to our AI answering service, Sona. It can take down detailed messages and answer routine questions on behalf of your team. You can also direct callers to a backup emergency number or a pre-recorded audio message.
Send timely messages to your customers with our texting features. Automatically reply to after-hours messages using SMS auto-replies. Schedule follow-up messages to your customers based on their time zone so you’re not texting them late at night. Respond to customer questions faster with pre-written text templates, also known as snippets.
Send even more messages in less time through our automated text workflows. Text customers appointment confirmations, reminders, and review requests automatically with our Zapier and Make integrations. Share more context with customers by sending a photo or a video with MMS messaging.
Say goodbye to busywork. Automatically log your calls and texts in your CRM using our HubSpot, Jobber, and Salesforce integrations. Build a custom integration to connect to your preferred system with the OpenPhone API.
No need to take any more notes with OpenPhone. Automatically record your calls and generate AI-powered call summaries and transcripts. Want to identify business trends and surface recurring issues based on customer feedback? Use AI to analyze your phone calls and categorize them automatically with AI call tags.
Get a business phone that works everywhere you go. Whether your team is at the office, at home, or on the go, they can communicate with customers using OpenPhone. Download OpenPhone for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. You can also access it in your browser if you prefer. All you need is an internet connection to get started.
Find out how much you’re investing in your business phone solution upfront on our pricing page.
Can’t find the answer here? Check out our Resource Center.
Callers can use their keypad or voice prompts, also known as IVR, to choose different menu options. Some advanced systems also include a dial-by-name directory feature.
Auto-attendants offer multiple benefits to businesses:
1. Better customer experience: Customers can connect with your team faster using an auto-attendant. They don’t have to wait in a call queue or go through multiple call transfers.
2. Shorter wait times: Customers don’t have to wait on the line or call back to connect with your team. And with shorter wait times, teams can quickly improve their customer satisfaction.
3. Reduced spam calls: Robocallers can’t navigate through phone menu options easily. Your team won’t get distracted with spam calls and can have more conversations with customers.
An auto-attendant is a menu-based system callers can use to navigate to different departments in a business. Some auto-attendant phone systems offer IVR to access different menu options.
Click Add greeting message in the Phone menu call flow block and choose:
1. Upload a file: Use an existing audio (MP3/WAV).
2. Record: Create a greeting directly in OpenPhone.
3. Text-to-speech: Type text for professional voiceover.
Example greeting: “Thank you for calling Acme Inc. For Sales, press one. For Support, press two. For our business hours and location, press three. To speak with an operator, press zero.”
Each phone menu level can accommodate up to 10 options. Each option corresponds to a phone keypad number, i.e., zero to nine.
You can add up to two nested menus in OpenPhone’s auto-attendant feature.
Auto-attendants help callers navigate to the right department or team, and call queues manage callers who are waiting to speak to someone on the team. Call queues are typically used by call centers to manage high call volumes.
Here are a few auto-attendant script examples:
1. Basic auto-attendant greeting:
Hello! Thanks for calling XYZ Company. Our hours of operation are 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern time, seven days a week. Please select from the following menu options to reach a specific department:
For the sales department, press one.
For the billing department, press two.
For the public relations department, press three.
For all other inquiries, stay on the line to speak to a member of our customer support team.
2. Customer support script:
Thank you for contacting XYZ Customer Service.
If you are a new customer, press one.
For existing customers, press two.
For more information about XYZ Company, press three.
To repeat this message, press zero.
3. Restaurant script:
Hello! You’ve reached XYZ Bistro. For reservations, press one. For information about our menu, press two. To place a to-go order, press three. For all other inquiries, please stay on the line.
Looking for more examples? Get a list of 20+ clear auto-attendant script examples on our blog.
Both auto-attendants and answering services offer benefits to small businesses. With OpenPhone, you don’t have to choose between them. Add an auto-attendant to your call flow to help customers navigate to different teams. Provide a menu option for callers to talk to Sona, our AI answering service, in case they can’t reach a member of your team or simply have a quick question Sona can answer.
Join thousands of businesses already using OpenPhone to communicate better with their customers.
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