Voicemail for Auto Attendant & Call queueing

Brass Contributor

Hello all, 

 

I really want to request that they add Voicemail to Call Queuing and Auto Attendant this is a important features for after hours calls for our helpdesk - is this possible to do?

 

 

29 Replies

Is there a status on this feature? 

 

BTW if you are interested in this feature, please vote this up!

 

(SkypeFeedback UserVoice)

https://www.skypefeedback.com/forums/299913-generally-available/suggestions/19785292-voicemail-in-sh...

 

 

Someone had the same idea, why couldn't you use a Shared Mailbox for this or something that can be a shared resource??

 

The extremely frustrating part is that you have to sell people on using an E3 and a PSTN plan to just capture VM's!

Agree'd, telling a user they need to spend money to add a voicemail box is rediculous. 

 

I would love to spend 15 minutes with the dev team to really sort out the feature the small to mid sized businesses need. 

 

 

Any update on this for planning? We can't switch over till this feature is there.

 

 

Nicholas

Any update on this?  I was trying a workaround by having a seperate user & mailbox for the call queue messages, but I am unable to forward the voicemails to a group - Exchange rules and Mailbox rules do not work on the voicemails.

@Nicholas Williams 

 

Hey everyone,

 

This is hot off the press!

 

Service update notification

The service updates for Auto Attendant and Call Queues were completed successfully this week. The updates introduce new capabilities, namely:

 

1. Centralized holiday tables that can be reused across apps. You will find it under Org wide settings

2. You can assign Direct Routing numbers to Auto Attendant and Call Queues (as of today DR with AA/CQ support Teams users only)

3. You can assign a hybrid number to AA/CQ (currently in preview)

4. You can assign Multiple numbers to an auto attendant or call queue

5. Round Robin routing option is introduced in call queues

 

The updates prepare the services as well for the upcoming features:

6. Transfer out to PSTN from auto attendant and call queues

7. Extension dialing from auto attendant

8. Voicemail shared mailbox for auto attendant and call queues

 

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Auto-Attendant-and-Call-Queues-Service-U... 

 

 

@Nicholas Williams 

 

2 years later, and no progress??   We also need a queue voice mail option.  When the caller reaches a "team" like customer service and they are all on a call, it would be logic that a queue automatically gets the call via a voicemail so customers don't have to wait 15 minutes and get disconnected.   That is a bad user experience, I can't believe this has not been implemented.

@Ben Girard 

 

I can't believe it either.  This is a basic feature that should have been offered from day 1.

They have made progress...but with the stopping of UM/Exchange for Cloud Voicemail, switching to Teams...glad I went with CallTower to host my Skype for Business.  They are going to upgrade to 2019, so we will be good for years more.

 

Only thing is to find an alternative to auto attendant and delivering voicemail seemlessly into an O365 Exchange mailbox like it does now since SBC controllers won't be support and the UM/Exchange feature no longer being offered.  Vendor is working on some solutions to work around and provide that feature and functions I guess.

 

Won't be moving to MS Teams/Skype anytime soon though.  Some of these basic functions like you all have mentioned, like a call queue for main numbers or other features we use that aren't support still are kind of a let down.

 

MS has too many things going on and can't focus on core features/functions with all of their products they have.  Piece meal instead of complete features and focus on product rollout IMO.

@Sebastien Demigne Agreed, I'm actually pretty upset because there was a comparable feature in Exchange UM but no longer is that the case here in S4B and Teams as Exchange UM is going away in 6 months.

Does anyone know if there is a UserVoice thread we can vote on for this?

We use CallTower, a 3rd party hosted S4B solution who currently I believe was using SBC to communicate and send calls to the Exchange UM we use as part of O365 to handle auto attendant functions.  They handle call queuing, so after a selection of digits, it routes back to their queues for then routing to the operator or a department.

 

With that said, they claimed the way things work now aren't going away for at least 3-4yrs...but without a session border controller that MS says they are ending in Feb. 2020, they won't be able to do things the way it is done down.  They keep saying word is coming soon on what the alternative method and how we will accomplish this, but claim email will be delivered into the Outlook inbox with the media player as it does now...or so they say.

 

Sine they are going to install/upgrade on their hosted cloud Skype 2019, maybe they have some alternative/method within that platform to handle the auto attendant that gives these features that have been missing?  IDK.

 

MS of course is claiming they are going to implement a Voice cloud system, who knows what that really entails for hosted providers or on-premise solutions as well to integrate with O365 Exchange/Outlook for users.  And let's not even get started with Teams...gheez.  CallTower does Cisco and also offers MS Teams hosted as well...but they say stay away from Teams for a while until people can sort through where that is headed.

 

Anyway, went off topic some on this post.  But wanted to piggyback on the mystery that is the end of UM..and how this is going to be a moot point and what are many people's alternatives?