Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online

Topic Last Modified: 2012-11-30

You can enable a customized non-business hours greeting for a Unified Messaging (UM) auto attendant. The non-business hours greeting is the first thing callers hear when a UM auto attendant answers their call during non-business hours. You'll probably want to customize the greeting.

Unified Messaging includes a default system prompt for use during non-business hours. Although the default system prompt mustn't be replaced or changed, you may want to provide an customized greeting. You can create a customized greeting in the .wav or .wma file format to be used when callers call in to a UM auto attendant during non-business hours. For example, "You’ve reached Woodgrove Bank after hours."

If you want to include the name of your organization or business as part of the default greeting, you can enter the name in the Business name box on the UM auto attendant. For details, see Enter a Business Name.

For additional management tasks related to UM auto attendants, see UM Auto Attendant Procedures.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "UM auto attendants" entry in the Unified Messaging Permissions topic.

  • Before you perform these procedures, confirm that a UM dial plan has been created. For detailed steps, see Create a UM Dial Plan.

  • Before you perform these procedures, confirm that a UM auto attendant has been created. For detailed steps, see Create a UM Auto Attendant.

  • Create a .wav or .wma file to be used for the greeting.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in the Exchange Admin Center.

Tip:
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

What do you want to do?

Use the EAC to enable a customized non-business hours greeting

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Unified Messaging > UM dial plans. In the list view, select the UM dial plan you want to change, and then click Edit Edit Icon.

  2. On the UM Dial Plan page, under UM Auto Attendants, select the UM auto attendant for which you want to enable a customized non-business hours greeting, and then click Edit Edit Icon.

  3. On the UM Auto Attendant page, > Greetings, under Non-business hours greeting, click Change, and then click Browse to locate the customized non-business hours greeting file you created before you started this procedure.

    Important:
    The file you use for the greeting must be a .wav or .wma file.
  4. After you've located the file, click Open, and then click Save.

Use the Shell to enable a customized non-business hours greeting

This example enables the non-business hours greeting that uses a customized greeting named GreetingFile.wav for the UM auto attendant MyUMAutoAttendant.

Copy Code 
Set-UMAutoAttendant -Identity MyUMAutoAttendant -AfterHoursWelcomeGreetingEnabled $true -AfterHoursWelcomeGreetingFilename GreetingFile.wav

This example configures a UM auto attendant named MyUMAutoAttendant that has business hours configured to be 10:45 to 13:15 (Sunday), 09:00 to 17:00 (Monday), and 09:00 to 16:30 (Saturday) and holiday times and their associated greetings configured to be "New Year" on January 2, 2013, and "Building Closed for Construction" from April 24, 2013 through April 28, 2013.

Copy Code 
Set-UMAutoAttendant -Identity MyUMAutoAttendant -BusinessHoursSchedule 0.10:45-0.13:15,1.09:00-1.17:00,6.09:00-6.16:30 -HolidaySchedule "New Year,newyrgrt.wav,1/2/2013","Building Closed for Construction,construction.wav,4/24/2013,4/28/2013"

This example configures a UM auto attendant named MyAutoAttendant and enables non-business hours key mappings so that when callers press 1, they’re forwarded to another UM auto attendant named SalesAutoAttendant. When they press 2, they’re forwarded to extension number 12345 for Support, and when they press 3, they’re sent to another auto attendant that plays an audio file.

Copy Code 
Set-UMAutoAttendant -Identity MyAutoAttendant - BusinessHoursKeyMappingEnabled $true -BusinessHoursKeyMapping "1,Sales,,SalesAutoAttendant","2,Support,12345","3,Directions,,,directions.wav"