Learn About Call Answering Rules

Applies to: Office 365 for enterprises, Microsoft Exchange

One of the main functions of Exchange Unified Messaging is to answer incoming calls, take voice mail messages, and send them to your Inbox. Call Answering Rules let you tell the voice mail system how to handle your incoming calls. You can set the voice mail system to just answer your incoming calls and record a voice message, or you can set up conditions and actions so that incoming calls will be handled in a different way.

What Are Call Answering Rules?

If your mailbox is enabled for Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging, you can set up to nine call answering rules. These rules are different from the Inbox rules that you set up. By default, no call answering rules have been created for you. All callers will be prompted to leave you a voice message until you set up call answering rules. If you're satisfied with having the voice mail system just answer your incoming calls and record a voice message, you don't have to create any call answering rules. However, if you decide that you want to set up conditions or actions, you can set them up by using the Call Answering Rules section on the Voice Mail tab in Outlook Web App. Use the Call Answering Rules section, shown below, to create, edit, and delete call answering rules.

To create a new call answering rule, click .

What Are the Parts of a Call Answering Rule?

Each call answering rule that you create contains two key parts:

• Conditions – The criteria that must be met before the rule can be applied to an incoming call.
• Actions – The options that should be presented to the caller when all the conditions are met. These actions will be read to the caller over the phone, and the caller can then choose what they want to do using the keypad on their phone.

The following figure shows the form for creating a call answering rule. The form is divided into two columns. The right column displays the list of available conditions and actions you can use to build the rule. The left column displays the list of conditions and actions that have been added to the rule.

Conditions

Conditions are rules that you can apply to call answering rules. By using a combination of conditions, you can create multiple call answering rules that will trigger when the conditions are met. To create a default rule that will be applied to every call, you create a rule that doesn't contain any conditions.

There are four conditions that can be used when you set up call answering rules, including:

• Caller ID
• Time-of-the-day
• Free/busy status
• Automatic e-mail reply is enabled/disabled

Use one of the following options to add a condition for a call answering rule.

Actions

Actions are used to define what you want to happen when a condition is met. The three kinds of actions are:

• Find-Me
• Call Transfer
• Leave a Voice Mail

Use one of the following options to add an action for a call answering rule.

Adding a Find-Me Action

When a caller selects Find-Me, the voice mail system will attempt to locate you at up to two different phone numbers, and then connect the caller to you if you're available at one of the phone numbers. To add Find-Me to your list of actions, click .

In the Find-Me dialog box, specify the phone numbers and other settings. The settings that are available are listed below.

You can specify text that will be read to the caller. For example, if you enter “Urgent Matters” to inform your callers that they should only select this action if they have important things to discuss with you, the voice mail system will say "For Urgent Matters, press the 1 key."

You have to associate the Find-Me action with the number on the telephone keypad that the caller will have to press to select this action. In the example above, the 1 telephone key is the number callers will press to reach you at one of the phone numbers you specify.

Next, you have to specify the one or two phone numbers that the voice mail system will dial. If you specify two telephone numbers, the second number will be dialed if you're not available at the first. Each phone number that you specify has an associated duration. The duration is the time period during which the voice mail system will try to dial the phone number before it moves on to the next number. Or, if you can't be contacted, the voice mail system will go back to the options menu.

After you've entered this information, click Apply to save the Find-Me settings.

Adding Call Transfer Options

By setting a Call Transfer action, you provide callers with the option to be transferred to another person's phone number. To add Call Transfer to your list of actions, click .

The Transfer the Caller dialog box is shown below.

There are several options that are available when you want to transfer an incoming call to another phone or Contact, as follows:

• You can specify text that will be read to the caller. For example, you can enter “Important Matters” to inform your callers that they should choose this option if they have an important matter to discuss and need to speak to someone.
• You have to associate the Call Transfer action with the number on the telephone keypad that the caller will have to press to select this action.
• When you choose the Call Transfer action, you have to specify a person or phone number for the caller to be transferred to. You can choose a phone number or select a Contact to be called when the caller presses the correct key on the telephone keypad. If you specify a contact who's within your company directory, the voice mail system will try to transfer the call to the extension number of that contact.
• In addition to specifying a person or number for the caller to be transferred to, you also need to specify the number on the telephone keypad that the caller will have to press to select the Call Transfer action.
• After you've entered this information, click Apply to save the Call Transfer settings.

Adding and Removing the Leave a Voice Mail Action

By default, the voice mail option is automatically added to each call answering rule. If you don't want to offer this option, you can remove it by clicking . Press the # key to record a voice message. If you've removed the option for receiving a voice message, you can add it back by clicking the option.

Recording a Personalized Voice Mail Greeting

You can record a custom greeting for each call answering rule you create. By default, Unified Messaging will generate a default greeting based on the actions you've configured. To record a custom greeting, you can click the .

in the Call Answering Rule window and the voice mail system will call you so you can record a greeting. In your recording, you should include any actions you've configured on the rule itself. The voice mail system won't list the actions if you've recorded a custom greeting.

You can also allow callers to interrupt your voice mail greeting while it's being played for callers, or prevent them from doing so, by selecting or clearing the check box.

Saving Call Answering Rules

Before you save your rule, you have to give it a meaningful name. After you do this, click Save and Close to create the rule. Next, you should test to make sure the call answering rule is working you want it to by trying to call your phone extension and waiting for the call to be answered by Unified Messaging.