Announcements and Auto Textback

Announcements and Auto Textback

Overview


An Announcement is a pre-recorded greeting that plays to the caller without offering any interactive options. A common example might be, “Calls are recorded for quality and training purposes.” Once the announcement finishes playing, the call automatically continues to the next destination in the call flow, such as a ring group, queue, or any other PBX feature.


Upload a Recording


1. Log in to the PBX Admin Portal at https://pbx.primevox.net.

2. Navigate to "Greetings" → "Recordings"

3. Click “Upload Recording”.

4. Enter a name for your recording.

5. Select a file to upload.

6. Click “Submit”.

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Creating an Announcement

1. Navigate to "Greetings" → "Announcements"

2. Click “Add Announcement”.

3. Give your Announcement an extension number.
  1. This can be any number that is 3 to 5 digits long.
  2. We recommend starting with 9001 per our Extension Numbering Guidelines. 
  3. Ignore all other fields for now
4. Click “Submit”.

5. You'll be redirected to the General tab with additional settings:
  1. Set the Announcement Name
  2. Select the recording to use
  3. Select the type of destination after the Announcement completes
  4. Select the specific destination
6. Click “Submit” to save any changes. 

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Advanced Options


When editing an Announcement, there is an Advanced tab with the additional settings listed below:
  • Destination Looping: This setting has been permanently disabled.
  • Looping Timeout: This setting has been permanently disabled.
  • Allow Skipping: This toggle allows a caller to press any digit on their keypad while the Announcement is playing to skip it.
  • Disable Voicemail Greeting: When this toggle is enabled, any caller who enters the Announcement will not hear a voicemail greeting if they reach a voicemail afterward. Instead, the caller will immediately hear a voicemail tone when reaching a voicemail box.
Make sure to click "Submit" at the bottom of the page before navigating to another tab. 

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Enabling Auto Textback


The Announcement feature can be used to send a text message to callers automatically. A few example messages that could be sent to a caller would be "Sorry we missed your call" or "Thanks for your interest.”

Warning
Attention! Per carrier regulation, a caller must be given the option to Opt-In to SMS messages and provided a clear way to Opt-Out of SMS messaging:
  1. Opt-In requirements mean that this feature must be used in conjunction with an IVR (a.k.a Call Tree/Call Menu).
  2. Opt-Out requirements mean the phrase “Reply STOP to unsubscribe.” must be included in your automatic SMS message. 

While editing your new Announcement:

1. Select the Auto Textback tab.

2. Choose the Phone Number SMS messages should come from.
  1. If you have not already registered your phone number for SMS/MMS messaging, you can do so by filling out this form.
3. Type your message.
  1. Shorter is better
  2. Be sure to include “Reply STOP to unsubscribe.” at the end of your message.
4. Choose whether or not you want this automatic text to be added to the UCP Area, in the form of a new SMS conversation thread. 
  1. Warning: This can fill your UCP accounts up with unnecessary SMS conversations!!
5. Click “Submit”.

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Managing Customer Opt-Outs


If a customer/caller texts the word "STOP" to one of your phone numbers, they will be opted out of receiving SMS messages from that phone number.

You can manage opt-outs by navigating to "Call Routing" → "Inbound" in the PBX and clicking "Edit" on a phone number.

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