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Tips for Writing Your Auto Attendant Script

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An Auto Attendant greeting is often their first point of contact with your business. Find a list of tips for drafting an effective Auto Attendant script here.

Planning and Writing Out Your Script

What do your callers hear when they call your company? An Auto Attendant greeting is often their first point of contact with your business. An engaging and well-crafted recording can strengthen your company’s image as a professional and successful business. So it’s worth taking a few minutes to carefully plan out and write down your menu script.

Tips for drafting an effective script

  • Be brief and professional.
  • Begin your recording with a welcome greeting—Thank you for calling XYZ Company.
  • If you have enabled the 8x8 Dial-by-Extension feature, inform callers of this early so they may dial their party’s extension at any time.
  • Clearly state all options available to your callers and let them know that they can make a choice at any time.
    • Try to limit your menus to 5-6 options. More than that will become difficult for callers to remember. If you need additional options, consider using submenus.
    • Present the most important options at the beginning.
    • When announcing the options, state the option first and then state the corresponding key number. Example: For Shipping, press 1.
    • Avoid saying please before every menu choice. This sounds repetitive. Example: For Sales, please press 1. For Support, please press 2…
  • Let your callers know upfront if your menu options have changed recently. Remove this notice after three weeks.
  • Reserve the use of the zero (0) key for being transferred to an operator or receptionist.
  • Have another person review your script.

Script example for business hours

Thank you for calling XYZ Company, maker of the world’s best widgets.
If you know your party’s extension, you may enter it at any time.
For Sales, press 1.
For Service, press 2.
For Technical Support, press 3.
For our hours of operation and location, press 5.
To hear this menu again, press 9.
To speak with an operator, press zero.

Menu tips for after hours

You have the option to create an After Hours menu (Account Manager | Virtual Office Configuration Manager) to inform callers that your business is closed and offer different call routing options than your Business Hours menu.

If you use the After Hours option, follow these tips:

  • Keep Business Hours and After Hours menu options consistent. If you use Key 2 for Sales on your Business Hoursmenu, reserve Key 2 for Sales on your After Hours menu. If you don’t want Sales as an option on your After Hoursmenu, skip using Key 2 on that menu.
  • Tell your callers up front that the business is closed.
  • Ask callers to call back at the end of your message.
  • Include your normal hours of operation.

To learn more about recording your greeting, read these Tips for Recording Your Auto Attendant Menu.