ServiceM8 Phone - message bank

General
1

Why can’t we select message bank for serviceM8 phone during business hours. Currently it takes 30 seconds before the message kicks in which is far too long. Customers will hang up by then.

2

Hi Jamie,

During business hours, ServiceM8 Phone routes incoming calls to your Business Hours Call Group, and if those designated staff members can’t answer, the call is routed to voicemail.

If you’ve enabled a Secondary Call Group, calls divert to that backup group if the Business Hours Call Group doesn’t answer (20 seconds), and then divert to voicemail if the Secondary Call Group doesn’t answer (30 seconds).

If your goal is for “message bank” style handling to kick in immediately during business hours, the ServiceM8 Phone Agent is designed for that, because Business Hours mode answers calls immediately during your specified business hours (before the call rings through to your staff), and it can take messages and save them to your ServiceM8 Inbox.

You can check your Secondary Call Group setup in the Online Dashboard under Settings > ServiceM8 Phone > Advanced Settings (then Edit): How to divert calls to a Secondary Call Group - ServiceM8 Help Center

Reply here with whether you’ve got a Secondary Call Group enabled, and we’ll point you to the quickest setup for your workflow.

Thanks,
Cody

3

Thanks Cody, Would be great if sending to voice message during business hours is an option. We are closing our office for a 3.5 days as we will be attending a conference. We just want customers to leave a message so we can access them at the end of our day.

4

Hi Jamie,

ServiceM8 Phone’s default setup is to ring your Business Hours Call Group first, and if those staff can’t answer, the call is routed to voicemail.

For a short office closure (like your 3.5 days away), the simplest way to have callers leave a message is to treat that period as “after hours” and send After Hours Calls to voicemail.

  1. Update your Operating Hours (Settings > Preferences > Company Information > Operating Hours) so calls during the time you’re away fall outside those hours.
  2. In Settings > ServiceM8 Phone > After Hours Calls, set After Hours Calls to “Send calls to voicemail”.
  3. Test it by calling your number when you’re outside business hours and confirm you’re happy with the after-hours voicemail message.

Any voicemails can be accessed from the ServiceM8 Inbox (online) or in the ServiceM8 Phone app under Recent, including the recording and transcription.

If you need calls answered immediately (rather than ringing through to staff first), ServiceM8 Phone Agent Business Hours mode is designed to answer calls immediately during your specified business hours and can take messages into your ServiceM8 Inbox.

Once that’s done, reply here so we can confirm it’s working the way you want.

Thanks,
Cody