One of the first things you’ll need to do before using Agares Auto-Attendant is to create a “menu file.”  These “menu files” tell Skype what to do when someone calls.  For example, lets say you wanted to use Agares Auto-Attendant to route calls for your web design business, and you wanted the following:

A. An introduction thanking the caller for calling

B. The ability to give the caller directions to your business by pressing 1.

C. The ability to give the caller your hours of operations by pressing 2.

D. The ability to be transferred to the Human Resources department by pressing 3.

E. The ability to be transferred to the Project Manager by pressing 4.

F. Since you have two project managers, after pressing 4 you want to present two more options, specifically by pressing 1 you will talk with John Doe, and by pressing 2 you will talk with Jane Doe.

Now this is what a menu file does; it defines what audio is played or what phone number the call is transfered to based on what telephone key the user pressed.  Using this example, lets walk through the creation of a menu file step by step.

Create a New Menu File

With Agares Auto-Attendant, you can create an unlimited number of menu files, however only one menu file may be active at a time.  This is perfect though when you need to update your menu due to holiday greetings, a change in hours etc.  To continue with our example, the first thing we need to do is create a new menu file, by going to File > New Menu.

The Root Menu Node

When you a create a new menu, it will only start out with one node, the root node.  Nodes are simply individual menu items.  Each node, including the root node, can have up to 9 child nodes, one corresponding with each number on the phone between 1 and 9.  A caller will call in, and then press the number on their phone in order to navigate your menu.  The root node is your introduction, so in our example, I am going to use this node to “Thank the caller for calling” and then to inform them of where each button on their phone will take them.

To do that, I can either use a pre-recorded wav file (Skype requires all .wav files to be 16 bits per sample, 16000 samples per second, 1 channel/mono, PCM) or I can press the R button to record the wav myself.

I’ve made a wav file called root.wav, and in that recording I spoke the following introduction:

“Thanks for calling Generic Web Designs.  In order to better assist you, please use your touch-tone keypad to select one of the following options.  Press 1 for directions to our office.  Press 2 to hear our hours of operation.  Press 3 to be transferred to our human resources department, or Press 4 to speak with a project manager.”

Now I click apply and I’ve created my root node/introduction.

Adding Child Nodes

As I’ve mentioned, child nodes are sub menus.  There can only be one root menu, so all the other options are child nodes.  Now that I’ve finished the root menu, I’m going to have to add each of the options.  I do this by right clicking on the parent menu (in this case the Root menu) and then clicking Add menu

I will now record the wav files for each of the child nodes according the example I’ve been using.

Setting Up Transfers & Forwarding Numbers

In our example, once I get to menu item number 3, instead of playing a wav file, what I want to do is transfer the caller to the human resources department.  To do that, I create a child node as I normally would, then I click on the “Menu node type” drop down box and select “Call transfer.”  This will make the “Call forwarding number” box become editable, so now we should enter in the phone number to transfer the call to.  The number you enter here should only contain digits (so no parenthesis or dashes) and should include all applicable prefixes.  In my example, the human resources number is US number (555) 123-4567, so in order to format this properly I write it as 15551234567 in the “Call forwarding number” input as shown in the picture below:

Making Deep Menus

Continuing with our example, once I get to menu #4, I’ll need to make two sub-menus.  One will forward to Project Manager John Doe, and the other to Project Manager Jane Doe.  Thats means menu item #4 will actually be a WAV file.  Here’s what I recorded for it:

“You have selected to speak with one of our project managers.  To speak with John Doe press 1.  To speak with Jane Doe, press 2.  To return to the main menu press #”

Then I right clicked on menu 4, and selected “New menu”, just like I did on the Root menu.  I created two child nodes, one that transfers the call to John, and the other that transfers to Jane.

The Most Important Part

The most important thing to do after (and while) creating your menu is to save it!  To save your menu, goto File > Save

The Second Most Important Part

Of course we want to actually use the menu we’ve created, and so to do that, after having saved the file, we need to tell Agares Auto-Attendant to use it to handle each call.  We do that by going to File > Set Active Menu and then clicking the browse button (it has three dots on it …)  Once we’ve found our file, lets click OK, and then OK a second time.