Featured Partners
1
RingCentral
$20 per user, per month (paid annually)
Yes
200 monthly SMS per user, 1 cent per SMS after
2
Zoom
$10 per user per month, $15 unlimited calling
U.S. and Canada
Unlimited in the U.S. and Canada
3
Dialpad
$27 per user per month
Your country, the U.S. and Canada
250 monthly SMS per user, 8 cents per SMS after
Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bring you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, first-person testing, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
We reviewed 14 auto attendant phone systems using a detailed methodology to help you find the top 10 auto attendant phone systems on the market. Our ratings consider factors such as pricing, features and capabilities, which are reviewed by our panel of experts. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
The Best Auto Attendant Phone System
Forbes Advisor Ratings
How To Choose the Best Auto Attendant Phone System
When choosing the best auto attendant phone service for your business, there are a number of factors you should consider, from pricing, to the type of number you need, the amount of callers you need to support, whether you want to call or transcribe calls and whether you require collaboration and video conferencing capabilities included.
You’ll also want to consider the overall ease of use, whether it’s easy to configure your call system (this is particularly important if you haven’t used one before!). You may also want to consider looking for a provider that offers a 24/7 support option so that you’re prepared to troubleshoot any performance issues.
Essential Features
- Automatically transfer and route inbound calls: Being able to transfer and route calls to your teams efficiently means that you can respond to customer requests much faster.
- Hold calls with prerecorded audio messages: Use prerecorded audio messages to supply callers with key information about your business and your customer support so that they’re not left in the dark until a live agent is available.
- Assign calls to call groups: Having the ability to assign calls to call groups allows you to distribute customer requests to the correct team or department quickly and efficiently.
- Outside of working hour configurations: Look for an auto attendant solution that allows you to play automated messages to callers who ring your phone line outside of working hours so they know when to call back.
Types of Auto Attendant Phone Service
Many auto attendant phone services can be broken down into two groups: a classic auto attendant phone service and an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
The key difference between the two is an IVR not only accepts and routes calls, but also offers more configuration options, such as the ability to move a caller to voice mail or to play a prerecorded message.
GoTo Connect and RingCentral are both examples of IVR phone services. IVR’s additional configuration options also means they’re more complex to set up than a typical auto attendant phone service.
Likewise, auto attendant phone services may not offer these extra routing capabilities but they are easier to deploy and configure out of the box.
Ease of Use
Usability and ease of use is one of the key considerations when purchasing an auto attendant phone system. The simpler it is to select a phone number and begin routing calls to your agents, the sooner you can start supporting your customers.
If this configuration process is more complex, not only will it slow your time to deploy the solution, but will increase the risk of misconfiguration and service disruption.
Scalability
If you’re planning to grow your business over the long term, then scalability should be a key concern. You’ll need a solution that can scale to meet customer demand, able to handle their calls simultaneously and offer the routing capabilities to ensure that their inquiries are routed to the correct staff and addressed in a timely manner.
Third-party Integrations
Investing in a solution that supports third-party app integrations with CRM software such as Salesforce can be incredibly useful for preparing customer support reps with the information they need to view customer information on demand. This puts them in a better position to address customer needs.
How Much Does an Auto Attendant Cost?
The cost of an auto attendant phone system depends greatly on the quality of the service provided and the additional capabilities offered by the vendor.
The lowest published monthly plan recorded by Forbes Advisor ranged from $14.99 for Phone.com up to $149 for Five9. Some of the top solutions offered more midrange pricing options at $23 for Dialpad, $27 for GoTo Connect and $31 for Grasshopper.
Some of the bigger factors that influence cost include call volume, availability, third-party integrations, on-demand call recording, prerecorded messages, call analytics and routing.
How to Set Up an Auto Attendant Phone System
The exact process for setting up an auto attendant phone system depends largely on the provider that you choose to adopt.
Generally, when you purchase a cloud-based auto attendant system, you’ll first need to sign in to your online account portal via a desktop mobile or web app. Once logged in, you’ll be able to select the line you want to route calls to, and change your account settings, such as your password.
If you’re using an IVR, you’ll also be able to configure and enable other routing options such as team/out-of-hours routing, attaching prerecorded voice mails (in .mp3, .wav, .wav49), configuring email notifications and more.
Featured Partners
1
RingCentral
$20 per user, per month (paid annually)
Yes
200 monthly SMS per user, 1 cent per SMS after
2
Zoom
$10 per user per month, $15 unlimited calling
U.S. and Canada
Unlimited in the U.S. and Canada
3
Dialpad
$27 per user per month
Your country, the U.S. and Canada
250 monthly SMS per user, 8 cents per SMS after
Methodology
Forbes Advisor analyzed 14 of the most widely used auto attendant phone systems and reviewed their core capabilities. We proceeded to then score each of these solutions across five key categories, factoring in 32 different metrics and data signals that were then weighted proportionally to identify the best options for small business owners.
- Pricing and fees (20%): Pricing accounted for 20% of a product’s total score. As part of our analysis, we not only looked for the lowest cost solutions, but solutions that offered the most value for money within their base plan. Companies that charged a premium for add-ons and features were ranked lower than those tools that included these by default.
- General features (20%): Our next consideration was the range and quality of features offered by each solution. These features were graded based on their general coverage compared to other vendors, how highly these were rated by customers and whether they were included as part of a basic plan or a paid add-on. Essential features included automatic call transfers, prerecorded voice mail messages, group call routing and 24/7 support.
- Additional features (20%): Additional features including video conferencing, team chats and integrations with CRM tools were also highly weighted due to their ability to help customer and sales support teams to not just work remotely, but to work on enhancing the customer experience of the client.
- Reviews and ratings (20%): We also factored in feedback taken from publicly posted reviews on Trustpilot to see how users were experiencing critical features, and whether they perceived a solution to be worth value for money. This not only included the overall scores shared by customers, but also whether they thought key features were sufficient or not.
- Expert score (20%): To enrich the customer reviews processed, we also used our internal panel of experts to do a deeper dive into the capabilities and performance of the top auto attendant phone systems. Once again, these categories included essential features, ease of use, scalability and the level of customer support offered.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why do I need an auto attendant phone system?
Businesses require auto attendants to automatically answer and route customer calls with prerecorded messages. They’re important for making sure that when a customer calls your business, their calls are routed to the relevant individual or department.
What are the advantages of using an auto attendant?
The biggest advantage of using an auto attendant is that you can route a high number of calls to the relevant teams and employees across your business. This means you can solve more customer complaints, faster, without needing to hire a full-time member of staff to manage calls manually. You can also make sure that you inform customers who to contact if they reach out with concerns or queries outside of business hours.
What are the disadvantages of using an auto attendant phone system?
While auto attendant phone systems are inconvenient, many users prefer speaking to an actual person over being connected to a prerecorded machine voicemail. If your script isn’t succinct enough, then many callers may hang up before they have a chance to have their calls routed to your team. Likewise, pressing the wrong button or mistaking the design could lead to calls being misrouted and abandoned.
What are some key features to look for in an auto attendant phone system?
Some features that an auto attendant phone system should have include the ability to transfer and route inbound calls automatically, hold calls with prerecorded audio messages, assign calls to call groups and be available outside of working hour configurations with automated messages for callers to know when to call back.
