Overview
Enhanced Voicemail, also referred to as Enterprise Voicemail, is a feature that gives callers an additional option when they reach someone’s voicemail. Instead of going straight to leaving a message, the caller is offered a choice to try a different extension first. This is particularly useful in business environments where callers may want to reach another team member rather than leave a message.
Call Flow with Enhanced Voicemail Enabled
- The caller dials a DID or extension number.
- The caller hears the called party’s voicemail greeting.
- The caller hears a prompt offering three options: press 1 to dial another extension, press 2 to leave a voicemail, or stay on the line to leave a message. The caller can also press 0 to reach the Operator extension if that option has been configured.
- If the caller presses 1 and the domain has an auto-attendant, they are routed to the auto-attendant where they can dial another extension or navigate the available menu options. If no auto-attendant exists on the domain, a default prompt will play.
- If the caller presses 2, they hear “Please leave a message after the tone.”
Note: The option to press 0 for the Operator extension is not enabled by default. To activate it, you need to set the Operator Forward destination to the extension where operator calls should be routed. A custom voicemail greeting that announces the 0 option to callers should also be uploaded once this is configured.
Call Flow with Enhanced Voicemail Disabled
- The caller dials a DID or extension number.
- The caller hears “Your call is being forwarded, please hold.”
- The caller hears the called party’s voicemail greeting.
- The caller hears “Please leave a message after the tone.”
Options for Disabling Enhanced Voicemail
There are several ways to disable or limit Enhanced Voicemail depending on how broadly you want the change to apply:
- Remove the audio prompt at the domain level: Support can remove the audio file that triggers the Enhanced Voicemail menu. The feature is not technically off, but the probability of a caller accessing it becomes extremely low. This requires a support ticket specifying the domain.
- Disable on specific DIDs and Auto-Attendants: Enhanced Voicemail can be turned off on individual DIDs under Inventory and on Auto-Attendants through the portal. Note that it will still apply to extension-to-extension calls and certain routing scenarios such as Forwarding to Voicemail. Support can also enable a backend configuration to disable Enhanced Voicemail on new answering rules.
- Switch the domain to Residential mode: This completely disables Enhanced Voicemail, but it comes with other limitations. Residential domains are designed for multitenant environments and behave differently from standard business domains. Review the differences between Residential and Non-Residential domains before making this change.