TIPS Best practices for small office coming from key system? Making good progress getting things setup!

Hello,

Spent some time today getting this PBIAF system up online and made some great progress.. I downloaded the XML scripts from the Git repo mentioned here and everything works like it should! I have most things working great. However, I'd love to hear from some others on the best practices for implementing the system in a small doctors office like a dentist.. This office will be coming from a key system, so I need to figure out how to transition them..We will have all IP termination with really a single incoming DID for the main voice line..

1. How should I setup parking? Single Park button and then Park List or BNF keys for all the spots? What have you found works better?

2. How do you schedule the IVR for small offices? Do you use a schedule or just expect the staff to Turn on/off Call Flow Control options (was Day/Night).. I'm on the fence on this one.. I'm leaning towards doing some nested Time Control with a Call Flow Control up front for a special IVR.. The majority of the time the office is open M-Th 7:30-5:30am and closed from lunch from 1pm-2pm. Is this the right way to do this with the nested Time Controls?

3. Is there an easy way to allow an office member to record the IVR prompt for the special IVR or other prompts without going into the FreePBX interface?

Thanks!

-jr

Thanks. I did like you did, but had the call flow control on the front... because I need a bunch of time conditions to determine if we are at lunch, if we are closed for the day to re-open tomorrow or are closed for the weekend to re-open monday.. Anything else will be a special case.

I'm just afraid the office staff isn't going to get parking.. I think I need to just get over it and have them deal with it.. Either XFER the calls around or park and pick-up.. That really is the only option I can see..

-jr

You didn't mention the types of phones you're using. That makes a big difference with parking. With something like the Yealink T46G, there are plenty of buttons so the phones can work just like a key telephone.

Thanks. I am using Aastra 6757i. How can you make it work like a key system? I don't think "like a key system" is the best approach, I think they should learn how to use a real phone system but I would like to know all my options going in.. eyes-wide-open.


thanks,

-jr

James, if you use the Aastra Scripts... it kinda works turnkey... at least the 3 ladies in the front office I gave them to found everything quite easy to convert to from a Toshiba system.
But the T46G with sidecar is just freak'n awesome... and in my opinion much better looking

For what it's worth, my very worst user revolt during 30+ years of IT management came when we first tried to force staff to migrate away from key telephones. I'd get them involved in the process early on unless you prefer water torture... yours! Like you said, better to go in with your eyes-wide-open.

My office (single physician practice) moved from a key-system a little over a year ago. Apart from one major system crash we've had relatively few issues. For the staff here, the biggest thing to get used to was not being able to put a call on hold and pick it up at another desk (we solved that by using park and conference rooms).

For parking, I'd suggest a single "park" button and then setting up a few BLFs for each spot. On our Astra 55is, the dial string for parking a call is set under "Preferences" (asterisk;70). I set the top programmable keys to BLF/Xfer for 71, 72, and 73. A softkey for "Park" will then appear while in call (you don't have to set a softkey --it will create one automatically).

The call park scripts for the Yealink T46G work great. One button to park a call and just one button to select any of the parked calls (via the script). Parked calls show up with caller id, so it is generally easy to know which call you need to pick up.

Of course 95% of the time we simply transfer calls in our small office. But there are times when you need to park a call and track down an employee.

Any suggestions for parking using the yealink T41P currently have a park setup on one button and paging on another. Coming from a key system.

thanks
Rick

Here's my setup in my user.prf that I use for Park:

Essentially when in-call the park button will be active using the sprecode setting
Then under the 57i section I have defined the following:


the state of outgoing has these active when you pick up the handset, or enable the speaker so a user could use the More button and see what parks are active.

My biggest problem, as Ward mentioned, is trying to get the customer to understand the difference from a key system - and Aastra isn't helping by having the "Line 1, Line2, etc" buttons which only fuel the fire from changeovers from key system users!

We use snom 370 phones so have plenty of buttons. I've configured parking with four slots and a button with blf for each slot. Did this mainly because it's how people were used to working with the old Panasonic system. However nobody uses it. They just transfer calls.

As others have said it's a good idea to consult on phones. The fancy new system shouldn't take away functions people are used to.