September 9, 2026
A phone tree template that worksA copyable menu: one greeting, three options and four exits, with the wording written out. What to change, what to leave, and where each line has to land.
September 9, 2026
Auto attendant mistakes that lose callersFive failures in menus that are wired correctly: too many options, no way to a person, department names, a key that cannot help, a greeting that rambles.
September 9, 2026
What is an auto attendant?An auto attendant answers your main number and routes the caller by key. What it decides, what it cannot fix, and the size of business that does not need one.
September 7, 2026
Why clock changes leave holes in phone coverageThree teams cover the whole clock in January and drop the baton every night in July, with nobody touching the rota. What moved, why, and how to find it first.
September 7, 2026
How to find the dead ends in your phone menuA key that leads nowhere is invisible from the inside, because the person who built the menu never presses it. Five faults, and how to find them in an hour.
September 7, 2026
The six messages a phone line needsMost business lines have two recordings and need six. What each one has to say, which two go missing every time, and how to write the set in one sitting.
September 6, 2026
Why your phone system rejects your greetingYour greeting plays on a laptop and the phone system refuses it. What the upload checks, what 8 kHz mono means, and how to convert the file in your browser.
September 4, 2026
After-hours call handling: three honest optionsThe sequence a call takes after closing time, and the three destinations that work for a small business: a reopening message, voicemail, or an outside number.
September 4, 2026
Change your auto attendant menu yourselfHow changing your own auto attendant menu should work, what happens to a caller who is already in the old one, and what publish refuses to put live for you.
September 4, 2026
Business hours and holidays in one call flowWhere the holiday calendar has to live for a business hours call flow to close on the right days, without anyone touching the menu again every December.
September 4, 2026
Small-business voicemail: where a message goesWhat happens to a message left at a small business when nobody picks up, who is told about it, what the notice carries, and what the greeting should say.
September 4, 2026
Unexpected closure: the snow-day phone messageWhat a caller should hear the moment you decide to close for the day, and the one switch that changes it without touching your opening hours.
August 22, 2026
Building an auto-attendant callers stay onA well-built phone menu runs a few seconds and offers three choices. How to structure one, and what the Charter of the French Language adds to it in Quebec.
August 19, 2026
French-first IVR that still serves anglophonesA bilingual menu and a French-first menu are different structures. One offers a choice; the other has a default. Quebec's Charter asks for the second.
August 19, 2026
How long may the “for English” message be?Quebec guidance says the message offering service in another language should be brief and should say who can be served in it. How to write one that fits.
August 19, 2026
Quebec statutory holidays in call routingQuebec's holiday calendar differs from the rest of Canada, and a phone menu configured elsewhere answers on the Patriotes Monday and on the Fête nationale.
