Auto attendant script examples for your main line
An auto attendant script is the recorded greeting and menu a caller hears before reaching a person. The best ones name the business, offer four options or fewer, put the most common reason first and give a way out to a human. Below are ready-to-record scripts for the main greeting, the menu, after hours, hold and dial-by-name, with the timing for each.
Main greeting and menu
Thank you for calling Summit Family Dental.
To book or change an appointment, press 1. For billing and insurance, press 2. For directions and hours, press 3.
To speak with the front desk, press 0 at any time.
Three options, the most common first, and the zero option said out loud. About fifteen seconds recorded.
You've reached Harbor Heating and Air.
If you have no heat or no cooling right now, press 1 and we'll connect you to the on-call technician.
To schedule a service visit, press 2. For an estimate on a new system, press 3. For an existing invoice, press 4.
Put the emergency option first and say what it does. A caller with no heat shouldn't have to sit through three other choices.
Thank you for calling Ridgeway Property Management.
Residents reporting a maintenance problem, press 1. To ask about a vacancy, press 2. Owners and vendors, press 3.
If you know your party's extension, you may dial it now.
Label options by who is calling, not by department name. Callers know whether they're a resident or an owner; few know which team handles what.
Second-level prompts
For a question about a statement, press 1. To pay a bill, press 2.
To go back to the main menu, press star.
Two options and a way back. Every extra level loses callers, so a second menu should be rare and short.
To reach someone by name, enter the first three letters of their last name now.
Offer the directory only if you have more than eight or so people. A small office is better served by the front desk option.
Sorry, that's not one of the options. Let's try again.
Replay the menu once, then send the caller to a person or voicemail. Looping the same menu three times is how callers learn to press zero on every call.
After hours and on hold
Thank you for calling Summit Family Dental. Our office is closed. We're open Monday to Thursday, eight to five, and Friday, eight to one.
If you have a dental emergency, press 1 to reach the on-call dentist. To leave a message for the front desk, press 2.
Hours come first after hours, because the caller's first question is 'when can I call back'. Keep the emergency route one keypress away.
Thanks for holding. You're next in line, and someone will be with you shortly.
You can also book online any time on our website.
Play it every 45 to 60 seconds, not every 15. Frequent hold messages feel like the phone system is apologizing.
Everyone is helping other callers right now.
Please leave your name, number and a short message after the tone, and we'll call you back today.
When no one picks up, the fallback should promise a time. Give the same callback window the main greeting does.
When callers say what they need instead
Thanks for calling Harbor Heating and Air. This is the AI assistant. Just tell me what you need, and I'll book it, answer it or put you through.
No keypad at all. Someone says 'my furnace stopped' and gets routed by that sentence, which is how most people expected the phone to work anyway.
What separates an auto attendant callers tolerate
Short beats complete. Every option you add costs every caller a few more seconds, and callers who can't find their reason in the first three choices press zero. Four options is the ceiling. Three is better.
Options are ordered by call volume, not by the org chart. Look at why people rang last month. If most of them wanted to book, booking is option 1, even if billing is the department you'd rather they reached.
Each option names an outcome. 'Press 1 to book or change an appointment' tells the caller what happens next. 'Press 1 for scheduling' makes them translate their need into your team's vocabulary.
There's always a way to a person. Hiding the zero option doesn't stop callers wanting it. It just makes them angrier by the time they find it.
How to write your own auto attendant script
Start from your call log, not a template. List the top four reasons people ring, and write one option for each. Anything that comes up less than once a week goes to the front desk option, not the menu.
Read every prompt aloud with a stopwatch. The main greeting and menu together should run under twenty seconds. If yours runs thirty, cut the welcome line first, then the website address.
Record the after-hours version the same day as the daytime one, in the same voice. A caller who hears two different speakers wonders if they've reached a different business.
Test it from a mobile phone in a noisy room. If you can't follow the menu from a parking lot, neither can your callers.
Recorded menus and the AI notice
How GreetKeeper replaces the keypad menu
GreetKeeper answers with a greeting you write and routes by what the caller needs. Your caller says 'I need to reschedule' or 'the heat's out'. GreetKeeper then books the visit, answers from what you've trained it on, or transfers to the right person. If that person doesn't pick up, it tries a second number you nominate.
You forward your main line to the dedicated local number that comes with your plan, in whichever carrier mode suits you: all calls, busy, no-answer or unreachable. The ring count is set where the forwarding is set, and GreetKeeper answers the moment the call arrives. Calls that arrive together are answered at the same time, so there's no hold queue to write a message for.
Each number under your account has its own hours and greeting, and closure dates let it answer as closed on holidays without re-recording anything. Every call arrives as a transcript and a short summary, so you can see exactly why people rang and adjust the greeting.
Plans start at $49 a month for 200 answered calls. Every plan includes booking, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, every feature on and no card.
Questions people ask about these greetings
What should an auto attendant greeting say?
The business name, three or four options ordered by how often callers need them, and a way to reach a person. 'Thank you for calling Summit Family Dental. To book, press 1. For billing, press 2. For the front desk, press 0.' Keep it under twenty seconds.
How many options should a phone menu have?
Three or four at the top level, and no more than two levels deep. Past four options, callers forget the first by the time they hear the last and press zero instead.
What's the difference between an auto attendant and an IVR?
An auto attendant plays a menu and routes on a keypress. An IVR can also collect information, like an account number, and act on it. Both depend on the caller fitting their reason into your options, which a spoken-request assistant skips.
Should an auto attendant give the option to reach a person?
Yes, on every menu. Say 'press 0 at any time' in the main greeting. Callers who look for a person will find one either way, and saying it up front keeps the call friendly.
Hear a call routed without a menu
Your greeting, your team, a caller who just says what they need. Two minutes.