Managing Your Personal Greetings

About Personal Greetings

Cisco Unity Connection allows you to record up to six personal greetings. You can enable as many greetings as you want, and you can specify how long you want a greeting enabled.

With a multilingual system, you have the option of providing your personal greetings in multiple languages—your default language and other languages available on your system. Note that you use the phone keypad to manage greetings in languages other than your default language; you cannot use voice commands.

The six personal greetings and how they work are described below. Note that Connection plays the greetings that you enable for the applicable situation, while some greetings override other greetings when they are enabled.

Alternate Greeting

Enable the alternate greeting to play during a specific time period when you want to indicate special circumstances, such as when you are on vacation. (For example, “I will be out of the office until <date>.”) When it is enabled, the alternate greeting overrides all other greetings.

Your Connection administrator specifies whether the system transfers callers to your greeting without ringing your phone, whether callers are able to skip your greeting, and whether callers can leave you a message when your alternate greeting is enabled. The Alternate Greeting page in the Messaging Assistant web tool indicates the caller options that your administrator has enabled for you, if any. Note that caller options do not apply when an outside caller or another Connection user dials your extension directly.


Tip

Other Connection users do not hear your alternate greeting when they send messages to you by phone. In addition to enabling your alternate greeting, consider changing your recorded name to include information that you are out of the office. Your recorded name plays when users address messages to you and when callers look you up in the directory.

The Cisco PCA Home page displays a reminder when you have your alternate greeting turned on. You can also configure Connection to remind you when your alternate greeting is enabled after you sign in by phone.

Busy Greeting

Enable the busy greeting to indicate when you are on the phone. (For example, “I am currently on another line, please leave a message.”) When it is enabled, the busy greeting overrides the standard, closed, and internal greetings when your phone is busy.

Note that not all phone systems provide the support necessary for the Connection busy greeting to work. For assistance, talk to your Connection administrator.

Internal Greeting

Enable the internal greeting to provide information that coworkers need to know. (For example, “I will be in conference room B until noon today.”) When it is enabled, the internal greeting overrides the standard and off-hours greetings, and plays only to callers within your organization when you do not answer your phone.

Note that not all phone systems provide the support necessary for the Connection internal greeting to work. For assistance, talk to your Connection administrator.

Closed Greeting

Enable the closed greeting if you want Connection to play a special greeting during the nonbusiness hours that your Connection administrator specified for your organization. (For example, “Sorry, I am not available to answer your call. Company office hours are <times>.”) When it is enabled, the closed greeting overrides the standard greeting during nonbusiness hours.

Standard Greeting

The standard greeting plays during the business hours that your Connection administrator specified for your organization, or in other situations when no other greeting is enabled. By design, the standard greeting cannot be disabled.

Holiday Greeting

Enable the holiday greeting if you want Connection to play a special greeting during a holiday. (For example, “Happy holiday. I am not available to answer your call. I will be out of the office from <date> to <date>.”) When it is enabled, the holiday greeting overrides the standard greeting during nonbusiness hours.

Changing Personal Greetings

When you turn on a personal greeting, you specify how long you want it available for use. Cisco Unity Connection plays the greeting in the applicable situation until the date and time that you specified arrives, and then the greeting is automatically turned off. For example, you can set your alternate greeting to stop playing on the day that you return from a vacation.

You can also set a greeting to play indefinitely, which is useful when you turn on a busy or a closed greeting.

You can turn off a greeting at any time. When a greeting is off, Connection no longer plays it, although the recording is not erased.


Note

With a multilingual system, you use the Messaging Assistant web tool to manage only the greetings in your default language. You manage greetings in other languages by phone, and your input style must be set to the phone keypad (Keys Only option).

Procedure
    Step 1   In the Messaging Assistant, from the Greetings menu, select View Greetings.
    Step 2   On the Greetings page, select the greeting you want to change.
    Step 3   To turn off the greeting, on the <Name> Greeting page, select Disabled, then skip to Step 5.

    Or

    To turn on the greeting, select the applicable option:

    Option Description
    Enabled with No End Date and Time

    Greeting plays indefinitely.
    Enabled Until

    Greeting plays until the date and time you specify, when Connection automatically disables the greeting.
    Step 4   In the Callers Hear section, select the applicable option:
    Option Description
    My Personal Recording

    To record your own greeting.

    On the Media Master, select Record and record your greeting; when you finish recording, select Stop.
    System Default Greeting

    To use the prerecorded system greeting.
    Nothing

    To have callers hear a tone to signal that they should leave a message
    Step 5   Select Save.

    Enabling Users to Playback Video Greetings

    To allow the playback of video greetings for each user, enable the My Personal Recording option in the Callers See section.

    For More information on video greetings, see the "Configuring Video Services" chapter in the User Moves, Adds, and Changes Guide of Cisco Unity Connection available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/10x/administration/guide/10xcucsagx/10xcucsag150.html.

    You choose from one of the following sources to specify what callers see when a video greeting is enabled:

    My Personal Greeting

    Unity Connection plays a video greeting that you have recorded.

    Note    Recording a video greeting does not enable it.
    Play the "Record Your Message at the Tone" Prompt

    Cisco Unity Connection prompts callers to wait for a tone before recording their video greeting. This check box is enabled only when Call Action is set to "Take Message" in After Greeting field. When the option is set to System Default Greeting, the checkbox remains disabled and checked.

    You can disable a video greeting at any time. When a video greeting is disabled, Connection no longer plays it, although the recording is not erased.

    To Enable a Video Greeting

    Procedure
      Step 1   In the MessagingAssistant, from the Greetings menu, click View Greetings.
      Step 2   On the Greetings page, select the greeting you want enable video settings.
      Step 3   To enable the video greeting, choose the applicable option:
      • Enabled with No End Date and Time: Greeting plays indefinitely.
      • Enabled Until:Greeting plays until the date and time you specify, when Connection automatically disables the greeting.
      Step 4   In the Callers See section, choose the My Personal Recordingto playback your own video greeting.
      Step 5   Click Save.

      To Disable a Video Greeting

      Procedure
        Step 1   In the MessagingAssistant, from the Greetings menu, click View Greetings.
        Step 2   On the Greetings page, select the greeting you want enable video settings.
        Step 3   To disable the video greeting, on the <Name> Greeting page, click Disabled.
        Step 4   Click Save.