Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems for 2024

Phone systems with auto attendants create a polished, professional experience that efficiently directs callers to the right place. Our research into the best automated small business phone system providers has found that RingCentral, GoTo Connect, and 8×8 are the top three options due to their extensive auto attendant features, from customizable greetings to smart routing controls.

Also known as virtual receptionists, auto attendants aren’t the only tool your business phone line will need. Below we dive into the best eight phone system providers with an auto attendant, discussing those attendant features alongside each system’s suite of other controls for inbound and outbound comms, while comparing their value for money.

1. RingCentral: Best Phone System With Auto Attendant for Customer Service Teams

RingCentral is our favorite phone system with an auto attendant for American businesses because it offers the best value virtual receptionist feature. There is a multi-level auto attendant with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) available on RingCentral’s Core plan which costs $20 per user, per month.

That makes it a top pick for customer service teams, who can use submenus with advanced features like a dial-by-name directory and a live operator. Plus, RingCentral bundles in a range of other inbound communication features, including staples like voicemail as well as customizable greetings and spam filtering, which isn’t provided by all of its rivals.

What auto attendant features does RingCentral offer?

Customizable greetings: Businesses can create personalized greetings for callers, reflecting their brand’s voice and professionalism. For instance, different messages can be set for business hours, after-hours, and holidays. This feature helps businesses project a professional image while maintaining a personalized touch that improves customer trust and satisfaction.

Multi-Level IVR (Interactive Voice Response): RingCentral’s multi-level IVR enables the creation of structured, multi-layered phone menus, efficiently routing callers to specific departments, individuals, or locations based on their selections. By streamlining call flow and reducing wait times, your customer’s experience should be improved (all without the need for manual intervention).

We particularly like that RingCentral has an intuitive graphical editor so that you can easily configure the IVR and manage phone tree menus. This should reduce the need for technical support as, in our view, just about anyone should be able to make quick adjustments to call routing structures with this user-friendly approach and keep evolving the tree to customer needs.

Overall, the system supports up to 250 voice menus and submenus per account, with options to add direct numbers for each IVR menu and deploy separate menus for multiple locations, which should make RingCentral accommodating for businesses of various sizes, complexities, and offices (or home working), which is a major boon for scalability, too.

Call routing and handling: RingCentral’s auto attendant can forward calls to any extension, voicemail, or external number. Administrators can set rules based on the time of day, caller ID, or specific numbers so that calls are always directed appropriately no matter if your team is working or not. This flexibility reduces missed calls, optimizes resource allocation, and means callers are routed to the most suitable recipient in quick time.

2. GoTo Connect: Best Value for Money Phone System With Auto Attendant

Our in-depth research has concluded GoTo Connect is the best choice in terms of value for money. That’s because its plans come packed with features focused on scalable solutions.

Starting at $26 per user, per month, GoTo Connect includes all the inbound communication features on every plan. It’s one of the only two phone system providers (alongside 8×8) to offer all the necessary inbound communication features across all of its plans, including call queue, ring groups, and that crucial auto attendant.

What auto attendant features does GoTo Connect offer?

Customizable messages and greetings: Businesses can record an unlimited number of personalized messages and greetings using the GoTo Connect desktop or web app. This allows for tailored communications, such as unique greetings for senior management, loyal customers, or special clients, enhancing the caller experience.

Advanced call routing: GoTo’s auto attendant can forward calls to any extension, mobile, or even to outside lines not embedded in your GoTo phone system (perhaps a landline you are yet to switch over, or a specialist who only uses their mobile phone). It supports complex call flows and is easily managed via its visual call flow editor.

Visual call flow editor: Like RingCentral, GoTo Connect offers an intuitive visual call flow editor that allows users to create and modify call flow plans with ease. This tool enables businesses to set up advanced call routing, share important updates, and customize messages without requiring extensive technical expertise.

Advanced, automated directories: The system supports the creation of pre-recorded menus and directories, such as “press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounts,” facilitating quicker navigation for callers and reducing the workload on staff. It combines this with an advanced text-to-speak feature where you can pick between four different AI voices and select from up to 90 languages. Additionally, there are 11 background music options available to enhance the audio experience, too.

In-queue announcements: While callers are on hold, the auto attendant can share important announcements, operating hours, scheduling changes, or inform callers about potential wait times during busy periods, keeping them engaged and informed while they wait for support.

3. 8×8: Best Overall Phone System With Auto Attendant

Earning our highest overall rating, 8×8 bags the title of best overall phone system as it hits the trifecta: easy management, affordability, and is bundled with important inbound communication features.

Its multi-level auto attendant is included in all packages, each of which is relatively affordable according to our research (albeit, it now uses private pricing so depending on your needs, this could widely vary). Plus, all the 8×8 plans offer useful inbound communication features, such as a customizable greeting, hold music, and voicemail.

Customizable greetings and prompts: With 8×8, much like RingCentral and GoTo, businesses can create personalized greetings and prompts to tailor introductions to their brand voice. Again, this message can be changed depending on business hours.

Multi-Level IVR (Interactive Voice Response): 8×8’s multi-level IVR lets users create structured, multi-layered phone menus that can direct callers to specific departments, individuals, or locations based on their selections. You can create exception schedules for holidays or unexpected events, too, as well as general schedules that can be updated centrally and used across multiple auto attendants.

We’re not the biggest fans of how you set an auto attendant in 8×8 compared to RingCentral and GoTo, since it uses a less visually intuitive setup. Instead, you’ve got several boxes to fill out and a somewhat visual frame of reference to the attendant’s order of thinking, with dotted lines representing the next stage, but it’s not nearly as clear compared to the top two options.

Call routing and handling: Once you configure these settings, the auto attendant can direct callers to ring groups, call queues, voicemail, or even additional auto attendants. Like RingCentral, administrators can set rules based on time of day, caller ID, or specific numbers, too.

Text-to-Speech prompts: Like GoTo, 8×8 also offers text-to-speech functionality for prompts in over 50 languages. This feature is particularly useful for businesses serving a diverse clientele, as it allows for the delivery of messages in multiple languages without the need for pre-recorded audio.

4. Dialpad: Best Phone System With Auto Attendant and Conversational AI

Dialpad was one of the first phone system providers to introduce an AI tool, and while others have followed suit, its conversational AI technology is the best of the bunch, expertly transcribing conversations in real-time, analyzing the sentiment of the call based on the flow of the conversation, and providing post-call summaries that highlight action items so you can easily follow up.

For as little as $15 per user, per month, you get access to its multi-level auto attendant feature, too, which will help you prioritize the flow of conversations coming into your business and route calls based on a range of factors beyond just who’s available, such as specialist strengths of agents. Plus, you’ll have plenty of inbound communication tools, such as voicemail, customizable greetings, and ring groups, although the latter two are only available on higher-cost plans.

What auto attendant features does Dialpad offer?

Custom messaging: Like all the options listed, Dialpad allows businesses to define specific operating hours and create custom greetings for different times of the day or week.

Versatile call routing: Beyond basic call routing, Dialpad offers advanced options such as routing calls based on agent availability and/or skill level. Plus, it can direct calls to voicemail or specific teams, too. You simply create a workflow for a team of your choice in the visual manner shown below:

Custom greetings: Businesses can record or upload personalized greetings that address common caller inquiries in a variety of audio file formats, such as MP3.

IVR menu analytics: Dialpad provides analytics on how frequently each IVR menu option is used by callers so that you can adapt your menu tree over time to remove those unused by customers/clients.

Spam call prevention: The auto attendant system includes features to block spam calls to reduce disruptions and deal with callers who actually need help.

5. Vonage: Best Phone System With Auto Attendant for Small Businesses

Vonage earns a spot in our top six phone systems with auto attendants for its effective and scalable business solutions for small businesses. Its plans offer key communication features, including call barge and call whisper, important software integration tools that make it easy for any business to scale, and, of course, an auto attendant worth its salt.

For only $13.99 per user, per month, Vonage’s auto attendant feature is a customizable and reliable piece of call routing technology. You also have the option to prioritize schedules and share settings between schedules, allowing your business to address calls at any time. There’s voicemail and spam prevention, plus customizable hold music to add to your call flow, too.

In addition to this, its customer support uses an AI virtual assistant to ensure that all calls are addressed during peak business hours, resulting in better customer engagement. This feature is best for call center phone systems as it allows easy management of high call volumes.

What auto attendant features does Vonage offer?

Customizable greetings: As you might expect, businesses can create personalized greetings for callers, adaptable to business hours.

Flexible call routing: Vonage’s auto attendant can forward calls to any extension, voicemail, or external number, with admin users being able to set custom rules based on time, specific caller IDs, or specific numbers (a great option for repeat callers) as well as create schedules, which can be updated centrally and used across multiple auto attendants just like 8×8.

Multi-Level IVR (Interactive Voice Response): Vonage’s multi-level IVR enables the creation of structured, multi-layered phone menus to tag onto these routing settings. This can be moving callers to specific departments, individuals, or locations based on their selections, and you can set up these routes in the virtual receptionist settings seen below:

Text-to-speech option: Like GoTo and 8×8, Vonage offers a text-to-speech feature, allowing businesses to type in greetings that are then converted into spoken messages without the need to record their own.

6. Nuacom: Best Phone System With Auto Attendant for Customer Satisfaction

Our researchers gathered consumer reviews across business review sites such as TrustRadius, G2, Trustpilot, and Capterra. With Nuacom, the results were clear: real-world users state that they are very happy with the phone service’s simplicity and reliability.

Its Essentials plan (Nuacom’s cheapest package) costs just $9.99 per user, per month and offers an IVR with an auto attendant in its package with core functions to greet and transfer callers to an extension without an operator or receptionist via its voice menu.

What auto attendant features does Nuacom offer?

How Did We Compare the Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems?