Voicemail - Manage Personal Greetings

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About Personal Greetings

Voicemail (Cisco Unity Connection) offers six different personal greetings that can be played to people who call you. You can elect to have a default greeting for each of those six personal greetings, or you can record your own greeting to be used for each of those six personal greetings. You can turn on as many greetings as you want, and you can specify how long you want the greetings to stay on (end date/time).

The default for all greetings is “Sorry, <your name as you recorded it> is not available.”

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

Standard Greeting

The standard greeting plays if no other greetings have been turned on or if the circumstances are such that those other greetings should not be played.

By design, the standard greeting cannot be turned off.

Closed Greeting

If you turn on the “closed” greeting, your callers will hear this greeting outside of UCB Campus business hours (8-5 M-F or 7:30-4:30 during the summer).

When it is on, the closed greeting overrides the standard greeting during nonbusiness hours.

Alternate Greeting

Turn on this greeting for a specific time period when you want to provide information about special circumstances, such as when you are on vacation. (For example, "I will be out of the office until <date>.")

When it is on, the alternate greeting overrides all other greetings.

Tip icon Tip

Other Voicemail users do not hear your alternate greeting when they send messages to you by phone. When you turn on your alternate greeting, consider also 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.

Busy Greeting

Turn on this greeting when you want callers to know that you are on the phone. (For example, "I am currently on another line, please leave a message.")

When it is on and your Cisco phone is busy, the busy greeting overrides the standard, closed, internal and holiday greetings. The default setting for Cisco phones allows a second call to ring and be answered (or not) without playing the busy greeting. The busy greeting is only played if the user has two active calls on a Cisco phone. Users can request to have this setting changed by the system administrator. Basically, the busy greeting replaces the busy signal.

*Note: The system cannot tell if an Avaya phone is busy, therefore the busy greeting will not be played for calls to Avaya telephones.

Internal Greeting

Turn on this greeting when you want to provide information that coworkers might need to know. (For example, "I will be in conference room B until noon today.")

When it is on, the internal greeting and plays only to callers with Cisco phones on the UCB Campus phone system, when you do not answer your phone. This greeting overrides the standard, closed, and holiday greetings for callers with Cisco phones on the UCB Campus phone system.

*Note: The internal greeting will not be played for callers with Avaya telephones.

Holiday Greeting

Turn on this greeting when you want callers to hear a recording from you 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 on, the holiday greeting overrides the standard and closed greetings during UCB Campus holiday hours. If your alternate greeting is on, it will override the holiday greeting.

Re-recording Your Current Greeting

To record a new greeting to replace your current greeting:

  1. Call the voicemail system and log in with your 5 digit extension and PIN (consult Voicemail Basic Functions for more information).
    • Voicemail system number: 5-6245 (5-MAIL) on-campus or 303-735-6245 off-campus
  2. At the Main menu, press “4” for Setup Options, then press “1” for Greetings.
  3. After Voicemail plays your current greeting, follow the prompts to re-record it.
    • To pause or resume recording, press 8. To end recording, press #.

Turning Your Alternate Greeting On or Off

When you turn on your alternate greeting, you can set a date and time for it to turn off or you can leave it on indefinitely. To activate or deactivate your alternate greeting:

  1. Call the voicemail system and log in with your 5 digit extension and PIN (consult Voicemail Basic Functions for more information).
    • Voicemail system number: 5-6245 (5-MAIL) on-campus or 303-735-6245 off-campus
  2. At the Main menu, press “4” for Setup Options, then press “1” for Greetings.
  3. Press # to skip hearing your current greeting.
  4. Follow the prompts to turn your alternate greeting on or off.
  5. If you turned on your alternate greeting, follow the prompts to set when you want it turned off or to leave it on indefinitely.

Changing Greetings

When you turn on a personal greeting, you specify how long you want it available for use. Cisco Unity Connection Voicemail plays the greeting in the applicable situation until the date and time that you specified, 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 the busy or closed greeting.

You select from one of the following sources to specify what callers hear when a greeting is on:

Action Description
Re-record This Greeting

Voicemail plays a greeting that you record.

*Note: Recording a greeting does not turn it on.
System Greeting Voicemail plays a prerecorded greeting along with your recorded name (for example, "Sorry, <your name> is not available"). If you do not have a recorded name, Voicemail uses text-to-speech to read your display name instead. When a greeting is on but not recorded, Voicemail plays a prerecorded system greeting.

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

Tip icon Tip

If you record a personal greeting then set the greeting to use the system greeting, your recording is no longer available. To record and enable a new personal greeting:

  1. Call the voicemail system and log in with your 5 digit extension and PIN (consult Voicemail Basic Functions for more information).
    • Voicemail system number: 5-6245 (5-MAIL) on-campus or 303-735-6245 off-campus
  2. At the Main menu, press “4” for Setup Options, then press “1” for Greetings.
  3. Voicemail plays your current greeting. You can press # to skip hearing it.
  4. Follow the prompts to select the greeting that you want to change, then to make changes.
    • To pause or resume recording, press 8. To end recording, press #.

Playing All Greetings

Cisco Unity Connection Voicemail plays your current greeting first, then the remaining greetings. To listen to all greetings:

  1. Call the voicemail system and log in with your 5 digit extension and PIN (consult Voicemail Basic Functions for more information).
    • Voicemail system number: 5-6245 (5-MAIL) on-campus or 303-735-6245 off-campus
  2. At the Main menu, press “4” for Setup Options, then press “1” for Greetings, and then press “4” to Play All Greetings.