Dial By First name in directory

[drewt]

Has anyone tried overwriting the "dial by last name announcement" recording with "dial by first name" and then just put the persons first name in the last name field? Seems overly restrictive to require last name only, how hard can it be to give the system programmer a choice of first or last name?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi @drewt

This is the only way it can be done, and this is not something that is planned to change for the time being. Last names tend to be more unique.

 

[Brad Kopecky]

Why can't we have the option of doing one or the other? If this was put to a vote, I am betting the vast majority of companies would prefer first name.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Brad,

It was put to vote. It only got 25 votes ever since 2015 so that bet is already lost

Regardless, take a look here and upvote because if it does get enough traction it can be considered: https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/dial-by-first-name-or-last-name.42960/

Also take a look at the sticky note in the Ideas section if you want to know more

 

[Alphabetic]

I suppose you copy modify the "UserName.wav" file in your system prompt using audacity to clip out "last" and replace with "first" and then swap the first/last names in the EXT settings.

 

[Brad Kopecky]

I actually like the sarcasm but not everyone would.

I don't mean a forum vote unless you are saying that 3cx measures customer engagement via how many sign up, post, and reply on the forums. I mean an actual survey listing new features for customers to force rank their preferences.

I am in the process of moving a 150 node company from a 10 year old Shoretel and among the features they were surprised to learn they will lose was the step backwards in ease of hot-desking, that employees can't call their own direct number to access vm, the directory name lookup, and the lack of ability to give callers a key to go past the voicemail message right to the beep.

Many good features in 3cx, don't get me wrong. But the items above are things they are losing when going from a decade old system and to an average user, those seem like pretty simple features to add.

 

[Alphabetic]

There are many ways to retrieve VMs in 3CX - Email, any deskphone, 3CX client, 3CX webclient, 3CX Desktop client. You can even call in to an IVR and access VM. Hot desking is a case of logging in with EXT and VM PIN..

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Brad,

No sarcasm implied, it was literally put to the vote in the one place that 3CX has for this purpose and there wasn't enough interest.

I also agree that it's a nice feature. Each person thinks their idea is quick and easy to implement but we as people tend to view things from our perspective and often ignore the big picture (i.e. that there are many features that are easy to implement but the problem is that there are too many and they can't all be put under consideration)

Take a look at Nick Galea's posts here, I think he makes the situation clear
https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/guidelines.44541/

Anyway, no offence intended, sorry if it came across that way.

 

[Brad Kopecky]

Thanks for your time and no offense taken, I liked the eye roll and use it myself. Just sharing my thoughts and I do agree that things which might seem simple rarely are. One question, the forum shows 84k members, how many have voted for new features in the past year or two?

Thanks kieferschild, I used those explanations as well. As I said, my client just found those feature changes surprising. I already sold them on voicemail as an email attachment and explained the hot-desking difference. The lack of the first name and the lack of a key to bypass voicemail and go right to record are something they will learn to live with.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Note sure, don't have the stats for that to be honest, what you see is what you get from the Ideas section voting stars.

As for the other points:

• Hot-desking: don't know what the old system was like so I can't comment
• Employees can't call their own direct number to access vm: They can actually call voicemail externally or from any other extension and Press #, which will then ask them to enter their personal extension number
• Directory name lookup: unfortunately not available for now, just surname
• Key to go right to the beep: Unfortunately not available but you can at least replace the message to something very short