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TOPIC: ESA's Direct-Connect Feature
You already know that whenever ESA routes a call to one of your telephone numbers, a message is played when you pick up the phone saying, "This is ESA...press 1 to accept this call...". Well, did you know that ESA includes a "direct connect" feature that suppresses this notification message?
If a caller presses 2 from your main greeting, ESA will route the call directly to whatever telephone number you have programmed in your Alternate number slot, and when that Alternate phone number is answered, the call is "patched through" immediately, without ESA first announcing the call.
Although there are various ways to employ this "direct connect" feature based upon your particular ESA setup, an example of the "direct connect" use is when you want to give your callers the ability to be transferred directly to your pager service.
In a typical ESA setup, whenever a caller leaves a message, ESA pages you (if you have Pager Notify enabled). However, there may be times when you want callers to be able to page you directly. Well, if ESA were to route the incoming call to your pager via its standard Find Me method, ESA would play the "This is ESA..." message when your pager service answers the call. But, since no one on that end would be able to press 1 to accept the call, the routed call would really not go through, right? So, your caller would NOT be able to page you directly.
Alternatively, if your pager service's telephone number is programmed into your Alternate phone number slot in ESA, when a caller presses 2, ESA will "transfer" the call to your pager service, rather than "route" the call. By transferring the call, ESA basically "dumps" the call onto your Alternate phone number. As such, the "This is ESA...". is NOT played, and no one on the other end has to "press 1 to accept..."
Pretty cool, huh?
Of course, if you want to take advantage of this "direct connect" feature, you might want to let your callers know they can press 2, by saying so in your main greeting.