Virtual Assistant - Voice Commands

Find the Virtual Assistant and Virtual Receptionist phone number

You can find the phone number of the virtual assistant (and virtual receptionist if you are part of a company account) in the Web Portal. See Find the Virtual Assistant phone number in the Web Portal help for details.

Call the Virtual Assistant and login by phone

From your local area code

You can reach the Virtual Assistant using one of three methods:

• Dial your Virtual Assistant's direct number.
• Dial your own Smart Number (designated as such on the Web Portal) from  your office extension or a phone number associated with your account on the Web Portal.
• If you are an employee of a company with a Virtual Receptionist service, dial your company's Virtual Receptionist number:
  • from your office extension or a phone number associated with your account on the Web Portal.
  • from  your office extension or any phone and say the name of your assistant or press STAR (*) from the main menu. Contact your service administrator about this feature.

You will need to access the Web Portal to add a private phone number or modify its configuration. Private phone numbers are personal numbers such as mobile or home phone numbers. See Add a Private Phone Number or Edit a Private Phone Number for details.

For each office extension or private number, you can specify how you want to login by phone. You have a choice of four methods.

• Auto-PIN: The Virtual Assistant will automatically recognize you when you call from this number and log you in (you will not need to enter your User ID or PIN).
• Auto-ID: The Virtual Assistant will automatically recognize you when you call from this number but will ask for your PIN. To login, use your telephone keypad to enter your PIN followed by POUND (#).
• Full credentials: The Virtual Assistant will ask for your User ID and PIN. To login, use your telephone keypad to enter your User ID, then your PIN followed by POUND (#).
• Call Back: The Virtual Assistant will automatically recognize you when you call from this number but will not answer. It will hangup and call you back instead. This is specifically useful to centralize your call logs and save on wireless roaming and long distance charges when calling from abroad.

When calling from an unknown phone number, you will be required to enter your User ID and PIN followed by POUND (#) to access your account.

See Login Authentication under Phone Settings in the Web Portal for details.

When Traveling Abroad

When traveling outside your local calling zone, use the call back feature to access your Virtual Assistant service and keep telephone charges under control. Follow these steps to use the call back feature:

• Login to the Web Portal to add a local number where you can receive calls at low cost (roaming number).  It can be a fixed line or a mobile number with free incoming calls.
  • To add a local number, see Add a Private Phone Number in the Web Portal help and make sure that you check the option Don’t answer. Call me back. under the Login Authentication section.
• Dial your Virtual Assistant's direct number. Even if the call is long distance, there should be no charges in Call Back mode because technically the call will not be completed.
• Hangup quickly after hearing the first rings or when you hear a fast busy tone.
• Your assistant will immediately call you back and give you access to your account. You can then issue commands to access your messages and communicate with your contacts and colleagues as if you were calling from your home city.

NOTE: Remember to change your time zone when traveling abroad in order to adapt your call forwarding schedules and reminders to your new time zone. See Change your time zone for details.

How people reach you via the Virtual Assistant

People can reach you:

• by dialing your Smart Number.
• by dialing your virtual receptionist (if you have a corporate account) then say your name or dial your virtual extension.

Both numbers are directly linked to your user account to enable your Virtual Assistant to use your status, your call forwarding schedules, your call filtering preferences and your phone numbers to answer and route your incoming calls efficiently.

End a phone session - log out

You can end a phone session at any time as follows:

SAY	OR PRESS
GOODBYE OR HANGUP	{hang up}

Interacting with the Virtual Assistant

Your Virtual Assistant sessions start as soon as you login by phone. The assistant starts interacting with you in the language, dialog mode and skill level defined in your user profile. It will also begin your phone sessions according to the preferences (information and menu) defined by you for calls made from your office extension or private phone number. For example, you may choose to have the Virtual Assistant tell you the number of your new voice messages as well as the number of appointments in your calendar at the time of your call.

Language

The Virtual Assistant speaks English and French and understands English and French voice commands. You can switch languages at any time during a phone session. See Change language for details. It can also interpret touchtone (DTMF) commands entered on your phone keypad. See Dialog Mode below for details.

You can switch between dialog modes on the fly during a phone session. See Change dialog mode for details.

Session startup - information to play and menu level

You can define how the Virtual Assistant must start your phone sessions when you call from a specific office extension or private number.  See Add a Private Phone Number.

When you start a phone session, you can have the Virtual Assistant:

• Play your personal greeting: The Virtual Assistant will greet you by name each time you call from this phone.
• Tell you what's new: The Virtual Assistant will immediately tell you how many new messages and appointments you have when you call. Appointments can be read only if your account is connected to a Microsoft or Google mail server.
• State your phone status: The Virtual Assistant will remind you of your current status if it is different than "Available" (in-meeting, out-of-office or unavailable). See Current Status for details.

In addition, you can choose to initiate a phone session at a specific menu level:

• Main Menu: All key functions are available from the main menu including mail and calendar access.
• Voice Mail: Access and manage your voice mail directly.
• Speech Mail: Access and manage your emails using speech commands.
• Speech Calendar: Access and manage your calendar  using speech commands.

These settings cannot be changed using voice commands. You must login to the Web Portal and adjust the settings in the Settings > Phone Numbers section. See Login Authentication under Phone Settings in the Web Portal for details.

Interaction Tips

Follow these tips to help you achieve the best speech recognition results over the phone:

• Speak during silence/pauses between voice prompts. Although a feature called "barge-in" allows you to interrupt the assistant at any time, it may not be able to understand your commands if it is already reading text or playing audio prompts.
• Speak at a natural pace (not too fast and not too slow).
• You don't have to speak loudly. You may achieve better results if you speak normally (not too loud and not too low).
• Repeat your command if the assistant does not understand you the first time.
• Switch to keypad command mode if you need privacy or if you are in a noisy environment.

Training session

The Virtual Assistant can walk you through a training session as many times as you wish. You can activate the training session (offered in expert mode only) on the Web Portal under the section My Profile > Phone Sessions. See Speech interface level in the Web Portal help for details.

You can also print the Quick Reference Guides available in the Guides section and in the footer section of the Web Portal. 

• Quick Reference for Beginners
• Quick Reference for Experts
• Pocket Guide