Phone User Guide FAQ

Similar to the previous phone system, everyone is assigned a 4-digit extension. The one major benefit to your new extension is everyone also has a Direct-In-Dial (DID) or basically a direct line. And, your direct line is easy to remember. All direct lines are 843-898-####, where #### is your extension. For example, if your extension is 1111 then your direct line will be 843-898-1111.

This makes doing business with someone much easier as you can just ask them to call you back on your direct line if you are regularly making calls with a specific individual. This will also make it much easier for coworkers out of the office to call in directly to specific staff members. NOTE: We are not making direct DID lines public; it is left to the discretion of each department head if they want to publish staffs’ direct line to the County website, include them on business cards, etc. ALSO: no pre-existing DID as going away. All pre-existing DIDs have been transferred into the new system

  When you receive a call, to answer simply pick up the handset or press the speaker button on the phone to answer hands-free. If needed to answer a call going to coworkers extension, dial ** and their extension

To answer a caller that is ringing to someone else's extension, dial * * and their extension.

Placing a call on the new phones is much easier.

• It is not necessary to dial 8 before dialing the phone number.
• It is not necessary to dial 1 before the area code
• If the number is local (843 area code only) it is not necessary to dial the area code
  • I have run into only one or two cases where this failed to work, but usually it works fine.

For all other numbers, simply dial the 10 digit number (###-###-####) and the call button

• Similar to answering a call, you can also place a call without picking up the handset. The call will initiate on speakerphone. Then, if you want to switch to the handset, simply pick it up.
• To switch from the handset to speaker, push the speaker button before hanging up the handset.

• Everyone should set up a voicemail recording. To do this:
  • Dial *97 & enter your password (the default should be either your 4-digit extension or 6666)
  • Follow the prompts listen to and manage your voicemail recordings
  • Follow the prompts (press 0) to manage your recordings. You have 2 types of greetings to set up:
    • UNAVAILABLE - The greeting that is played to callers when you do not answer your phone and they go to your voicemail box. Also used for after hours (if time conditions are in use).
    • BUSY - The greeting played to callers when you have on Do Not Disturb or Decline the Call.
      **when you are done recoding each message, press # to stop the recording
• Voicemail to Email is simple to set up, just send a request to support@colletoncounty.org
• Group Voicemails - some department heads requested group voicemails. To manage these, dial *98, then the mailbox number, and the password

With few exceptions, each department has a standard set of programmable keys (called templates) which were provided by each respective department head. If you would like something added to the programmable keys, please put the request in through your department head because it will affect all the phones in your department.

If you choose to, you can program or change your programmed keys from your phone, however if an update to you departments template is pushed out, any personalized changes WILL be overwritten.

Most users have the touchscreen models and to view all of your programmed keys you can swipe up and down to scroll through the list or click “Expand All” to view the full list.

  While on a call, to transfer a call to another person, department, or even outside line:

• Simply press the transfer button
• Then select the destination. There are a few possible options:
  • If you know it, you may enter\dial the number or extension to transfer the caller to
  • You can select a programmed DSS key to transfer the caller to
    • Depending on the model phone you have, you may have a physical DSS key you can select
    • Or, you may have to navigate to DSS keys from the touchscreen before selecting the destination
  • Your third option is to navigate the Remote Phone Books and select a destination to transfer the call to

  This is commonly used when attending conference calls, but can also be used to speak to a co-worker without the caller on the line hearing you talk. Press the mute button to put yourself on mute, then press it again to unmute yourself.

  While on the call, if you need to place someone on temporary hold you can press the hold key

To pick the call up again, press the hold key again.

“Hey Joe, pick up on line 3”… if requested we can provide this feature to your department and provide instructions for use

   You can use your call history to quickly call back someone you recently spoke with or view missed calls while you were away. This is accessible simply by pressing the call history button.

 You can increase the call (speaker or handset) volume by pressing the volume key during a call. You can increase or decrease your ringer volume by pressing the volume key while not on a call.

   In the near future, County IT will no longer maintain and publish a PDF Phone Directory. The reason for this is that all our directory contact information is available from the Remote Phone Book directories now and we will be maintaining it in that format going forward.

• The Remote Phone Book is accessible by selecting the Contacts key on your phone. 
• The remote directory is presented in an organized manner: Phone Book > Category > Contact
• The remote directory is searchable
• Directories on the phone should update every 60 min., or you can refresh the directory yourself at any time.
• We provide 4 main directories:
  • Staff Directory > Departments > Employees
    • We will update regularly the Staff Directory as we did the PDF directory in the past
    • This is also a group called “ALL STAFF GROUPS”. The number in these groups rings directly to all staff in that department and bypasses any recordings or other prompts that may have been set up on the department’s main number to handle public calling in.
  • Organizations > County Departments, Fire Stations, and Local Gov\Non Profit Agencies
  • SC Counties > County Name > County Contact\Department
  • Local Business > Business Category > Business Name

In our opinion, this is one of the best features of the new phone system. If you are your staff would like to see edits or additional entries to these directories please let us know. For example, ROD had up make sure all Law Offices were included in the Legal section of the Local Business directory. Also, if you would like us to add your staff mobile numbers to their contact information, please send us a request and we will be happy to include that information.

Very soon, we will be sending out an email with your UCP login information and include a brief YouTube video to demonstrate setting up (customizing) and using the UCP.