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IVRs

An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is the phone menu callers hear before reaching a person. "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for accounts." You record the announcement, map each key to a destination, and the IVR plays, listens, and routes.

Overview

An IVR makes one phone number do many things: the caller chooses their own destination by pressing a digit. A key can point to another IVR for nested menus, or to a call flow for routing.

What you configure

You record an announcement, map keys to destinations, and pick a default action for any key you have not mapped (or no key at all). When the caller presses an unmapped key or nothing, the default action applies:

Default action What it does
Hangup End the call. Rare - only for silent callers you want dropped.
Repeat Play the announcement again. The usual choice.
Execute Default Step Follow whatever the Default row in the key mapping points at.

The key mapping has 13 rows: Default (used by Execute Default Step) plus the 12 keys 0 through 9, *, and #. Each row picks a target type (IVR or call flow) and a target. A row set to IVR points to another menu, enabling multi-level phone trees. Keep nesting shallow - two or three levels at most.

The IVR key mapping, showing the Default row followed by one row per key
The IVR key mapping, showing the Default row followed by one row per key

How to build a phone menu

  1. Create the destinations first. A key can only point at a call flow or another IVR, so those have to exist before there is anything to map to.
  2. Record the announcement that reads the menu out, naming the options in the order the keys are numbered.
  3. Create the IVR with that announcement and save it. The key mapping does not appear on a new IVR, so a first pass will not show it.
  4. Re-open the saved IVR and map the keys. Thirteen rows: Default, plus the twelve keys 0 through 9, * and #. Leave unused keys unmapped.
  5. Pick the default action for unmapped keys and silent callers. Repeat is the usual choice.
  6. Route callers in: a phone number in Call Flow mode, pointing at a flow with an IVR step.
  7. Test every key you mapped, then test pressing nothing at all.
  8. Before deleting or re-pointing this IVR later, check its Usage tab. Call flow IVR steps and other IVRs' key mappings break silently.

See also

  • Call flows - the IVR step that funnels calls into an IVR, and what the IVR keys route into.
  • Announcements - the sound files the IVR plays.
  • Phone numbers - the DIDs that often lead to an IVR via their Call Flow handling mode.
  • Queues - common destination for an IVR key.

Parts of this form, documented on their own pages.

IVR steps IVR steps map individual keypad buttons to destinations inside an IVR menu, routing callers based on the digit they press. Smart IVR announcements Smart IVR announcements are the recordings the AI voice assistant plays, defined per announcement type and language on an IVR.

Form fields

Fields available in the create and edit forms.

General

Name API name

A descriptive name for this IVR menu, shown in lists and when selecting an IVR in call flow configurations.

Comment API comment

An optional internal note about this IVR. You can edit this directly from the list view.

Announcement API announcement

The sound file played to callers when they reach this IVR. Only sound files of type Announcement can be selected.

Language

Which language variant of the announcement to play. Auto plays the language detected or inherited earlier in the call, falling back to the default announcement; pick a language to always play that variant.

Default action API default_action

What happens when a caller presses an unmapped key or no key at all. Options are Hangup, Repeat, or Execute Default Step.

Steps

The key-to-destination mappings for this IVR. Only available when editing an existing IVR.

Smart IVR

Route callers through the AI voice assistant instead of key-press menus.

Smart IVR announcements

The announcements the assistant plays, one per announcement type (greeting, hold, transfer, hangup) and language.

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