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Phone menu (IVR)

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Greet callers with "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support" and send each key to the right team.

Callers hear a menu such as “Press 1 for sales, 2 for support, or 0 for reception”, and each key sends them to the right person or team. You build it with a Voice menu.

Inbound number → Voice menu
                   ├─ 1       → Ring group (Sales)   → No answer → Voicemail
                   ├─ 2       → Queue (Support)
                   ├─ 0       → User (Reception)
                   ├─ Timeout → User (Reception)
                   └─ Invalid → User (Reception)

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • A phone number in an Inbound number object.
  • A User for each person who answers calls, each with at least one device.
  • Your menu greeting. It must say which key does what, for example “Thanks for calling. For sales, press 1. For support, press 2. For anything else, press 0.” You can record it in the browser or by phone while you set up, or upload an audio file. For a professional recording, use Services › Voiceover productions.

1. Add the Voice menu

Section titled “1. Add the Voice menu”
  1. On the PBX tab, drag Voice menu from the Conditions group onto the canvas and click the gear icon.
  2. Enter a Name, such as “Main menu”.
  3. Under Greeting, add your menu message with Record your voice or Upload file.
  4. Open Advanced parameters and set Number of additional attempts to make a selection and Time for the caller to make a selection, seconds. These decide how many more chances a caller gets, and how long they have to press a key.
  5. Leave Allow calling to internal numbers off unless you want callers to be able to dial extensions from the menu.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Connect the right side of your Inbound number to the left side of the Voice menu.

2. Add a destination for each key

Section titled “2. Add a destination for each key”

Add the objects your keys lead to. For example:

Configure each one and click Save.

3. Connect the keys

Section titled “3. Connect the keys”
  1. Drag a connection from the right side of the Voice menu to the sales Ring group. The new line gets a key label.
  2. Click the key label on the line and change it to 1.
  3. Repeat for the other destinations: 2 to the support Queue, 0 to the reception User.
  4. Connect the Timeout path (the caller pressed nothing) and the Invalid path (the caller pressed a key with no path) to reception, so no caller is cut off.

If a path isn’t connected, the call ends when a caller takes it.

4. Apply configuration

Section titled “4. Apply configuration”

Click Apply configuration in the top-right corner. Nothing changes for real calls until you do.

Check it works

Section titled “Check it works”
  1. Call your number from a mobile. You should hear the menu greeting.
  2. Press each key in turn, on separate calls, and check the right devices ring.
  3. Call again and press nothing. After your additional attempts run out, you should reach reception.
  4. Call again and press a key you haven’t used, such as 7. You should hear the invalid-option message (unless What to play when a caller presses an invalid option is Disabled), then reach reception after your last attempt.

Variations

Section titled “Variations”
  • “Press 9 to hear this again”: connect a key back to the Voice menu itself.
  • Different menu after hours: put Time conditions between the Inbound number and the Voice menu, and send Doesn’t match to an after-hours message. See Business hours and after-hours calls.
  • Dial an extension from the menu: turn on Allow calling to internal numbers, and tell callers in the greeting that they can dial an extension.
Section titled “Related”