IVR Menus (Auto Attendants)

An IVR Menu — also called an auto attendant or phone menu — is the recorded greeting that answers a call and gives the caller a list of options, such as "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support." Each key the caller presses sends the call to a different destination: an extension, a department, voicemail, another menu, or somewhere else entirely. IVR Menus are commonly used as a company's main greeting, as an after-hours menu, or as a language-selection menu in front of other menus.

Overview#

You manage IVR Menus from Applications > Media Settings > IVR Menus. Each IVR Menu has:

• A greeting (a recording or text-to-speech phrase) that plays when the caller enters the menu.
• A set of options — one row per key a caller can press, each pointing at its own destination.
• Settings that control what happens if the caller does nothing, presses an invalid key, or presses too many wrong keys.

An IVR Menu is reached by giving it its own extension number, or by pointing a phone number (see the Destinations guide) or another menu's option directly at it.

The IVR Menus list

Screenshot needed · ivr-list

How to Create an IVR Menu#

1. Go to Applications > Media Settings > IVR Menus and click Add.
2. Enter a Name for the menu (for your own reference) and an Extension — the internal number this menu answers on.
3. Under Greetings, choose or upload the recording that plays when a caller first enters the menu (see "Recording or Uploading a Greeting" below). This is required.
4. Optionally set a Repeat Greeting — a second recording that plays only on a retry, after the caller has already missed one attempt. This only plays if Max Failures or Max Timeouts (below) is set higher than 1; at the default of 1, the menu exits immediately after the first missed or invalid attempt instead of giving the caller a second chance.
5. Set the Timeout — how many milliseconds to wait, after the greeting finishes, for the caller to press a key.
6. Set the Inter-Digit Timeout — how many milliseconds to wait between key presses while the caller is dialing a multi-digit option.
7. Set Max Failures (how many invalid key presses are allowed) and Max Timeouts (how many times the caller can fail to press anything) before the menu gives up and runs the Exit Action.
8. Choose the Exit Action — where the call goes if the caller never makes a valid selection (for example, transfer to a receptionist or voicemail, or hang up).
9. Optionally choose a Ring Back tone — what plays in the caller's ear while a selected destination is being connected.
10. Optionally turn on Direct Dial so that a caller who already knows someone's extension can dial it directly instead of pressing a listed menu option.
11. Set the Digit Length — the maximum number of digits the menu will collect for a single entry (useful when Direct Dial is on and extensions are more than one digit).
12. Add your menu options (see below), then Save.

How to Add Menu Options#

Each row in the Options grid is one key-press choice:

When you click into the Destination column, you get a drop-down of real destinations grouped by category, including:

• Extensions — a specific person's phone, or a Call Group (a set of extensions that all ring together).
• Ring Groups — a group of extensions that ring together (department lines, etc.).
• Call Center — a call queue.
• Voicemail — send the caller straight to someone's voicemail box.
• IVR Menus — hand the caller off to another menu (a sub-menu), for example a department's own options menu.
• Conferences / Conference Centers — drop the caller into a conference bridge.
• Fax Servers — route the call to a fax extension.
• Phrases, Recordings, and Tones — play a stored phrase, recording, or tone and then continue (useful for "office hours" announcements, etc.).
• Dialplans — a small set of built-in shortcuts: Check Voicemail, Company Directory, Record, and Hang Up.
• Go to Top / Go Back / Exit Menu — navigation shortcuts: replay this same menu from the beginning, return to whichever menu sent the caller here, or trigger this menu's own Exit Action.

Note on Callback: There is no "Callback" choice in an IVR Menu's own Destination list. Callback — letting a caller already on hold in a Call Center queue request a call-back instead of continuing to wait — is configured on the Call Center Queue itself (its own Callback/wait-menu options), not inside an IVR Menu. If you route callers into a queue from this IVR, set up the callback option on that queue separately.

Recording or Uploading a Greeting#

For the Greetings (and Repeat Greeting) fields:

1. Click the drop-down and choose an existing recording from the list, or choose the text-to-speech option if you'd rather type the wording and have it read aloud.
2. To add a brand-new recording, use the record/upload control next to the field — you can record over the phone or upload an audio file — then select it from the list.
3. Use the Play/Pause button next to the field to listen back to whatever is currently selected before saving.

The IVR menu options builder, showing keypress destinations

Screenshot needed · ivr-menu-options

How to Edit an IVR Menu#

1. Go to Applications > Media Settings > IVR Menus.
2. Click the menu's name in the list.
3. Change any fields or options, then Save.
4. To quickly enable or disable the whole menu without opening it, use the Enabled toggle directly in the list.

How to Delete an IVR Menu#

1. Go to Applications > Media Settings > IVR Menus.
2. Check the box next to the menu(s) you want to remove.
3. Click Delete and confirm.

You can delete a single option row the same way from inside the menu's edit screen — check its row and confirm the delete — without removing the whole menu.

Field Reference#

Tips & Common Issues#

• Avoid menu loops. If an option is set to "Go Back" or points to another IVR Menu that itself points back to the first one, a caller who presses the wrong key repeatedly can get stuck circling between menus with no way out. Always make sure every path eventually reaches a real destination (a person, a queue, or voicemail), and that the Exit Action is a real destination, not another loop.
• Give every digit 0–9 a job, or disable unused rows, so a stray key press has a predictable, intentional result instead of falling through to "invalid."
• Keep Max Failures/Max Timeouts low but not at the bare minimum if you're using a Repeat Greeting — at the default value of 1, the repeat greeting never gets a chance to play.
• Test Direct Dial carefully. If it's turned on, callers can reach any extension directly by number, which may not be what you want for a receptionist-style "please hold for the next available agent" menu.
• If callers report "nothing happens" when they press a key, check that the option's digit isn't duplicated on another row, and that Inter-Digit Timeout isn't set so low that multi-digit entries get cut off.