Using multi-level interactive voice response (IVR), or phone trees, you can route customers to the right agent or department, provide recorded responses for frequently asked questions, and deflect calls by allowing callers to switch from a live call to a text message.
This article contains the following topics:
Related articles
Understanding IVR
Implementing IVR involves the creation of an IVR menu or tree that callers navigate through key presses. You can build a simple phone tree with one level or, if you have a complex support team structure, you can layer multiple menu levels together.
Consider the following functionality and limitations before implementing IVR for your account:
- You can't use IVR for incoming calls from a digital line. For more information about digital lines, see Understanding Talk Embedded voice.
- If call recording is enabled, recording continues after you transfer a call internally (to another agent or group) or externally (to an end-user or external number).
- If your Talk plan doesn't support IVR, you can route calls using group routing. See Routing incoming calls to groups of agents.
Using IVR with omnichannel routing
- IVR is automatically supported by omnichannel routing. No configuration is
required to enable omnichannel routing to assign IVR calls to agents. When
using omnichannel routing, a ticket is created for incoming calls as soon as
they enter the queue. That means you can run ticket triggers on incoming
calls before they are answered.
When you use IVR to add ticket tags based on keypresses, those tags can then be used in queue and trigger conditions to influence how the call is routed, such as changing the ticket's group assignment, priority, or skills and determining the ticket's omnichannel routing queue. You can also generate Explore reports on IVR keypresses based on ticket tags. See About omnichannel routing.
- If you've turned on omnichannel routing, you can define custom queues if you need to route tickets to more than one group on a keypress.
- If you have already configured IVR and want to turn on omnichannel routing, remove all non-primary groups from your IVR menu before activating omnichannel routing.
Using IVR with Talk SIP lines
-
Talk SIP-IN lines automatically
support IVR. If you're using a SIP-IN line, the following applies:
- For the textback and external number IVR actions, if no new number has been entered by the caller, the caller number for IVR actions is extracted from the username contained in the "from" SIP URI.
- For the transfer to external number IVR action, the call is dialled
from the phone number selected as the outbound ID for over
flow/forwarding and IVR transfers in the SIP line settings.Note: IVR menus that require transferring to an external number will be unavailable if the customer does not have an associated outbound number configured in the settings tab of the SIP-IN line.
Recording an IVR greeting
Each IVR menu requires at least one IVR greeting listing the options and corresponding key presses. If your IVR menu will be complex with multiple levels and options, you might want to come back to this step after you've built out your menu (see Creating an IVR menu).
To record a personalized IVR greeting and prompts
- Follow the steps to create a custom greeting in . Select IVR as the greeting type.
Creating an IVR menu
The way you structure your IVR menu determines how callers are routed and what options they hear.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
- Click the IVR tab.
- Click Add menu.
- In the menu that's added, click the Settings tab and enter a name for the menu.
- Click the Menu levels tab.
- The first menu level, Main menu, is already created for you. If you want additional, secondary menu levels that callers can reach from the main menu, click Add menu level.
- Click the Name field of a menu level to edit the menu level name.
- Choose an IVR greeting from the Greeting drop-down list. Only
greetings of the type IVR can be chosen.
- Click Add Route to add a new menu option.
- From the Keypress drop-down list, select an available key or select
Default.
If the caller hasn't pressed a key after the greeting plays three times, or if the caller presses the wrong key four times during the greeting, the default route will be used. If you haven't set a default route, the caller will be disconnected.
- (Omnichannel routing only) In the Tags field, enter one or more tags
you want applied to the tickets when users press this key in the IVR menu.
These tags can be used in triggers, omnichannel routing, and Explore
reports. You can add multiple tags, but cumulatively they can't exceed 100
characters in length.Note: Tags don't persist if a call is routed to a different talk line.
- From the Greeting drop-down list, select an optional greeting which will be played to the caller before they take action on the call. This greeting must be of the type IVR.
- Select one of the following actions: :Note: The available actions will differ depending on the type of greeting you select.
- Voicemail: Routes the call to the number's voicemail. Keep in mind that if you haven't selected a greeting in the field above, no greeting will play (just the beep and straight to recording). When you select a voicemail action, you'll also be prompted to enter a group that voicemail tickets will be associated with.
- Group: Choose one or more groups of agents to route the call to. Unless a greeting is assigned to this group, the caller will be placed in the queue and hear the Wait greeting set for the number. The Available agents greeting will not be played. For more information about managing groups, see Creating groups.
-
Number: Routes the call directly to the specified number.
When you select this action type, you'll also be prompted to
enter the number to route calls to. When routing to an external
number in an IVR, that call is not recorded by Talk, and a
ticket is not created for the call. Additionally, the number you
enter cannot use an extension number.Important: When you route a call from your IVR to another number, you will incur an extra charge for the call forwarding.
- IVR Menu: Routes the call to another menu level within the same IVR menu. For example, you might want callers to press 1 for VIP support from the main menu, then be directed to another menu with options for VIP billing, VIP sales, etc. When you select the IVR menu action type, you'll also be prompted to select an IVR menu that calls will be routed to.
- Text back: Switches the interaction over to text by confirming the customer's number, then disconnecting the call and sending a text message. An SMS ticket will be created for this interaction with the customer so the conversation can continue by text. When you select the IVR menu action type, you'll also be prompted to select the number the text should be sent from and to enter the text message context. You can select the language to use for the text back confirmation in the Language drop-down list”
- Select a Group to route the call to. From the list of groups, turn on the ones you want, then, in the Primary group drop-down list, choose the group that calls will be routed to first. If agents in the primary group are not available, the call will be routed to one of the other selected groups. If no agents are available and the caller leaves a voicemail, it will be assigned to the primary group.
- Click Save.
- Repeat steps 9-15 to add additional routes.
- Click Save to save the IVR menu.
Assigning an IVR menu to a number
Once you've built your IVR menu, assign it to a number.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
- Click the number you want to edit.
- Select the Routing tab.
- Toggle the Enable IVR? field to on.
- Select the IVR menu you want to use from the drop-down list.
- Click Save changes.
41 comments
Travel Syndication Technology
I need to find a way to differentiate voicemails left by those who chose a particular option in the IVR. Is it possible to tag them or something? I'm not finding a way to identify them in the triggers.
5
Gab Guinto
Hi Cyn,
I'm afraid there's currently no option to report on the IVR option/route selected on a voicemail ticket. You may only be able to pull up a report in Explore of the IVR destination group, if the call was routed to an agent group. Other than that, there's no available attribute in reports or any condition in business rules that will allow you to identify voicemails based on IVR option. Sorry about this, Cyn.
Thanks!
0
Andrew Chu
Hi guys hope you can help out on my question: In my IVR sub-menu, I configured a routing that if customers press 1 they would be routed to an external number. Currently my business requires that 2 messages/greeting would be played: one played first informing that the customer is being transferred - the other to be played after a while if the customer was not connected to anyone, stating that they either should wait or the connection has been failed.
Currently for one routing I can add only one greeting, which will be the first one. How can I add another one informing the failed connection?
Please note that I will have to set up a few other sub-menus same like this one and their will be several failed connection messages for each routing
2
Michael Froeming
Hi Andrew,
Currently, there's no way to have two greetings per IVR menu. If the menu's action is to route the call to a group, then the IVR greeting and Wait greeting would play as detailed on this article: In what order do Talk greetings play?
1
Andrew Chu
Thanks so much for your reply. I'm clear on this and now having 2 other questions that need your advice:
Are there any other type of triggers that we can set up for a routing beside choosing a key or default? ie. after a greeting is displayed it will move automatically to this IVR. Or can we somehow bypass the 3-time replay rule of a greeting when no key is pressed?
1
Michael Froeming
Hi Andrew,
These aren't possible currently. Calls can only be routed via an active route in the IVR, triggers can't do this, and there's no way to bypass how the greeting is played when no key is pressed. Also, you can't route an active route to a separate IVR main menu, you can only choose menu levels from within the same IVR main menu.
-2
T.J. (ZenBros)
Please review this related feature request and upvote if you agree:
[TALK] Feature Request(s): Custom attributes for logical conditions/triggers, automations, SLAs and KPI metrics are unavailable and far overdue
1
Chris Sinclair
Can the agent see which IVR option was selected before they pick up the call?
0
Kem Collin Agnabo
Hi Chris,
Agents do not have the visibility on how calls came in, what options are pressed in the IVR.
Even Admins won't know the live transition of calls routed to an agent but Zendesk Talk follows the IVR or the configuration set in the Talk settings. To know how calls are routed to agents, you may read it here: How are calls routed to my agents in Zendesk Talk?
1
Jack Trimber
Hello, the IVR option is not popping up under the talk/routing tab in the admin center. What can I do?
Edited by Zendesk Team
0
Josh
Hi Jack,
Thank you for messaging us.
The IVR option is only available for Plan Professional and above including a Talk Professional. What I would advise is upgrading a Suite plan into Professional to acquire the helpful feature.
You can check this article for more information.
0
Chris Sinclair
@...,
It's not that I need to know how it works on the back end, I want the agent to see what option a user selected so we can use a different greeting. For example, if new starters got an option (i.e if you are new to the org, select 1) then the greeting could be customised, such as "welcome to xx, hope you are enjoying the new role etc etc".
Cheers.
1
Charles Gresula
Hi Ahmed,
You'd be charged twice. 1st one would be when you receive the call in the French line and the 2nd charge when the transfer starts.
0
Ian from Beam
Hi support,
1) Do pressing any of the numbers skip/pause IVR greetings?
2) At the end of greetings, can I confirm if pressing # repeats the menu and * connects callers to next available agent?
0
Charles Gresula
Hi Ian from Beam
Regarding your questions:
1) If the number is assigned to an active route, the IVR will proceed on the action for that particular route. If the number is not assigned to a route, it will pause for a second or two then play the IVR Greeting again.
2)This is something you can set as active route on the IVR settings.
0
Raphaël Péguet - Officers.fr
It is possible to not have the robotic voice message that asks the customer to confirm his number when routing the IVR to an answer by SMS.
Or at least to customize it?
3
Lea Møller Baun
I am setting up an IVR system for our clients - but they want the Opt-out possibility and call back. This is not available to set up in the IVR system, so we have had to make a workaround from their current phone company where they use the IVR from their system and then it transfers the call to the three different departments.
So they have to buy three numbers for it to work - will you at some point make it possible to add these options to the IVR?
0
Kacey Zeccola
0
Bradley Lowes
Hi all,
Is there a way to bypass IVR for certain numbers? Some customers call our reception instead of our product support team and when they are transferred they have to be qualified once again. Please can someone advise?
Thanks
0
Jupete Manitas
At the moment, there is no way to bypass the IVR. Once a call will come into the number's queue with IVR routing it will go through the same process with other callers.
We hope this information helps!
0
T.J. (ZenBros)
2nd level IVR seems to not be accepting dialpad input. It's getting a bit difficult to troubleshoot issues from the Partner level without a support path to engage on behalf of a Customer's account. Please advise.
Repro:
0
Sabra
Hey T.J. (ZenBros)!
If the first level IVR menu has a Greeting that specified for the Route options that is the same as the Greeting set on the second level IVR, you can run into the behavior you are describing: where key presses seemingly aren't being recognized. This is because the call hasn't actually entered into the second IVR menu yet, and it just seems like you've entered the second level menu since the greeting is what you would expect to hear if you made it to the menu. I'd recommend checking out the route settings as a first troubleshooting step.
0
Nick Yoon
Hi there,
I have a question about IVR.
I have set up call forwarding for each group to the IVR.
However, it is not forwarding to each group talk license agent, it is only forwarding to one person.
I have deleted the old rule and recreated the rule several times, but still have the same situation.
So, Currently I am connecting to each group and her group to receive the calls, but I don't think this is the right way to do it.
Does anyone have a solution for this?
Or is there something wrong setup with the policies on member account? Or is the IVR malfuction on our end ?
please give me an advise.
Thank you in advance.
0
Shannon Kertis
0
Nick Yoon
Hi Shannon,
Thank you for your comment.
Fortunately, your agent was helping though live chat, I solved it.
Thank you for your assist again.
0
Madison Wrubleski
Is there a way to have the IVR triggered by an individual's organization? We're looking to have specific user organizations routed to certain agents. Is this possible?
0
Gabriel Manlapig
Currently, it is not possible to trigger IVR based on an individual's organization. I can imagine that it would be incredibly useful to route specific end-user calls to certain agents.
I would recommend you to leave Feedback in our Community. Our Teams are frequently looking through the posts in order to get ideas on future additions to the Software. The more a votes a post gets, the higher the chance that the feature will be added in the future.
Thank you!
0
Kyle K.
We would like to have two groups of agents be online for calls; Group A and Group B. Group B should only get calls routed to them if all agents in Group A are unavailable.
Since Omnichannel routing disables choosing multiple groups for phone lines / IVR, I see its recommended to use skill-based routing instead of recreate the same effect. But once the skill timeout happens the agents in Group B aren't being assigned those calls unless they're changing their status which doesn't happen very often, so Group B would rarely catch those calls. Is there some other workaround?
0
Viktor Osetrov
Thank you for reaching out to us with your request. In light of current capabilities, it appears that your desired outcome can only be accomplished if your omnichannel routing configuration is switched to OFF. That said, utilizing Talk group routing might be a suitable solution for you.
To illustrate, you might consider creating two groups, namely Group A and Group B. Following this, you can adjust your talk routing settings at this location -
https://{{YourSubdomain}}.zendesk.com/admin/channels/talk_and_email/talk
.Please observe the following points for optimal results:
1) Ensure that your IVR remains "Inactive".
2) It is feasible to create single-agent groups for routing calls. This allows you to direct calls to a specific agent. However, please be mindful that if the selected agent is unavailable and no other agent groups have been chosen for routing, the caller may be redirected to voicemail or their call may end after a brief waiting period, potentially impacting the customer experience.
3) For a call to be successfully transferred, the respective agent must be both online and available.
Thanks
0
Joe Little
I have seen many of these wants listed before. The addition of the below IVR Menu enhancement would make the Talk IVR much more flexible and useful. As it is there is very narrow functionality at the simple menu level.
1. At every IVR Menu level, let us set the timeout seconds and the time out count before going to the default path. This allows flexibility on menu greetings and avoids the requirements to fail digit entry multiple times before proceeding. It also allow situations where you want multiple greetings in a row.
2. Allow the IVR selection option to select both Sub menu options AND different IVR menus so we have total flexibility on how we build call flows.
Other more advanced features would be simple data dips and the ability to use logic on specific data points.
Thanks
0