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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:

  • Understanding IVR
  • Recording an IVR greeting
  • Creating an IVR menu
  • Assigning an IVR menu to a number
  • Using IVR with omnichannel routing

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:
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

To find out more about IVR, see Interactive Voice Response definition, benefits + steps on the Zendesk blog.

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).

Note: Only Support administrators can modify or delete greetings. See Promoting an agent to the administrator role.

To record a personalized IVR greeting and prompts

  • Follow the steps to create a custom greeting in . Select IVR as the greeting type.
Note: When an IVR greeting message is played to a caller, they must listen to the whole message before they can press a key to interact with the IVR.

Creating an IVR menu

The way you structure your IVR menu determines how callers are routed and what options they hear.

To create a new menu
  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
  2. Click the IVR tab.
  3. Click Add menu.
  4. In the menu that's added, click the Settings tab and enter a name for the menu.
  5. Click the Menu levels tab.
  6. 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.
  7. Click the Name field of a menu level to edit the menu level name.
  8. Choose an IVR greeting from the Greeting drop-down list. Only greetings of the type IVR can be chosen.

  9. Click Add Route to add a new menu option.

    Talk IVR Add route

  10. 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.

  11. (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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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”
  14. 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.
  15. Click Save.
  16. Repeat steps 9-15 to add additional routes.
  17. 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.

To enable IVR for a number
  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
  2. Click the number you want to edit.
  3. Select the Routing tab.
  4. Toggle the Enable IVR? field to on.
  5. Select the IVR menu you want to use from the drop-down list.
  6. Click Save changes.

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.

For more information about routing calls with omnichannel routing, see About omnichannel routing.

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