How do I set up an IVR?

Question

How do I set up an IVR or phone tree in Zendesk Talk to allow customers to route themselves with number selections or key presses?

Answer

This article covers the following sections:

Prerequisites
Plan out your routing pathways
Record the greetings
Create the IVR menu and pathways
Set the routing option for the phone line to IVR and select the menu you created
Test the IVR pathways
Additional resources

Prerequisites

Confirm that you have an administrator role in your account
Confirm you have a Talk Professional plan or higher. If you need to confirm your plan level, contact the owner of your account and have them view the plan subscription

Plan out your routing pathways

Before setting up your IVR in Admin Center, map out the pathways outside of Zendesk and make a list of each routing option you wish to offer. For example, you can set different IVR submenus for sales and support questions. If you use omnichannel routing, you can also add a tag from specific IVR key presses to each ticket.

IVR Routing Tree.png

Record the greetings

Once you have an idea of which pathways you wish to offer, create a separate greeting for each of the routing options. Choose IVR for the greeting type of each of these greetings.

Add IVR Greeting.png

For more information about how to record greetings, see:

Important: You're responsible for complying with your country's phone regulations and informing callers if you choose to record calls. For more information about allowing customers to opt out of recording their call, see: Understanding call recording permissions (opt-in and opt-out).

Create the IVR menu and pathways

To create the IVR menu:

Open Admin Center, then navigate to Channels > Talk and email > Talk and click the IVR tab. Add a new IVR menu and add each routing option to the IVR menu. Assign the appropriate IVR greeting that you created to each pathway.

Set the routing option for the phone line to IVR and select the menu you created

To set the routing option:

In Admin Center, navigate to Channels > Talk and email > Talk. Click Lines and click the phone line you wish to set up. Under the Routing tab, select the option for Enable IVR? and then choose the correct IVR menu. Click Save.

Verification steps and video walkthrough

To test the IVR menu:

Have at least one agent set themselves online in the destination group.

Once the agent is online, call the number and listen for the correct greeting. Press the corresponding key press to route your call through the IVR to your chosen agent group.

For a walkthrough of the steps in this guide, see:

Disclaimer: IVR doesn't support digital lines. For more information, see: Understanding Talk digital line limitations.

Additional resources

If you're new to Talk setup and would like to learn more, see: