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Glossary · Phone system (PBX)

IVR (interactive voice response)

In one sentence

IVR (interactive voice response) is the automated phone menu that greets callers and routes them based on the keys they press, such as “press 1 for sales, press 2 for support”.

Also known as : IVR · IVRs · interactive voice response · phone menu · phone menus · auto attendant · auto-attendant

A call's journey through an IVRA four-step flow. 1: the call arrives on the main number. 2: the IVR checks opening hours and plays the greeting. 3: the caller picks an option on the keypad, 1 for sales, 2 for support. 4: the call goes to that team's queue, or to voicemail out of hours.1 · Incoming callOn the main number2 · Hours + greeting“Thanks for calling…”open or closed?3 · Keypad choice1 sales · 2 support3 accounts4 · The right queueOr voicemailout of hours
A well-designed IVR has two levels and four options at most: beyond that, callers hang up.

What is IVR?

Interactive voice response is the first voice a customer hears when they ring your main number. It plays a greeting and offers choices; the caller answers with their keypad, and the system sends the call to the right place. Many people simply call it the phone menu or the auto attendant.

An IVR does more than list options. It can check the time and play a different message out of hours, ask for an order number, announce a closure, or offer to take a message. It is a building block of the phone system, alongside queues and ring groups.

How it works

  1. The call reaches your main number and the IVR checks the calendar: working day, opening hours, bank holiday.
  2. It plays the greeting, then the menu.
  3. The caller presses a key, which sends a DTMF tone that the IVR recognises.
  4. Depending on the choice, the call goes to a call queue, an extension, a sub-menu or voicemail. If nothing is pressed, the IVR repeats the menu or follows a default route.

Good IVRs are short. Put the most common reason first, say the service before the key (“for support, press 2” rather than “press 2 for support” spoken quickly), and always give a way through to a person.

Example

A Leeds plumbing and heating firm gets three kinds of calls: new boiler quotes, existing customers booking a service, and emergencies. Its IVR has a single level: 1 for emergencies, 2 to book or change a service visit, 3 for a new quote. Option 1 rings the on-call engineer’s mobile around the clock; the others follow office hours and fall back to voicemail in the evening. The firm moved emergencies to option 1 after noticing in call reports that urgent callers were hanging up during the longer menu.

IVR at Universal Telecom

IVR is built into our virtual PBX: you design menus, opening hours and greetings yourself in the portal. If you want callers to explain their request in their own words instead of pressing keys, that is the territory of AI voice agents at our sister brand utio.io: see the definition of a voicebot.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an IVR and an auto attendant?

An auto attendant is the simple form: a greeting and a short menu that routes calls. IVR is the broader term and can also collect information, such as an account number, or look something up in another system.

How many options should an IVR menu have?

Keep it to four options per level and no more than two levels. Longer menus make callers forget the first choices before the message ends, and they press 0 or hang up.

Is a voicebot a type of IVR?

It does the same job of greeting and routing, but it understands free speech using AI instead of keypad choices. It is a different technology from a classic IVR menu.

Related terms

  • Call queue

    A call queue holds incoming callers when every agent is busy and connects them in order of arrival as soon as someone is free, playing music and announcements while they wait.

  • ACD (automatic call distribution)

    ACD (automatic call distribution) is the phone system feature that hands calls waiting in a queue to available agents according to a rule you choose, such as round robin, longest idle or skills-based routing.

  • DTMF

    DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) is the signal a phone sends when you press a key during a call: two tones played together for each key, which an IVR or remote system decodes.

  • Cloud PBX

    A cloud PBX is a business phone system run by a provider in its data centres. Extensions, IVR menus, queues and call routing are managed from a web portal, with no PBX hardware on site.

  • Voicemail

    Voicemail records a message when a call goes unanswered and makes it available to the recipient on their phone, in an app or by email, often with the caller's number and the time.

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