This article walks you through turning on Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for a phone number and building your first call menu. New to IVR? Start with the Introduction to Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to understand what it does before you set one up.
Topics Covered:
How to turn on IVR for a Phone Number
- Navigate to the Profile Icon at the top right corner
- Click on Setup
- Head over to the Voice & Text category in the menu.
- Click on Voice Apps.
- Next, select the number for which you want to enable IVR.
- Edit the Number Configuration by selecting and editing the phone number from the list.
- Under Handled by, select IVR.
- Click on Save to apply the changes.
Note:
- A phone number can only be handled by one mode at a time — Users, AI Pilot, or IVR.
- When you switch a number to IVR, a few settings stay available (like your outside-business-hours message, missed call/voicemail assignment, hold music, call masking, call recording, call transcription, and call quality feedback), while settings specific to Users or AI Pilot mode won't apply.
Create Your IVR Menu
After saving, you'll be prompted to create a menu. You have two options:
- Create IVR Menu – opens a blank canvas in the IVR Builder, ready for you to design from scratch.
- Use a Template – lets you start from a ready-made menu layout (for example, a simple keypad menu) and customize it from there.
Note: If this number already had an IVR menu from before (for example, you switched away from IVR and are now switching back), Salesmate will open that existing menu instead of starting a new one.
Build Your Menu in the IVR Builder
The IVR Builder uses a visual, drag-and-drop canvas — similar to building a flow — so you can design your menu without any coding. You build a menu by adding steps and connecting them together. The steps available are:
- Play a Message: greets callers with a recorded or text-to-speech message (for example, "Thank you for calling! Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support").
- Capture Caller's Input: waits for the caller to press a key, with a timeout and a limited number of retries if they don't respond.
- Route Based on Input: sends the call down a different path depending on which key the caller pressed.
- Connect Call: transfers the caller to a specific teammate, a team, or an external phone number. You can set up different next steps depending on how that call ends (for example, connected, no answer, or busy).
- Record Voicemail: lets the caller leave a message, with the option to automatically transcribe it to text for your team.
- End Call: ends the call at the end of a path.
- Click Save to store your progress as a draft. Your number keeps working as before, since a draft menu doesn't route live calls yet.
- When you're ready to go live, click Save & Publish.
You can build menus with multiple levels: for example, a caller who presses 2 for Support might hear a second menu asking them to choose a specific issue type. You can also add a "return to main menu" option, so callers aren't stuck if they change their mind or reach a dead end.
Note: Publishing only affects new incoming calls — any call already in progress when you publish keeps running on the previous menu.
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