IVR Guide: Designing an Interactive Voice Menu That Works

If you have ever called a company’s customer service and been greeted by a recorded message listing a few options, you have used an IVR. It is often associated with large contact centers, but it is just as useful for a small or mid-sized business. This guide covers what IVR is, how to design a menu that works and what you need to set one up.

What is IVR

IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response. It is the technology that lets callers interact with an automated system instead of a person: the system presents a menu of choices and the caller answers by pressing a key or, where speech recognition is enabled, by speaking.

Depending on the choice, the IVR either gives the caller a piece of information directly or routes the call to the right department or person. The path a caller can follow is called the call flow (or phone tree), and it is the backbone of every IVR.

How it works

1. The greeting. When someone dials your business number, the system answers with a pre-recorded message.
2. The menu. It then presents the available options: “For accounting, press 1; for support, press 2.”
3. The input. The caller chooses with the keypad (DTMF tones) or, where available, by voice.
4. The action. The system gives an answer, moves to the next menu level or forwards the call to a person or a queue.

When a request fits none of the options, the caller must be able to reach a human. This is the point where a well-built IVR proves its worth.

What an IVR is used for

The most common uses are:

• Routing calls. Instead of a receptionist, the system sends callers to the right department, even across several menu levels.
• Giving basic information. Opening hours, office addresses, a notice that the call may be recorded, closing days for public holidays.
• Handling out-of-hours calls. In the evening, at weekends or during holidays, callers hear an appropriate message and can leave contact details or be sent to another number.
• Offering self-service. With the right integrations, callers can check the status of an order or a request, book, or get information without waiting for an agent.

Applications vary by sector: a professional firm may use the IVR to tell clients from new enquiries, a restaurant for bookings and opening hours, a company with several offices to send the call to the right branch.

How to design a good IVR menu

A poorly designed IVR is one of the most common sources of frustration for callers. A few simple rules help you avoid it.

Start from why people call

Before drawing the menu, analyze why customers phone you. The three or four most frequent requests should appear in the first level, in the words customers use rather than internal jargon.

Few options, few levels

Callers struggle to remember more than four or five options. If you have more, group them in a submenu. But do not dig too deep: beyond two or three levels, people get lost and hang up.

Put the topic first

State the topic first and the key second (“for technical support, press 2”). Callers then listen only for what interests them and do not have to replay the whole menu.

Always leave a way out

Provide an option to speak to a person and a way to go back to the previous menu or repeat the choices. Someone with a complex problem should never feel trapped.

Take care of the messages

Record short, clear messages with a tone that matches your company’s image. A professional voice and short sentences make a big difference compared with a long, monotonous menu.

Best practices to follow

• Sketch the flow on paper. A diagram with every path, exit and edge case helps you spot dead ends before the system goes live.
• Test it like a customer. Call your own number, or ask a colleague who does not know the menu to, and measure how long it takes to reach the destination.
• Offer several languages if you have international customers: some IVRs let callers choose a language at the start of the call.
• Update regularly. Hours, departments and holidays change, and an outdated message does more harm than a simple menu.
• Check the data. Which options are chosen most often? Where do callers drop off? These numbers show where to improve the flow.
• Think about accessibility. Callers who cannot use the keypad, or have their hands full, appreciate speech recognition as an alternative.

Benefits for the business and for customers

For the business, a well-built IVR reduces repetitive requests, frees people’s time for complex cases and ensures a first response even outside office hours. According to several studies, many customers prefer to resolve simple requests themselves, as long as the path is quick.

For callers, the main benefits are fewer transfers, less waiting and the chance to reach the right person straight away. An IVR does not replace the human relationship: it makes it more efficient.

IVR in the cloud phone system

In the past, IVR needed dedicated servers, specific software and technical staff. With a cloud phone system it is simply a feature of the service: there is no hardware to install, and changes are made without on-site work.

With EagleMercury Elevate and the cloud phone system you can, among other things:

• create multiple, multi-level IVRs, including in several languages;
• use day and night profiles that account for office hours, holidays and public holidays;
• let callers reach a person directly by dialing their extension number.

For more structured customer service, EagleMercury Contact Center adds call queues with automatic call distribution (ACD), skills-based routing, custom IVRs with speech recognition and automatic callback instead of waiting.

In short

• IVR is a voice menu that routes calls and gives basic information, by keypad or voice.
• A good menu starts from the real reasons for calls, has few options and few levels, and always allows callers to speak to a person.
• Testing, measuring and updating it regularly matters as much as designing it.
• In a cloud phone system, IVR is set up and changed without dedicated hardware.

Want to work out how to set up IVR for your business? Contact us and we will help you design the right call flow.