A step-by-step guide on how to create an IVR system
In one instance or another, you’ve most likely come across an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Whether you’ve used your keypad to get connected to customer service for a Wi-Fi issue or if you’ve used voice responses to make changes to your bank account, a lot of businesses will start Voice interactions via a guided IVR menu.
IVR is even becoming increasingly popular for use cases beyond customer support. Some businesses will set up outbound calls to customers to collect feedback, delivery notices, or validate their identity.
It’s a versatile, familiar, and an easy-to-use solution for customers looking for support from brands across multiple industries. And when an IVR is built with a strong strategy and with best practices in mind, it has the potential to strengthen customer service.
Read on to get a step-by-step guide on two ways to build the ideal IVR menu with as much or as little coding as you want.
Build an IVR system with a drag and drop platform
Building an IVR system is like stacking Lego blocks. Choose which blocks (elements) you want in your IVR menu and stack them up to create a strong structure that will guide customers to their desired end point.
With Flow from Moments, it’s easy for businesses to build out use cases and journeys on a single dashboard. Moments is ideal for digital natives or enterprises that are looking for a drag-and-drop and low-code approach to integrating Voice to their communication stack.
Let’s walk through how to build an inbound IVR call flow. Keep in mind, you can use a similar call flow for different use cases and change the menu details or script to fit your needs. Moments Flow is customizable and makes building an IVR system quick and easy.
Step 1: Select a phone number
When you enter Moments, click Start from Scratch, then Start Inbound Call. This is where you’ll be asked to select a phone number. Remember, you can’t build an IVR system without a phone number from Infobip. You can purchase and set up a number in no time, ensuring you can continue building your IVR system without any delays.
Step 2: Set up your menu
Flow will give you a blank canvas to start building your IVR flow. You’ve selected Start Inbound Call, from there add the Play element. This will allow you to set up a message that your customers hear when they call you. You can use our Text-to-Speech tool, a pre-recorded audio file, or a recording of your previous IVR menu.
Here you can also choose the language and voice type you want, reproduction speed and duration of silence before the message is played.
Step 3: Collect responses
After your customer hears your IVR menu, you’ll need to gather their response and guide them to their desired destination. Add the Collect element to gather their answers, and what each answer will lead to in the menu.
You can set up conditions for each answer. For example, pressing 1 can lead straight to your support department, pressing 2 can allow them to leave a voicemail, pressing 3 can direct them to an agent.
Step 4: Connect to SMS
If a customer hangs up in the middle of your menu, you can set up an SMS message to be delivered with a link for the customer to reconnect to your IVR menu. When they click on the link, they will be directed back to the original IVR menu recording.
Connect data from People CDP to personalize your IVR menus and elevate your Voice service. It makes creating IVR menus straightforward and allows you to integrate a Voice solution with as little heavy lifting as possible.
Customize your IVR system via API
On the other hand, if you want more control over how to customize your IVR menu and you want to embed Voice solutions into your existing tech stack, our Voice API for IVR is for you.
Voice API is a robust set of APIs that allows you to customize Voice message content and delivery as well as develop complex IVR menu scenarios. Voice API offers more flexibility when it comes to formatting IVR options and allows you to scale Voice messaging campaigns to reach a larger audience for outbound IVR calls.
You can get access to these add-on features with IVR over API:
- Text-to-speech
- Answering machine detection
- Speech recognition
Here’s a quick run-down on what you can do with Voice API:
Create IVR scenario
Make an IVR system using our Voice API. You can custom create any IVR scenario using the coding language you’re comfortable with. Our detailed Voice API documentation gives you deeper insight into what elements you can mix to make a multi-level plan that fits your business.
You can use a wide range of elements including:
- Call API
- Capture
- Collect
- Dial to SIP trunk
- If-then-else
Initiate an IVR call
You can use Launch API for outbound calls or configure a custom IVR for your Voice number. You can customize any aspect of your IVR system from destinations, ring duration, sending rate and speed, and validity period.
Modify and delete scenarios
Always having an ideal IVR system means you should be regularly updating and adjusting when you see if. Updating or deleting your pre-configured IVR scenario can be done using the PUT method, so there’s no need to make a new IVR menu from scratch each time.
Our API also allows you to combine Voice with any other channel you use for omnichannel engagement to ensure you can offer the best experiences via API.
How Infobip can take your IVR further
Having the right tools to build your IVR menus is just part of implementing efficient Voice engagement. You’ll need to find a Voice provider that offers fast time to market, direct operator connections and fast number provisioning to reach your goals.
800+
direct operator connections makes scaling your Voice service simple
150+
countries covered for local numbers
99.99%
network reliability for secure and assured connections
On an industry-leading, feature-rich platform, you can build IVR menus with as much or as little coding as you like. Meaning you can deliver exceptional experiences, reduce costs, and retain more customers with an efficient and user-friendly Voice IVR service.
Try building your own IVR menu with Infobip
Try IVR for free
