How do I set up voice menus (IVR) with voice, call, and phone menu?

Set up voice menus (IVR) with voice, call, and phone menu in sipgate - instructions for admins.

With a voice menu or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) you can, as an admin, answer inquiries automatically or pre-select calls select and forward. You have the option to store up to ten different announcements with individual DTMF key tones or forward callers within the account to any users, groups, devices, channels, or other voice menus.

If you have a sipgate account with the business L or business XL plan, the voice menu is automatically available to you. The number of voice menus is tailored to your account.

Create IVR voice menu

Under the navigation item IVR|Voice menus you will find the settings menu. Click the button Create IVR at the top right.

Now first enter the general data for the voice menu: the name and the associated phone number. You can also assign groups.

In the next step you will see an overview of the voice menu. Here you can either record an announcement via the menu item Click2Record or upload an existing MP3 file. There are two types of announcements: the announcement for the voice menu, where you tell your callers which key to press for which information, and the announcements with the actual information (e.g. opening hours). The latter is set up with a multi-level voice menu Once the information has been played, the caller is routed back to the voice menu and can perform further actions there.

Assign destination keys

Under the dial menu you will see the available keys for forwarding destinations and can explicitly assign them to a user or another destination. You can also play announcements here that, for example, provide general information or forward to another submenu.

Tip: Each announcement can only be selected once per key.

If you delete a voice menu, all uploaded announcements will also be deleted. As long as no announcement is stored for the voice menu, callers will only hear a busy signal and cannot use the menu navigation. Callers can only make a selection in the voice menu with the touch-tone dialing (DTMF). It is not possible to make a selection there using pulse dialing.

Adjust IVR|voice menu announcement later

Of course, you can adjust your announcement at any time without having to set up a new voice menu. Go to the account management in the IVR|Voice menu and then select the corresponding voice menu. Then click the gear next to the IVR announcement under Settings. Now you can either record a new announcement via the Click2Record menu item or upload an existing MP3 file.

Forwarding when no destination input is made

In some cases, callers may not find the appropriate key for forwarding, or they may not understand the announcements in the voice menu. In such cases, it can make sense to automatically forward the call to a defined destination at a certain point in time. To do this, simply select via the account management in the IVR/voice menu select the corresponding voice menu. Then under Forwarding when no destination input is made enter after how many repetitions of the announcement it should be forwarded where, e.g. user, group, VoIP additional lines, other IVR, or external phone number.