Quick Start: An IVR Menu On Your Number
An IVR menu is the "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support" front door. In WhautoVoice it is a call flow: a diagram of what the caller hears and where each key sends them. A menu key can lead to a queue of people, an AI voice agent, one person, voicemail, or another menu.
This page is the whole chain in order. Each step links to its full article.
The chain
| # | Step | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connect a provider and get a number | No calls can arrive. |
| 2 | Build what the keys point at | Menu keys lead nowhere and the flow will not activate. |
| 3 | Build the call flow | Nothing to route to. |
| 4 | Activate the flow | Draft flows do not appear in routing. |
| 5 | Route the number to the flow | Calls to the number are dropped. |
| 6 | Register the number, if a key leads to an AI agent | Those callers reach voicemail. |
1. Connect a provider and get a number
Identical to the first two steps of Quick start: an AI agent answering your number. Connect your carrier under Settings > Integrations, then Buy number or Import owned under AI & Call Handling > Phone Numbers.
Full articles: Connect Twilio, Phone numbers.
2. Build what the keys point at
Do this before you build the menu. A flow will not activate while a key leads nowhere, so having the destinations ready saves a round trip.
| Destination | Build it under | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Call queue | AI & Call Handling > Call Queues | A department where several people can pick up. See Call queues. |
| AI voice agent | AI & Call Handling > AI Voice Agents | A key you want handled without a person. See Create an AI voice agent. |
| Specific agent | Settings > Team | One named person's softphone. See Adding team members. |
| Voicemail | Nothing to build | Anyone who presses nothing, and the out-of-hours path. |
You also need people on the phones for a queue to answer anything, so invite the team and check they can set themselves Available. See Presence and availability.
3. Build the call flow
Open AI & Call Handling > Call Flows (IVR) and click New flow. Start from the Department menu template: it already has a greeting, a three-key menu and a voicemail fallback wired together.
In the builder:
- Click the Greeting step and replace the placeholder text with your own. Anything in square brackets is a blank the template left for you.
- Click the Main menu step and set What to say, then one row per key under Keys the caller can press. Every key you mention out loud must exist in the list.
- Open each destination step and pick the real queue or AI agent from step 2.
- Decide what happens under No input / invalid when someone presses nothing. Voicemail is the usual answer.
Two settings worth changing on day one: Seconds to wait for a key and Retries before giving up. The defaults are 5 seconds and 2 retries.
Full articles: Build a call flow, Call flow steps reference, Call flows overview.
4. Activate the flow
Save keeps the flow as a draft and changes nothing for callers. Activate is what makes it usable.
Activating runs a check first. Anything unfinished appears under Fix these before activating: a required field left empty, a key that leads nowhere, a queue or agent not picked, or two keys with the same number. Fix each one, save, and activate again.
A draft flow does not appear in the routing dialog at all, which is the usual reason a flow you just built cannot be found in step 5.
5. Route the number to the flow
On Phone Numbers, click Routing on the number, choose Call flow (IVR menu) under Route calls to, pick your flow as the Target and save.
If the target list says No active call flows yet. Build one and activate it first, go back to step 4.
Full article: Call routing.
6. Register the number if a key leads to an AI agent
If any step in the flow hands the caller to an AI voice agent, the number itself must be registered with that agent's engine, exactly as it would be if the agent answered directly. Open AI engines on the number's row and click Register next to the engine.
OpenAI is the exception and needs no registration. On every other engine, callers who press that key reach voicemail until this is done.
7. Decide what happens out of hours
Set your opening times under Settings > Business hours, then either use the Business hours step inside the flow to branch on open and closed, or set the after-hours rule on the number in the Routing dialog.
Full article: Business hours.
Test it
Call the number from your mobile and walk every path, not just the happy one:
- Press each key and confirm it lands where you meant.
- Press nothing and let the menu time out, twice, to reach the fallback.
- Press a key that does not exist and listen to the apology.
- If a key goes to a queue, have someone set themselves Available and answer it.
- If a key goes to an AI agent, hold a short conversation and ask for a person.
- Call outside your opening hours.
Then open the calls under Calls and read the Timeline tab. It shows which key was pressed and where the call went. See Call details.
Changes to an active flow apply to the next call as soon as you save. Clicking Move to draft takes it out of service, and the number drops calls until it is active again, so edit at a quiet time rather than deactivating.
Where to go next
- Let the AI answer instead of a menu. Many businesses find one AI agent beats three keys. See Quick start: an AI agent answering your number.
- Report on which keys get pressed. See Reports and analytics.
- Handle the overflow. See Call handling settings.
Email us at hello@whautovoice.com and we will get you sorted.