How do I set up an IVR?

Question

How do I set up an IVR or phone tree in Zendesk Talk to allow customers to route themselves with number selections or key presses?

Answer

This article covers the following sections:

Prerequisites

Plan out your routing pathways

Record the greetings

Create the IVR menu(s) and pathways

Set the routing option for the phone line to IVR and select the menu you've created

Test the IVR pathways

Additional resources

Prerequisites

Confirm that you have an administrator role in your account.

Confirm you have a Talk Professional plan or higher. If you need to confirm your plan level, contact the owner of your account and have them view the plan subscription.

Plan out your routing pathways

Before setting up your IVR in Admin Center, it's helpful to map out the pathways outside of Zendesk and make a list of each routing option you wish to offer. For example, you could set different IVR sub-menus for sales and support questions. If you use omnichannel routing, you can also add a tag from specific IVR key presses to each ticket.

Record the greetings

Once you have an idea of which pathways you wish to offer, create a separate greeting for each of the routing options. Choose IVR for the greeting type of each of these greetings.

For more information about how to record greetings, see these articles:

Managing outgoing greetings

How do I add a new greeting?

Important: You're responsible for complying with your country's phone regulations and informing callers if you choose to record calls. For more information about allowing customers to opt-out of recording their call, see the article: Understanding call recording permissions (opt-in and opt-out).

Create the IVR menus and pathways

Open Admin Center, then navigate to Channels > Talk and email > Talk and click the IVR tab. Add a new IVR menu and add each routing option to the IVR menu. Assign the appropriate IVR greeting that you have created to each pathway.

Set the routing option for the phone line to IVR and select the menu you've created

In Admin Center, navigate to Channels > Talk and email > Talk. Click Lines and click the phone line you wish to set up. Under the Routing tab, select the option for Enable IVR? and then choose the correct IVR menu. Click Save.

Verifications steps and video walkthrough

To test the IVR menu, have at least one agent set themself online in the destination group.

Once the agent is online, call the number and listen for the correct greeting to be played. Press the corresponding key press to route your call through the IVR to your chosen agent group.

For a walkthrough of the steps above in this guide, see the video:

Disclaimer: IVR does not support digital lines. For more information, see this Understanding Talk digital line limitations articlesection.

Additional resources

If you're new to Talk setup and would like to learn more, see the articles:

Getting started with Zendesk Talk for voice

Zendesk Talk resources for voice