Phone menu (IVR)

When a caller dials your number, they hear a short prompt, for example: “For sales press 1, for support press 2, for all other enquiries press 3.” Based on their choice, the system automatically routes the call to the right destination, whether that’s a phone number, a complete team, a call queue, or voicemail.

You decide which options to offer, what text gets spoken, and where each choice leads. We programme the menu and activate it on your number. If you want to change the menu later, contact our support team and the update will be live within one business day—no hassle, no extra cost.

The voice your callers hear can be created three different ways. Most customers choose our text-to-speech assistant: you simply type the text, select a voice that matches your business, and the prompt is ready within minutes. The quality is now so high that the difference from a real voice is barely noticeable.

If you prefer a human voice, you can record the message yourself on your phone and send us the audio file, or you can hire a professional voice actor. However, the current quality of text-to-speech means this is rarely necessary.

A menu doesn’t have to be flat; you can build menus within menus. A common example is a first menu where callers choose their language—press 1 for English, press 2 for Welsh—followed by a second menu in the chosen language that offers department options.

This approach works especially well for businesses serving multiple countries or regions from one central number, because each layer refines the caller’s intent until they reach exactly the right person. There’s no limit to the number of levels, but in practice the menu works best when you keep it to two or three layers.

Each menu option can be linked to almost anything in your call flow. The most common destinations are a phone number (for direct connection to a person), a call queue (where the caller waits for the next available agent), or voicemail (where the caller leaves a message).

Beyond that, an option can also play a recorded information message, trigger a webhook for dynamic routing, or connect to another menu. This flexibility means you can build a simple menu with two options just as easily as a complex, multi-layer call flow with integrations—exactly what your business needs at that moment.

A phone menu is included free with every CallFactory number, at no extra cost. It doesn’t matter whether you have a simple menu with two options or a sophisticated, multi-language setup with multiple levels: the feature is fully available for all customers.

The feature works on every UK telephone number and on all our international telephone numbers, so you never have to choose between functionality and reach.