Short video:
App Builder/Custom apps can be used to create customized IVR prompts for both incoming and automated outbound calls including call campaigns. More information on App builder can be found here: http://exotel.in/blog/app-builder/
An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu provides the ability to present a "voice" with commands and ask the user to "respond" and hence making the entire thing interactive! IVR menu is useful if:
- Your customers call the same number with different kinds of questions or doubts
- There are different teams handling different parts of a customer life cycle (like billing, order delivery etc.)
- You want to categorize callers into buckets (like existing customers vs. new customers etc.)
Drag/drop the "IVR menu" applet in your call app. It looks like this:
Configuration options:
The voice prompt to be presented to the user. The usual four methods (Type text & get it recorded, Upload, Record or choose from library) of creating a prompt are available. A typical prompt will be something like this: "Thank you for calling A B & Company. Press 1 for sales or 2 for support".
The Menu Options
Now type 1 in the text box below "Keypress" and drag/drop another applet in the "Drop applet here" zone. For example - a Connect applet will then connect the caller to a group. Click on the "+" button on the right to add more keypress options.
Tip: The numbers don't have to 1, 2, 3 etc. It can even be 121, 421 and 834 or anything you want. Using this, for instance, you can now create extensions for your groups or co-wokers.
Menu repetition
New callers may not follow your prompt help carefully and hence it is helpful to repeat the same menu up to 3 times so that the caller is able to decide on the option of his choice. So, we recommend "2" for "Do you want to repeat the menu back?" option. (The system will speak the prompt once anyway)
Timeout for menu repetition
After having said the voice prompt once, the system will wait for 5 seconds before repeating the menu (depending on what you chose above!). 5 seconds is optimal and we recommend that you leave this untouched!
Note: If one of your options under "keypress" is a single digit number (say 3) and another option is 3 digits (say 673), and if the user enters "3", Exotel will wait for another 10 seconds, that is, 5 second time out for each digit as configured above (expecting that the person may enter another two digits) before concluding that the user has nothing more to enter! You may want to reduce the timeout option in this case.
No input from the caller
If, even after repeating the menu 3 times, the caller has not entered anything - We may want to connect him to a front-desk receptionist or ask him to record a voicemail and hang up. From the old world, this is the equivalent of "Wait for operator's assistance". If you do not have an operator, we recommend that you drag/drop voicemail and then send an SMS informing the caller that you have received his voicemail and will call back shortly.
Incorrect input by the caller
In the above example, you asked the caller to enter 1 and 2. What if he entered 7? You could handle it like how you would handle the "No input from caller" option above. Or, you can inform that user that he pressed something wrong and redirect him back to the IVR menu. To do this:
- Drag/drop a Greeting applet and prompt him with something like "Your option is incorrect. Please try again".
- Then drag/drop a "Transfer" applet and point it back to the starting of the menu call app.
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