Every caller, one key from the right person.
Tell us how your calls should go and we’ll build the first menu with you, greeting included, before your number moves.
One key
to the right person.
Greet every caller with a menu of your own: press 1 for appointments, 2 for billing, or dial a person’s extension. Each key goes where you choose, and you change it from your account whenever you like.
- Every key on the keypad, and menus inside menus
- A greeting in your voice or a natural one
- See which keys callers press
“Thanks for calling Example Dental. For appointments, press 1. For billing and insurance, press 2. For our hours and directions, press 3. For a call back, press 4. For the front desk, press 0.”
Extension
The front desk
Rings the front desk phone, extension 1001.
Ring group
Appointments
The front desk and back office phones ring together.
Call queue
Billing and insurance
Callers wait their turn for the next free person in billing.
Another menu
Hours and directions
“We’re open Monday to Thursday, 8 to 5…” Then 0 goes back to the main menu.
Callback list
A call back
The caller leaves their number and hangs up. The front desk calls back from the list.
Dialed directly
Jamie Morgan, ext 1003
Callers who know an extension dial it instead of choosing a key.
Not on the menu
The menu plays again
So nobody lands somewhere they didn’t choose.
Try it: press a key.
1Where keys go
Every key goes where you choose.
A key can ring a person or a whole team, line callers up, open another menu or take a message. You pick from the people and groups you already have.
A person
Rings their phone wherever they answer it: a desk phone, the app or the browser.
A ring group
Several phones at once, or one after another until someone picks up.
MoreA call queue
Callers wait their turn for the next free person, with your hold music.
MoreAnother menu
“For hours and directions, press 3” opens a menu of its own, with a key back.
Voicemail
A shared mailbox, its messages written out and sent by email.
MoreA callback list
Callers leave their number instead of holding, and your team calls back from the list.
MoreAnother number
A cell phone, another office or your answering service.
The AI receptionist
It answers, asks what the caller needs and sends you a summary.
MoreA conference call
A standing call for a team that meets by phone, one key away.
2Building it
Build it on one page. Watch the call play out.
Add a key, choose where it goes and what callers hear it called. Beside the keys, the call plays through second by second, timed from your greeting’s real length: when the keys come, each replay, and where a caller who never presses ends up.
Any key
0 to 9, * and #, and longer ones like 22 for a choice you don’t announce.
Extensions too
Turn on Dial an extension directly, and callers who know an extension can dial it instead.
Nothing live until you save
Owners and admins change menus. Everyone else on the account can read them.
3The greeting
The greeting, drafted from your keys.
Choose Create with text-to-speech and the script is already there, a line for each key: “For appointments, press 1.” Change any word, pick a natural voice, play it, and it’s the menu’s greeting.
- Write it for a natural voice, and make it again when a word changes.
- Record it with your computer’s microphone or the iPhone or Android app.
- Upload it from a studio or the phone system you’re leaving.
4When nobody presses
Pressed nothing? Still answered.
Some callers never press a key. Choose how long the menu waits, how many times it plays and who answers after that, so nobody listens to a loop or gets cut off.
- 0:00The greeting
- 0:21Nothing pressed: it plays again
- 0:42Plays a third time
- 1:03The front desk team rings
- Waits 3 to 20 seconds for a key, and plays up to 5 times.
- A key that isn’t on the menu plays it again, or goes where you say.
- Callers who give up in the menu count as missed calls, so you see them and can call back. Hang-ups in the first few seconds, mostly misdials and robocalls, don’t count.
- A menu that would hang up on a caller who presses nothing is flagged in your account.
5More than one menu
Menus inside menus. Another for after hours.
A key can open another menu, and a key there can lead back. Your hours choose which menu answers: the main one while you’re open, a short one for emergencies and messages when you’re closed.
Read as a caller
Open any menu to see it as a caller meets it: the greeting, the wait, and where each key leads.
A number of its own
Give a menu a number, and your team can dial it or send a call straight to it.
Hours choose the menu
Set your hours and holidays once. See how call flows fit together.
6What callers press
See which keys callers press.
Turn on Show calls in a menu to see each key’s calls over the last 30 days, and how many callers pressed nothing or hung up. Insights goes further: where each key’s calls went, how they ended and when in the day.
In the menu itself
Switch on Show calls and each key says how many calls it took in the last 30 days, with the callers who pressed nothing, pressed a wrong key or hung up.
Shown on a demo credit union’s menu. More on call analytics
Menus that work, business by business.
- Dental offices
- 1New patients
- 2Appointments
- 3Billing
- 4Hours
- Restaurants
- 1Takeout
- 2Reservations
- 3Hours and directions
- Property management
- 1Leasing
- 2Rent
- 3Maintenance
- Law firms
- 1New clients
- 2Existing clients
- extDial an extension
- Veterinary clinics
- 1Appointments
- 2Refills
- 3Emergencies
- Insurance agencies
- 1Claims
- 2Quotes
- 3Policy service
Questions about phone menus.
- Is a phone menu the same as an auto attendant or an IVR?
- Yes. A phone menu, a dial menu and an auto attendant are the same thing, the simplest kind of IVR: a greeting that asks callers to press a key and sends them where they chose. Your account calls them auto attendants.
- How many keys can a menu have?
- Every key on the keypad, 0 to 9, * and #, and longer ones like 22 or *9. A key can open another menu, so there’s room for as many choices as callers need.
- Can callers dial a person’s extension?
- Yes. Turn on Dial an extension directly and callers who know an extension can dial it instead of choosing a key.
- What happens if a caller presses nothing?
- The menu waits, plays again as many times as you choose, then sends the call where you say: the front desk, a ring group or a mailbox.
- Can we have a different menu after hours?
- Yes. Your hours decide which menu answers, so callers get the main menu while you’re open and a shorter one when you’re closed or on a holiday.
- Can the menu speak Spanish?
- Yes. Write a greeting in Spanish and pick a voice that speaks it, then give it a key on the main menu, “Para español, oprima 2,” that opens a menu of its own.
- Can we change the menu ourselves?
- Yes. Add a menu, change what each key does or the greeting from your account, whenever you like.
- Can you set it up for us?
- Yes. Tell us how you want calls handled and we’ll build the first menu with you.
- 1Appointments
- 2Billing and insurance
- 3Hours and directions
- 4A call back
- 0The front desk