IVR Workflows

The best part? There’s no coding involved and workflows can be created in minutes!

Let's dive into the details.  

Benefit of IVR workflows

IVR systems allow you to customize the customer experience in real-time by:

• Collecting crucial user information (booking numbers, account numbers, etc).

• Accessing CRM or other systems through APIs.

• Identifying the caller.

• Creating unique routing and behavior according to the individual caller’s needs.

This enables more efficient use of agents and, in some cases, even allows the customer to resolve their questions through self-service.

IVRs do not replace the need for a live agent, but they improve customer satisfaction while freeing agents available to handle complex inbound calls. Not only that, they provide a self-service option that can be accessed outside of business hours.

Workflow steps

Dialpad's bespoke IVR steps allow you to guide your callers through personalized steps, using your voice and verbiage, ensuring the menu selection is on brand with your product.  Add as many IVR workflows as you require, and edit them anytime!

Workflow options include:

• Menu - Plays the menu prompt and collects the caller's menu choice

• Collect - Collects DTMF input (great for collecting account numbers, pins etc)

• Play - Plays audio file prompts

• Go-to - Moves the caller to another IVR Workflow or step inside the current workflow

• Assign - Creates or updates variables to store information during the call, allowing for greater personalization.If the variable does not exist, the variable will be created and assigned the given value.

• Transfer - Transfers the call to another Office, Department, User, or phone number

• Hang-up - Ends the current call

• Branch - Evaluates a variable (system or workflow specific) for a condition and proceeds down a different path based on the result

• Expert - Performs API calls, logic decisions, variables, and other advanced operations

  • Expert flows must be enabled by our Professional Services team. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more information

More information

Learn more about each IVR step in this Help Center article.

For details on system variables, see this Help Center article.

Enable IVR Workflows

First things first, IVR Workflows must first be enabled at the Company level.

Self-enablement is available for companies located in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Companies in all other locations must contact Support to enable this feature.

To enable IVR workflows head to your Admin Portal.

1. Navigate to Company Settings

2. Navigate to IVR workflows

3. Slide the toggle to Enabled

Once enabled, you can create a Standard IVR Workflow.

Create an IVR Workflow

To create an IVR workflow, head to your Admin Settings

1. Select IVR Workflows

2. Select Create Workflow

3. Name your workflow

4. Select the + icon

5. Choose if you'd like to create a workflow from scratch, or use a template

6. Select the desired actions and routing rules

7. Select Publish (or Save, if you'd like to save a draft)

Tip

Click and hold your mouse to move (drag) the workflow diagram across your screen (you can also zoom in and out using the preview on the bottom right).

Assign an IVR workflow

Once an IVR workflow has been published, you need to assign it to an Office, Department, or Contact Center.

To assign an IVR workflow, head to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

1. Select the desired Office, Department, or Contact Center

2. Select Business Hours and Call Routing

3. Navigate to Call Routing

4. Select Edit Call Routing

5. Choose Open Hours Routing or Closed Hours Routing

6. Select Other Routing Options

7. Select an IVR Workflow

8. Select the desired IVR workflow

Once an IVR is assigned, you'll see the number of Entry Points appear beside each IVR workflow.

Edit an IVR Workflow

To edit an IVR workflow, head to your Dialpad Admin Settings

1. Select IVR Workflows

2. Beside the workflow you want to delete, select the More menu

3. Select Edit

4. Make the desired changes

5. Select Save to save your changes

6. Select Publish to push your edits live to connected numbers

Once you remove a step, you can change and update both workflow steps at the same time.

Delete an IVR Workflow

To delete an IVR workflow, head to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

First, you’ll need to remove any connected numbers from the IVR Workflow.

1. Select the desired Office, Department, or Contact Center that is currently assigned to the IVR Workflow you need to delete

2. Select Business Hours and Call Routing

3. Navigate to Call Routing

4. Select Edit Call Routing

5. Choose Open Hours Routing or Closed Hours Routing

6. Change the routing option to something other than IVR workflows.

Next, return to IVR Workflows from your Admin Settings.

1. Select IVR Workflows

2. Click the more menu beside the workflow you want to delete

3. Select Delete

4. Confirm deletion

Note

IVR workflows that have entry points cannot be deleted.

Deleting a workflow cannot be undone.

Fallback options

In the rare event that a step in your workflow becomes unresponsive, use a fallback action to route callers to an alternate line.  

To set a fallback action, head to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

1. Select the desired Contact Center, Department, or Office

2. Select Advanced Settings

3. Navigate to IVR Workflows Fallback Action

   • You'll only see the fallback action option for Contact Centers, Departments, and Offices that already have an IVR workflow configured.

   

4. Choose the desired fallback option

   • Voicemail: Sends the caller to the Contact Center's voicemail

   • Operators: Sends the caller to operators

   • Contact Center / Department / Offices: Sends the caller to a specific Contact Center, Office, or Department.

   • Team member: Sends the caller to a specific team member.

   • Room Phone / External Number: Sends the caller to a specific room phone or number

Note

Operator Fallback only works if all operators are off-duty — it will not activate if the hold queue is full or if the operator misses a call.

Find interactions with IVR Workflows

Use Dialpad's Session History to easily find calls and interactions where users were guided through your IVR Workflows.

From the Call History section of your Admin Portal:

1. Select Digital and workflows

2. Select the Channel filter

3. Select Voice

   

4. Select Apply  

View IVR Workflows in a call

Want to see the exact steps your callers selected as navigated through your IVR workflow?

Once you've found the interaction from the Session History:

1. Select the Ai icon beside the call
   

   

2. Select Show internal messages

   

That's it! Here, you'll see each IVR step, the media that played and the customer's selection.