# IVR phone menu: “press 1” and choosing a department by voice

How to build a voice menu with keypad buttons and with words, repeat the menu and route calls to departments right away — video and step-by-step setup.

Section: Telephony · Updated: 2026-11-03 · http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-ivr&lang=en

> **In short:** An IVR phone menu is an auto attendant that asks the client to press a button or name a department and takes the call to the right person. In “Incoming settings”, add the “IVR menu: digits” or “IVR menu: words” block with “+”, set the message and branches and click “Save”.

Without an IVR phone menu, a client who calls a car service to book a repair reaches the parts seller. The seller transfers the call, the line drops, and the client goes to another service. Every such transfer is a lost booking and wasted staff time.

IVR is a voice menu, or a “press 1” auto attendant: the client chooses what they need and goes straight to the right person. That's how the menu removes extra transfers. Your account has two kinds of menu. With buttons: “Press 1 to book, 2 for a question to the doctor.” And with words: the client says “booking” or “parts”, and the robot understands the answer. The menu is part of the built-in [cloud phone system for business](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-start&format=md&lang=en): it's built in the same scheme as the numbers, the CRM and the voice bot, and the CRM lead is created by itself.

Watch the minute-and-a-half video, and below you'll find the step-by-step setup.

[Video: IVR phone menu: “press 1” and choosing a department by voice](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/n/multic/faq_media.php?f=2026-11/inbound-scheme-ivr-en-12a327.mp4)
- 0:03 IVR phone menu
- 0:21 Menu block
- 0:32 Message
- 0:45 Button branches
- 0:58 Words menu
- 1:12 Backup route
- 1:24 Summary

## Why businesses need it

- Clinic and dental office: button 1 leads to the administrators for booking, button 2 — to the team of doctors. Every question goes straight to whoever answers it.
- Car service, repairs, lawyers: a menu with the words “booking”, “parts”, “bodywork” leads to different specialists. The client doesn't have to remember digits.
- A company with sales and service: “Press 1 for sales, 2 for service.” Fewer transfers between departments and fewer dropped calls.
- An administrator as a safety net: for those who chose nothing, the menu repeats, and then the call goes to a live person. Nobody is left without an answer.

> A car service in Yekaterinburg — repair bookings, parts sales and a body shop. Before: all calls went to one administrator, who transferred them to the specialists, and roughly every fifth transfer dropped. What we did: a menu with the words “booking”, “parts”, “bodywork”, a menu repeat and a backup branch to the administrator. After: the client goes straight to the right specialist, dropped transfers have almost disappeared, and the administrator has freed up time for bookings.

## How the voice menu works

A voice menu is a block of the incoming scheme. The client hears a message and makes a choice, and the call goes to the branch of that choice. Each branch gets its own blocks — usually “Employees” with the right team (how to set them up is covered in the article on [automatic call distribution](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-staff&format=md&lang=en)). The menu type is chosen when you create the block and can't be changed later: “Digits: the client presses buttons” or “Words: the client answers with a voice”.

There's no “+” button under the menu block. The next blocks are added with the “+” button on the branch cards.

![IVR phone menu — the “IVR menu: digits” block with branches for buttons 1, 2 and “Chose nothing or hung up”](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/n/multic/faq_media.php?f=2026-11/inbound-scheme-ivr-1-en-6e3ac3.webp)

## How to set up a keypad IVR: “press 1”

1. **Add the block** — Click “+” in the branch you need and choose “IVR menu: digits”.
2. **Set the message** — In “Message before the menu”, choose “Play a robot text” (up to 300 characters) or “Play an mp3/wav message”. If you like, turn on “Repeat the message if the client has not chosen”.
3. **Add buttons** — A new block already has buttons 1 and 2. For the third and further ones, click “+ button branch”. Digits from 1 to 9, # and * are available.
4. **Fill the branches** — Click “+” in the “After pressing button 1” branch and choose “Call employees / create a lead” with the right people. Do the same for the other buttons.
5. **Set up the backup branch** — “Chose nothing or hung up”. Without it, some clients will be left without an answer.
6. **Save** — The “Save” button at the bottom of the screen.

## Voice menu with words: speech recognition IVR

The “IVR menu: words” block only listens to the client's answer. The question is asked by the “Message” block placed before it.

1. Click “+” and choose “Play / send a message”. Type the question, for example: “Tell us what you're interested in: booking, parts or body repair.”
2. Click “+” after it and choose “IVR menu: words”. The new block has the “Yes”, “No”, “Any words” (the client said something else) and “No words” (the client stayed silent) branches.
3. Type into the branch's “Keywords”: a word and Enter. Write in Cyrillic, and numbers in words.
4. Click “+ answer branch” to add a new option.
5. Fill in “Any words” and “No words” and save the scheme.

If calls go to the wrong branch, open the “Speech recognition log”. It shows exactly what the robot recognized. Add those words to the right branch.

![Voice menu with words — the “IVR menu: words” block with keywords in the branches and the “Speech recognition log” link](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/n/multic/faq_media.php?f=2026-11/inbound-scheme-ivr-2-en-7d8daf.webp)

## How to repeat the menu if the client chose nothing

The client may have been distracted and missed the menu. To give them a second chance, you need the “Continue from a given block” block — it's also described in the article on [time-based call routing](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-rules&format=md&lang=en):

1. Click “+” in the “Chose nothing or hung up” branch and choose “Continue from a given block”.
2. Choose the menu block in the “The block to continue from” field. For a speech menu, choose the “Message” block with the question before it: the “IVR menu: words” block only listens, so the client would hear silence.
3. Turn on “Limit the repeats within one request” and set 2 in the “Allowed number of repeats” field.
4. Choose the “Employees” block with the administrator in the “Where to continue when the limit is reached” field.

The client will hear the menu again, and if they still choose nothing, they'll reach a live person.

![Repeating the voice menu — the “Continue from a given block” block with the “Continue from ‘IVR menu’ · up to 2 times” summary](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/n/multic/faq_media.php?f=2026-11/inbound-scheme-ivr-3-en-e655c4.webp)

> Always fill in the backup branches: “Chose nothing or hung up” in the keypad menu, “Any words” and “No words” in the words menu. Everyone who didn't make a choice goes there.

> Only mp3 or wav files work for the message before the menu. The “Messengers” channel has no voice menu.

## Frequently asked questions

### Why does the IVR always send the call to “Chose nothing”?
The block has no button branches. The warning “No button branches: every call goes to ‘Chose nothing’” tells you about this. Add branches with the “+ button branch” button.

### Why does the voice menu with words send the call to the wrong place?
Check the “Speech recognition log” and add the words clients actually say to the branch. Write in Cyrillic, and numbers in words. Fill in “Any words” and “No words”.

### How do I repeat the IVR phone menu if the client chose nothing?
Put a “Continue from a given block” block in the “Chose nothing or hung up” branch, choose the menu block and a limit of 2 repeats. After the limit, the call goes to the administrator.

### Can I turn a keypad menu into a words menu?
No, the type is chosen when you create the block. Delete the block and add a new one of the right type.

### Why is there no “+” button after the menu block?
Blocks go into the menu branches. Click “+” on the card of the branch you need.

### What do the “The audio file is not chosen” and “The robot text is empty” warnings mean?
No file is uploaded or no text is written in “Message before the menu”. Fill in the message, or the client won't hear the menu.

**Read also:** [Automatic call distribution between managers: queue and bot](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-staff&format=md&lang=en), [Time-based call routing: forward calls by schedule, lead step and CRM](http://my.lptracker.ru/land/lk/faq/?a=inbound-scheme-rules&format=md&lang=en)