IVR — Virtual Receptionist

Overview

A Virtual Receptionist (also known as IVR or Auto Attendant) answers an incoming call automatically, plays a greeting, and routes the caller based on the digit they press. A typical example:

“Thank you for calling {{COMPANY_NAME}}. For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2. For all other inquiries, press 0, or stay on the line for an operator.”

You can create as many Virtual Receptionists as you need — one per business unit, one for office hours, one for after hours, or one per language. Each Virtual Receptionist has its own internal extension number and can be assigned to one or more DIDs through Inbound Rules.

In the Web Portal, go to Advanced Services → Virtual Receptionist:

https://pbx.fortis-tele.com:8887

Before You Start: Recording the Prompt

Decide on the menu options before you create the Virtual Receptionist, then record an audio prompt that reads them in the same order.

Best practice — option first, digit second:

“For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2.”

This is easier for callers to follow than “Press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Support” — they hear the option they want first and only then have to remember which digit to press.

Note: Voicemail prompts and IVR prompts are best recorded at studio quality (16 kHz / 16-bit PCM, mono). Pre-recorded audio sounds noticeably more professional than text-to-speech and is the recommended approach for any production deployment.

Creating a Virtual Receptionist

Step 1 — Add a new Virtual Receptionist

1. Advanced Services → Virtual Receptionist
2. Click Add

Step 2 — General settings

If you do not upload a custom prompt, the PBX falls back to a built-in system prompt.

Step 3 — Configure menu keys

Open the Menu Options tab. For each digit you want to support, define a User Input (the digit) and an Action (where the call goes).

Typical mapping:

For each key:

1. Click Add Key.
2. Pick the User Input (0–9, *, #).
3. Choose the Action: Forward to Number (any extension, system extension, or external PSTN number), Forward to Voicemail, Repeat, or Hangup.
4. Pick the destination.

Step 4 — Per-key Office Hours (optional)

A useful detail: each DTMF key can have its own Office Hours. This lets you offer Sales only on weekdays 09:00–17:00 while keeping Support reachable 24/7 — both inside the same IVR.

1. On the key, click Office Hours.
2. Choose Use Specific Office Hours.
3. Enable the days, set time ranges, and use Apply To to copy the schedule across days.
4. (Optional) Click Holidays → Select Holidays to pick from the global list.

Step 5 — Timeout, retries, and call failure

If the caller enters a digit that does not match any configured key, the IVR replays the prompt — the Call Failure rule is not triggered for an unknown digit.

Step 6 — Save

Click Save.

Direct Destinations

Direct Destinations are a lightweight alternative to a full DTMF menu. Instead of building branches, you map digits straight to extensions in a single list:

“For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2. For all other inquiries, press 0.”

1 → 8003

2 → 8000

0 → 8001

Use Direct Destinations for simple receptionist menus. For multi-level call flows or anything with conditional logic, use the menu-key approach above (or a Visual IVR Editor node, if licensed).

The # delay

If your direct destinations conflict with extension numbers — for example, 1 is a direct destination but you also have extensions 101, 102 — append # to the direct destination (1#). VeloPBX will wait 3 seconds before dialing, giving the caller time to finish entering a multi-digit extension.

Best practice: Choose extension ranges that do not overlap with direct destinations or outbound prefixes. Ranges in the 4xx–7xx band are commonly recommended.

Allow Callers to Dial a Known Extension Directly

While the prompt is playing, callers can type a known extension number to be connected immediately without waiting for the menu to finish. This is enabled by default. Mention it in your greeting:

“If you know your party’s extension, please enter it now.”

You can block direct dialing to specific extensions or ranges using Block Direct Extension Dialing in the General settings (e.g. 1001-2001;3000;7000-8000).

Linking the IVR to an Inbound Rule

After you save the Virtual Receptionist, route a DID to it:

1. Call Manager → Inbound Rules
2. Open or create an Inbound Rule.
3. Set Forward to Number to the IVR’s extension number (e.g. 8000).
4. Click Save.

You will typically use different IVRs for the Office Hours, Out of Office Hours, and Holidays branches of the Inbound Rule (for example, a daytime menu with full options and a simpler after-hours menu that goes straight to voicemail).

Nested IVRs

A menu key on one IVR can route to another IVR. Use this to break a large menu into manageable sub-menus.

Example:

Main IVR
├── 1 → Sales IVR
│       ├── 1 → New customer (Queue)
│       └── 2 → Existing customer (Queue)
├── 2 → Support (Queue)
└── 0 → Operator (Extension)

To create a nested IVR, set the menu key’s Forward to Number to the extension of the sub-IVR. For deeper call flows, the Visual IVR Editor lets you build the same structure visually.

Next Step

→ Ring Groups

Last updated: 2026-05-01