I’m looking to set up our IVR for a few options for incoming calls and I’m not sure how to do it or if it can be done. I’d like to have an option for customers who are on hold to be able to press say “1” and be transferred to a voice mail box. Ideally I could configure it to play X number of minutes of hold music, then play a different file with a prerecorded message, than back to the hold music allowing me to insert different information into the hold queue.
For queued call transfers, there are two useful features for designing flexible IVR call controls. The first one is the ability to have a caller to press a key to do something; the second is the max time for hold music. Combined with the built-in support for voice mails, these features allow you to design pretty much anything you desired.
Press a key to get out of the hold music
All you need to do is add a child node to the call transfer node.
Max time for playing hold music
Specify the max hold music time, and if desired, add a child node to catch the “telephone.transfer.noanswer” exception.
The above simple call flow shows the usage. The Sales node is a queued call transfer node, which will put a caller into the Sales ACD queue if nobody is available for the call. During the hold music, if the caller presses 1, it is handled by the child node ExtraHoldMessage, which is a goto node that will go back to the transfer node once the additional audio message is played.
When the max time is reached for hold music, the control is transferred to the Record node because it catches the “telephone.transfer.noanswer” exception.
Please note that if the noanswer exception is not catched in the IVR call flow, the system will automatically send the caller to the target voice mailbox.
