Features / Phone menu (IVR)
Press 1 for sales, 2 for service
A phone menu, also called an auto attendant or IVR, answers with your greeting and lets callers choose where they go. On every plan, Onyx Phone sends each choice to one person, to everyone on the line, or to voicemail, and on Business and up to a ring group. One shared number reaches anyone on the team, so nobody needs a line of their own.
How the menu works
Callers hear your greeting, then the menu. Each option is a digit from 1 to 9 with a label, like "Sales" or "Service", and a destination: one person, a ring group, everyone on the line, or voicemail. Up to nine options per line.
Onyx Phone reads the options out for you ("For sales, press 1. For service, press 2."), or you write the exact words yourself. Either way it's spoken in the voice you pick, from twelve choices, and recorded once so every caller hears the same clean audio.
Good first menus
Keep it to three or four options. Callers remember short menus, and everyone else can wait on the line for the default.
- 1 for new work, 2 for existing customers, 3 to leave a message.
- 1 for the office, 2 for the crew on site.
- 1 for sales, 2 for service, 3 for billing.
It works with the rest of the line
Business hours still decide when the line is open; after hours, callers hear your after-hours message and leave a voicemail. The robocall screen runs before the menu, so spam never reaches it.
Getting started
- Create a login and pick a plan. Checkout saves a card for the 7-day free trial, and nothing is charged until it ends.
- Confirm your business and its 911 address, and get a local number on the spot. Bringing your own number? You answer on a temporary one while it moves over, for free.
- Choose where calls ring, write what callers hear, invite your team, and register for texting. Then answer in the browser, the iPhone and Android apps, or a desk phone. How it works has the details.
Included on every plan
Starter is $17, Business is $29, Scale is $42 per user a month, or less billed yearly. The plan includes a business number for each user and unlimited calling and texting in the US and Canada. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, and moving your current number over is free.
Questions
What is an IVR?
Interactive voice response: a menu that asks callers to press a key to choose where their call goes. Onyx Phone calls it a phone menu.
How many options can a phone menu have?
Up to nine per line, one for each digit from 1 to 9.
Do I need to record the menu myself?
No. Write it, pick a voice, and Onyx Phone records it once. You can change it whenever you like, up to 50 message or voice changes per line each month.
Related
Ring groups and simultaneous ring
Ring everyone on a line at once, or ring groups like Office and Crew in turn. Simultaneous ring on every plan; ring groups and ring order on Business.
Greetings and hold music
Write your greeting and choose one of twelve voices, eleven natural AI voices. Callers hear regular ringing or music, and music or silence on hold. Every plan.
Business hours and after-hours
Set open hours for each line, play an after-hours message, and let each person pick when calls ring them. Phones stay quiet off the clock. Every plan.