Creating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) message

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In this article

 

IVR is an automated voice call system that can be triggered keypad presses. It's quite handy for customer satisfaction campaigns or appointment confirmations.

 

 

What is an IVR message?

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is an automated keypress-enabled flow of voice messages and actions which can be drive by the person receiving the call.

IVR is especially useful for identifying, segmenting or routing calls.

Example: Your customer has scheduled a service. To confirm it, you send the client an IVR call asking them to press 1 to confirm their appointment. Over the same call, the customer will be asked to rate  how easy scheduling the appointment was, rating it from 1 to 10.

 

 

Requirements to send

  • An E-goi account with a plan that includes sending voice broadcasts.
  • A contact list with mobile or phone numbers, already imported into E-goi.
  • A sender for your voice call, validated in E-goi.

 

 

Costs

Each IVR voice call has a cost, which depends on the features of your E-goi plan.

For E-goi accounts with Base or Pro plans

  • Add a voice extra to your plan. The duration of the calls you send will be deducted from the minutes included in the extra. E-goi has two types of voice extras: one for calls to mobile numbers and another for calls made to phone numbers. Choose the extra that best suits how your contacts will receive the call. 

For E-goi accounts with the GoSend plan

  • Top up your account with enough funds to cover the calls you'll be sending. Each send will be deducted from your funds.
The cost for unsent calls due to invalid mobile or phone numbers will be refunded to your account. The cost for unanswered calls will also be refunded.

 

 

Before sending

 

Usage cases

IVR messages are ideal for:

  • Appointment or reservation confirmation
    • Service businesses, such as medical clinics or beauty salons, can use IVR calls to confirm appointments.
    • The customer receives an automated call asking them to press "1" to confirm the appointment or "2" to reschedule.
  • Customer satisfaction campaigns
    • After an interaction, such as a purchase or customer support, IVR can be used to conduct a quick satisfaction survey.
    • The customer hears a message asking them to rate the service from 1 to 5 by pressing the corresponding key.
  • Important notifications and alerts
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Banks, insurance companies, or utilities can use IVR calls to notify customers about pending actions, due dates, or service interruptions.
    • Example: "To confirm you’ve received this notice, press 1. To speak with an agent, press 2."

 

 

Sender

The sender identifies who sends the voice broadcast. It can be

  • A mobile number: You can choose any number you want. E-goi will send an SMS to that number with a code. Once you enter the code in E-goi, the number is ready to use as sender.
  • A telephone number: You will need to provide us with a digital document proving that you own that number.

 

 

Audio format

If you're not using TTS, your audio can be in one of these formats:

  • WAV
  • MP3

You should go for a high-quality voice recording, as phone lines were designed with speech in mind.

  • Record your audio at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (WAV). If possible, use a professional microphone or a recording studio.
  • Avoid any kind of music - phone audio compression will make it sound awful.
  • Record an 8 kHz mono version of your audio source and listen to it (you can also upload the source into E-goi and send yourself a delivery test). This is how it'll sound to people when they get your call.
  • Try not to exceed 30 seconds in length (more than 15 seconds and people might just hang up on you).

 

 

Step-by-step

 

Create the voice message

1) Go to the Engage menu, then Voice and click Create.

2) Choose the contact list that will receive the call. Decide whether you want to send it just once or frequently and click Next.

3) Choose IVR campaign. Name the campaign (it’s an internal name and will not be seen by contacts), choose the sender and continue.

4) You'll now be creating the call flow: drag the actions you want the call to perform and connect each action. You can customize actions by clicking the three dots to the right of each. Available actions:

  • Menu (DTMF Menu, or Dual Tone Multi Frequency): This is the first thing your contacts will hear when they answer the call. Here, you will choose which voice the contacts will hear and which numbers they need to press on the keypad for something to happen (eg, redirecting the call to a certain phone number).
  • TTS (Text To Speech): Type in the text you want and it'll be spoken during the call with a synthesized voice. The voices are available in male and female versions (ca-ES, en-US, fr-FR, pt-BR, pt-PT, es-MX, es-ES). TTS voices accept E-goi's personalization codes.
  • Audio: You can also import audio in MP3 or WAV format for the call tol play.
  • Webhook: This action sends the call data to any URL you need. You can send more than one action to the webhook. You must enter the URL that will receive the call data plus the JSON code with the information you wish to send. The webhook must be connected to a TTS or Audio action or both. It should be used between an action and the end of the call; never between two actions.

Important notes about the flow

  • All actions must be connected between each other at some point in the flow.
  • The top point of the action is "where it comes from" and the bottom is "where it goes".
  • Any connection can be deleted by clicking the red cross next to each action.
  • To allow the contact to return to the main menu during the call, just make a number on the keypad trigger the Menu action itself.
  • The end of the call must always be connected to an action.
  • An IVR call can have more than one call ending.
  • The same call ending action can have more than one connected action.

5) To test your IVR message, click Test call.

6) When everything is as you want it, click Next and follow the steps to send out the campaign.

 

 

Viewing the campaign report

1) Click the Engage menu, go to Voice and click View all.

2) Click on Report of the campaign you want to take a look at.

 

 

Frequently asked questions

 

What happens if a contact doesn’t answer the call?

E-goi will attempt again for 2-3 times to give the contact a chance to answer.

 

Updated:

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