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Overview

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems let incoming callers access information and find contacts via a menu of prerecorded messages, without having to speak to an agent, and let you automate polling via outgoing calls. Callers and call recipients can respond to prompts via Touch-Tone keypad presses or speech recognition. IVR systems can handle larger call volumes than operators and reduce costs associated with customer service.Common IVR use cases include:
  • Auto-attendant: You can replace a receptionist with an IVR system that routes calls to agents during business hours and accepts voicemail when no one is available.
  • Call center: You can route calls coming in to call centers to the appropriate representatives based on user input.
  • Surveys, polling, and voting: You can implement IVR in outbound calls to collect customer satisfaction scores or conduct political polling.
  • Appointment reminders: You can send automated reminders to customers before their scheduled visits to help avoid missed appointments and facilitate rescheduling.
  • Lead assignment and lead routing: For inbound sales calls, you can set up an IVR menu with a set of qualifying questions to discover a customer’s interests, then redirect their call to a representative based on their responses.
This guide shows how to build an IVR menu system on the Plivo platform, either by using our PHLO visual workflow builder or our APIs and XML documents. Follow the instructions in one of the tabs below.
  • Using XML
Here‘s how to implement an IVR system using XML.

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How it works

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Prerequisites

To get started, you need a Plivo account — sign up with your work email address if you don’t have one already. You must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming calls; you can rent numbers from the Numbers page of the Plivo console, or by using the Numbers API. If this is your first time using Plivo APIs, follow our instructions to set up a Node.js development environment and a web server and safely expose that server to the internet.

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Create an Express server to implement IVR

Create a file called ivr.js and paste into it this code.
var plivo = require('plivo');
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var app = express();

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));
app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 5000));

// Message that Plivo reads when the caller dials in
var IvrMessage1 = "Welcome to the demo. Press 1 to contact sales. Press 2 to contact support";
// Message that Plivo reads when the caller does nothing
var NoinputMessage = "Sorry, I didn't catch that. Please hang up and try again";
// Message that Plivo reads when the caller enters an invalid number
var WronginputMessage = "Sorry, that's not a valid entry";
// Sales Phone number
var salesPhoneNumber = "+15671234567"
// Support Phone number
 var supportPhoneNumber = "+15671234578"

app.post('/ivr/', function(request, response) {
  var r = plivo.Response();
  var getinput_action_url, params, get_input;
  getinput_action_url = request.protocol + '://' + request.headers.host + '/ivr/firstbranch/';
  params = {
        'action': getinput_action_url,
        'method': 'POST',
        'inputType': 'dtmf',
        'digitEndTimeout': '5',
        'redirect': 'true',
  };
  get_input = r.addGetInput(params);
  get_input.addSpeak(IvrMessage1);
  r.addSpeak(NoinputMessage);

  console.log(r.toXML());
  response.set({'Content-Type': 'text/xml'});
  response.send(r.toXML());
});

app.post('/ivr/firstbranch/', function(request, response) {
  var r = plivo.Response();
  var digit = request.body.Digits;
  console.log(digit);
  if (digit === '1') {
    var dial = r.addDial();
    dial.addNumber(salesPhoneNumber);

  } else if (digit === '2') {
    var dial = r.addDial();
    dial.addNumber(supportPhoneNumber);
  } else {
    r.addSpeak(WronginputMessage);
  }
  console.log(r.toXML());
  response.set({'Content-Type': 'text/xml'});
  response.send(r.toXML());
});

app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
    console.log('Node app is running on port', app.get('port'));
});
Save the file and run it.
node ivr.js
You should see your basic server application in action at http://localhost:3000/ivr/.Set up ngrok to expose your local server to the internet.

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Create a Plivo application

Associate the Express server you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visit Voice > Applications in the Plivo console and click on Add New Application, or use Plivo’s Application API.Give your application a name — we called ours Phone IVR. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example https://<yourdomain>.com/ivr/) in the Answer URL field and set the method to POST. Click Create Application to save your application.

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Assign a Plivo number to your application

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this application.From the Application Type drop-down, select XML Application.From the Plivo Application drop-down, select Phone IVR (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.

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Test

Make a call to your Plivo phone number and see how the IVR application works.