What is an IVR?
An IVR, or interactive voice response system, is the automated phone menu that answers a call and routes it based on the caller's keypad presses or short spoken answers. "Press 1 for billing" is an IVR.
IVRs let a company answer every call and send it to the right queue without an operator. They can also handle simple tasks on their own, such as account balances, store hours or payment by keypad. The common complaints are deep menus, options that do not match the caller's problem, and no easy path to a person, which is why so many callers press 0 straight away.
Teams replacing a touch-tone IVR usually move to a conversational IVR, where callers say what they need in their own words.