Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is the technology that let you interact with a menu uses a touch-tone telephone. It is very easy to set-up such a menu with Asterisk. In telephony, interactive voice response, or IVR, is a computerized system that allows a person, typically a telephone caller, to select an option from a voice menu and otherwise interface with a computer system.

Short for Interactive Voice Response, a telephony technology in which someone uses a touch-tone telephone to interact with a database to acquire information from or enter data into the database. IVR technology does not require human interaction over the telephone as the user's interaction with the database is predetermined by what the IVR system will allow the user access to.

Generally the system plays pre-recorded voice prompts to which the person presses a number on a telephone keypad to select the option chosen, or speaks simple answers such as "yes", "no", or numbers in answer to the voice prompts.

Benefits of IVR

IVR systems can be used to create and manage many services including telephone banking, order placement, caller identification and routing, balance inquiry, and airline ticket booking. Voicemail systems are different from IVR systems in that they are a one-way communication tool (the caller leaves a message), whereas IVR systems attempt two-way interaction with the caller. Automatic call distributor (ACD) systems are often the first point of contact when calling many larger businesses, and can be used in place of more expensive IVR systems. IVR systems are generally used at the front end of call centers to identify what service the caller wants and to extract numeric information such as account numbers as well as provide answers to simple questions such as account balances or allow pre-recorded information to be heard.

For example, banks and credit card companies use IVR systems so that their customers can receive up-to-date account information instantly and easily without having to speak directly to a person. IVR technology is also used to gather information, as in the case of telephone surveys in which the user is prompted to answer questions by pushing the numbers on a touch-tone telephone.

Click here to open Asterisk support ticket.