How many options should an IVR menu have?

As few as you can manage. Callers have to remember every option until they hear the one they want, so short menus work best. If you need more, group them, and use a second level only where it truly helps.

Should the IVR offer a way to talk to a person?

Yes. Always give callers a key for a person — reception or a team — and send callers who don't press anything somewhere sensible rather than hanging up on them.

Can I record IVR prompts myself?

Yes. Yeastar P-Series lets you upload recorded audio files or record a prompt by phone. Newer firmware can also create prompts from typed text; ask our support whether it's available for your PBX.

Where do I learn to set up an IVR on Yeastar?

Yeastar's guide to setting up an IVR covers prompts, key presses, timeouts and the inbound route that sends calls to it.

IVR best practices: phone menus that work

An IVR — interactive voice response, also called an auto attendant — is the voice that answers "For sales, press 1". Done well, it gets callers to the right person faster than a receptionist could. Done badly, it's the reason people hang up. These best practices apply to any phone system; the last part shows where to find each setting on Yeastar P-Series.

Do you need an IVR at all?

Start with the simplest question. If almost every caller wants the same thing, or your team is small enough that anyone can help, a menu just adds a step. Ringing a group of people (a ring group) is often better.

An IVR earns its place when:

callers want clearly different things — sales, support, accounts;
different teams handle those requests;
you need a different path outside business hours;
you want to give callers useful information before they reach anyone, such as opening hours.

Every option is something the caller has to hold in their head while they wait for the one they want. Keep the first menu to a handful of options. If you have more, group related requests ("For orders and deliveries, press 2"), and add a second level only where it really helps. Two levels is usually the limit before callers get lost.

Put the most common request first. The majority shouldn't have to listen to options meant for the few.

Write prompts for the ear

A prompt is heard once, at the speed you recorded it. A few rules:

Say the option before the number: "For support, press 2" — not "Press 2 for support". Callers listen for their need, then the key.
Use your callers' words, not your org chart. "Billing questions" beats "Accounts receivable".
Keep the welcome short. A name and a greeting; skip "Your call is important to us".
Don't announce things that change — this week's offer, a temporary closure — in the main prompt, unless you'll remember to remove it.
Record in a quiet room with the same voice for all prompts, or use one consistent text-to-speech voice.

Always offer a way to a person

A menu without an exit feels like a trap. Give callers a key for reception or a general team, and say it in every menu. Also plan for callers who do nothing or press the wrong key:

No key pressed (the response timeout): repeat the menu once, then send the call to a person or a queue — not to a hang-up.
Wrong key: say so briefly and repeat the options.
People who know who they want: let them dial an extension directly, or offer a dial-by-name directory.

Switch menus with business hours

Callers at 8 p.m. need a different experience from callers at 10 a.m. Use business hours and holidays to switch between a daytime menu and an after-hours message — with voicemail, an emergency number if you offer one, or your opening hours. Set up public holidays in advance; it's easy to forget until the day.

Test it and keep measuring

Call your own IVR from a mobile, as a customer would. Try every key, wait in silence, press a wrong key, call outside hours. Then ask a colleague who didn't build it to do the same.

Afterwards, look at where callers go. Yeastar P-Series has an IVR report showing which keys callers press. If one option is barely used, drop it; if most callers press the same key, consider routing everyone straight there.

Building an IVR on Yeastar P-Series

On Yeastar P-Series Cloud, an IVR is set up in the admin panel:

Prompt: upload a recording or record one, and set how often it repeats.
Key Press Event: map each key to a destination — an extension, a ring group, a queue, voicemail, another IVR, or dial-by-name.
Response Timeout: where callers go when they don't press anything.
Inbound route: points your number at the IVR, with time conditions for business hours and holidays.

For more complex flows — checking a database, branching on conditions — Yeastar's Call Flow Designer lets you build them visually by drag and drop. Newer firmware can also turn typed text into prompts with AI text-to-speech. Yeastar's AI Receptionist, which answers callers in natural language instead of a key-press menu, uses paid Yeastar add-on minutes — ask our support whether it's available for your PBX.

Yeastar's guide to setting up an IVR walks through each step.

On PBXfactory

Every Yeastar P-Series Cloud PBX from PBXfactory comes with multi-level IVR, business hours and the rest of the Enterprise plan's call handling. Building your menus is part of configuring the PBX, which our included support doesn't cover — Yeastar's documentation is the best starting point, and our paid support packages are there if you'd like a hand. Seats are €4.99 per month or €54.99 per year, prices excluding VAT — see pricing.