Phone Menus (IVR) Explained: How to Let Callers Choose Sales, Support, or a Person by Phone

A KaiCalls Phone Menu is a greeting with numbered options — "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support, or say what you need" — that sends each caller to the right agent or person before anyone starts talking. You build the menu once in Dashboard > Phone System > IVR Menus, connect it to a number, and every caller who dials in hears it and gets routed automatically, whether they press a key or just say what they're calling about.

A lot of small businesses only have one line and one greeting, so every caller — a new lead, an existing customer, a vendor — lands in the same place and has to explain themselves before anyone can help. A menu sorts that out in the first few seconds of the call, before a human or an agent has to ask a single question.

This guide covers what a Phone Menu actually is, what it can and can't do, how to build one, how it connects to your Team Directory, and where it costs.

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Table of Contents

1. What a Phone Menu actually is
2. What Phone Menus can do
3. What Phone Menus can't do
4. How to build one, step by step
5. Connecting the menu to a phone number
6. How this works with the Team Directory
7. What it costs
8. FAQ

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What a Phone Menu actually is

An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu plays a greeting and lets the caller choose an option — the classic "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support, or say what you need." KaiCalls menus support both keypress and spoken intent, so a caller can press a number on the keypad or just say "I need help with billing" and still land in the right place.

Each menu lives in Dashboard > Phone System > IVR Menus. You give it an internal name (like "Main Menu"), write the greeting callers actually hear, and add up to nine numbered options, each pointing to a destination — an agent or a phone number. If a caller doesn't press anything or say anything the menu understands, a fallback agent picks up so the call never just hangs.

What Phone Menus can do

• Route by keypress or spoken intent — callers can press 1, 2, 3 or say what they need in plain language, and the menu handles either.
• Offer up to nine numbered options, each with its own label ("Sales," "Existing Customers") and its own destination.
• Send each option to an agent or a phone number — a menu option isn't limited to one kind of destination.
• Wait a configurable amount of time for input (5 seconds by default) and retry before falling back.
• Fall back to a designated agent whenever a caller doesn't choose an option, so there's always a landing spot.
• Attach to any phone number as one of the routing types available on that number, alongside the other routing modes (ring-first, AI-only, and the rest).

What Phone Menus can't do

• A menu doesn't decide who answers the phone in the first place. That's set on the phone number's routing configuration — a menu is one of the routing types you pick there, not something that overrides it.
• A menu doesn't write its own options. You define the labels, the keypresses, and the destinations. It won't infer that you need a "Billing" option because customers keep saying "billing" — you have to add that option yourself.
• A menu isn't a substitute for a fallback agent. Every menu needs one set, because "no answer" isn't a valid outcome for a caller who mumbles or stays silent.
• A menu doesn't replace the Team Directory. It routes to destinations, but the numbers themselves are meant to live in the directory so more than one menu can reuse the same entry.

How to build one, step by step

1. Go to Dashboard > Phone System > IVR Menus and click Create Menu.
2. Enter a Menu Name for internal use — something like "Main Menu" — callers never hear this.
3. Write the Greeting Message, the actual words callers hear: "Thank you for calling Acme Services. Press 1 for new inquiries, press 2 for existing customers, or tell me how I can help."
4. Add Menu Options — up to nine. Each one gets a keypress number, a label, and a destination (an agent or a phone number).
5. Set the Timeout Behavior — how long to wait for input (5 seconds by default) and how many retries before the call falls back.
6. Choose a Fallback Agent for callers who don't pick an option.
7. Click Save.

After saving, call the number and test it. You should hear the greeting and be able to press a number or say your intent, and every option — including the fallback — should route to the right place. Test again after every change; a wrong destination is easy to miss until someone actually calls.

Connecting the menu to a phone number

Building a menu doesn't put it on a phone line by itself — you connect the two separately:

1. Go to Phone System > Phone Numbers.
2. Click Configure next to the number.
3. Select "IVR Menu" as the routing type.
4. Choose your menu from the dropdown.
5. Save.

"IVR Menu" is one of the routing types a number can use, alongside modes like ring-first (ring your cell before AI takes over), AI-only (Kai answers immediately), voicemail-only, and time-based routing (different rules during business hours versus after hours). You can put a menu on one number and a different routing mode on another, or use time-based routing to run the menu only during business hours.

How this works with the Team Directory

Menu options don't ask you to retype a phone number every time. The Team Directory (Dashboard > Phone System > Team Directory) is the reusable list of people, departments, and backup numbers that your routing tools — including phone menus — pull from. Save "Sales Desk" or "After-Hours Manager" once, with a backup number or fallback action attached, and use that same entry across every menu that needs it.

The directory is the source of truth those tools read from — update a number there and it updates everywhere it's referenced, instead of hunting down every menu that points at an old number. If a menu option is sending callers to the wrong person, the fix is usually in the directory entry, not the menu itself: check the number there, then re-test the menu.

What it costs

Phone Menus are included on every KaiCalls plan — Solo starts at $69/mo, Pro at $199/mo, both with a generous answered-call allowance and no per-minute overage. There's no extra fee to build or run a menu; calls routed through it count toward your plan the same as any other call.

FAQ

Do callers have to press a number, or can they just talk? Either works. KaiCalls menus support keypress and spoken intent, so a caller can press 1 or say "I need help with billing" and the menu routes them the same way.

What happens if a caller doesn't choose anything? The menu waits for input (5 seconds by default) and retries before sending the caller to the fallback agent you set. Every menu needs a fallback so no call gets stuck.

Can a menu option send someone to a person instead of an agent? Yes. Each option's destination can be an agent or a phone number, and phone numbers are easiest to manage when they're saved in the Team Directory first.

How many options can one menu have? Up to nine, each with its own keypress, label, and destination.

Can I run a menu only during business hours? Yes — connect the menu as the "During Hours" routing on a number set to time-based routing, and choose a different mode (like AI-only) for after hours.

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Set up your first menu. Open Dashboard > Phone System > IVR Menus and click Create Menu, or call the KaiCalls demo line at (417) 386-2898 to hear how it sounds first, or visit kaicalls.com.