What is IVR (Interactive Voice Response)?
An IVR (interactive voice response) is an automated phone menu that answers an inbound call, collects a keypress or spoken response from the caller, and routes the call accordingly.
The familiar form is "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support". A caller hears a recorded greeting, chooses an option, and is transferred to the matching person, team or queue.
Modern systems accept speech as well as keypresses, and can look up data mid-call — checking an account number against a database before deciding where to route. That shifts the IVR from a menu into a routing engine.
IVR and auto attendant are often used interchangeably, and the distinction is genuinely blurry. An auto attendant answers and transfers; an IVR can additionally collect input, query systems and branch on the result. Most vendors, including us, ship one feature that does both.
The common failure is depth. Each additional menu level loses callers, and a caller who cannot find the right option will either hang up or pick any option to reach a human — which routes them to the wrong team and costs more than no menu at all.
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