Support Center / Auto Attendants
How to Set Up an Auto Attendant (Phone Menu)
An auto attendant (also called a phone menu, virtual receptionist, or IVR) answers with a recorded greeting and routes callers by keypress — "press 1 for scheduling, 2 for billing." Building one is three parts: the greeting recording, the key-to-destination map, and the behavior for callers who press nothing or press wrong.
Build it
- Record the greeting first — see prompt guidance for what to say — and upload it to the recordings library.
- Features → Auto Attendant → Add New; name it for its slot in the routing ("MainMenu-Day"), attach the greeting.
- Map key codes: each digit (0–9, *, #) routes to a destination — an extension, call group, queue, voicemail box, another menu, or a route. Convention matters: 0 goes to a human (front desk or general mailbox) — callers expect it.
- Set the failure behaviors:
- Timeout (caller presses nothing): replay once, then route to a default — the front desk during hours, voicemail after.
- Invalid entry: brief "sorry, try again," then the same default after 2–3 failures. Never loop forever.
- Wire it in: make the menu a terminal step in the appropriate route, and test every key by calling in.
Auto attendant vs. IVR
The terms overlap: auto attendant conventionally means keypress menus like this; IVR implies deeper interaction (account lookups, speech input). If a vendor comparison mentions IVR, this feature is the equivalent for menu routing.
Day, night, and language variants
Don't overload one menu with "if calling after hours…" branches — build separate menus per context (Day/Night/Holiday, English/Spanish) and let time conditions and language keys select between them. Many small menus beat one labyrinth, for callers and for audits.
Related articles
Last reviewed August 6, 2026. Still stuck? Contact Signal Support from your portal — include what you expected, what happened instead, and one example phone number or extension.