How to Speed Dial Through External IVRs
Part of making outbound calls means navigating through IVRs. An IVR, or interactive voice response, is a phone menu that requires you to either speak or press phone keys to interact with a computer system that ultimately guides your call to the appropriate contact. While IVRs are very useful for companies to handle incoming calls, as a caller, they may require extra time and effort on your part to handle.
When making calls to a contact with an IVR, Agent Desktop allows the comma symbol (i.e., “,” ) to be added to phone numbers and extensions entered in the number input field for the purpose of speed dialing through the IVR.
Each comma represents a one-second pause the system takes before entering the next DTMF key (i.e., 1-9, #, *); multiple commas may be configured consecutively for a longer pause. Commas may be added at the end of a regular number or extension and then between subsequently dialed DTMF keys. Examples of dialed numbers can look like the following:
- 18005556677,,,1,,4
- 16506046789,,1,1234567890#
- 1002,3,2
Phone numbers and extensions dialed with comma symbols will appear in Agent Desktop’s Recent list and can be saved to a contact record with the symbols included.
After saving the specifically dialed phone number to a contact record, all future calls will include the pauses, allowing you to bypass IVR prompts and reach the contact sooner.
