IVR DTMF — Touch-Tone Menu Builder
IVR DTMF — Touch-Tone Menu Builder
DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) signaling is what happens when a caller presses a digit on their phone keypad — the classic "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support" experience. Velaro's IVR builder lets you add DTMF menus to your IVR flow alongside or instead of AI voice recognition.
When to Use DTMF vs. Voice AI
| Use DTMF When | Use Voice AI When |
|---|---|
| Callers may be in noisy environments | Options are numerous or hard to enumerate |
| Options are clear and limited (2–9) | You want natural conversational routing ("What can I help you with today?") |
| Regulatory or accessibility requirements | Callers are expected to describe complex issues |
| Older telephony systems or low-bandwidth connections | You want to avoid training callers on menu options |
You can combine both: use voice AI for triage and fall back to a DTMF menu if the AI has low confidence.
Adding a DTMF Gather Step
- Open your IVR workflow in Settings → IVR.
- Add a Gather Input step.
- Set the Input Type to DTMF.
- Write the prompt message that will be spoken to the caller (e.g., "For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2. To repeat this menu, press 9.").
- Set the Timeout — how many seconds to wait for a key press before triggering the No Input path. Default: 5 seconds.
- Set Max Retries — how many times to repeat the prompt if the caller doesn't press a valid digit. Default: 2.
Configuring Digit Branches
After adding the Gather step, configure a branch for each expected digit:
- Click + Add Branch for each digit (1–9, 0, *, #).
- Connect each branch to the next workflow step (route to team, play a message, transfer to a different IVR script, etc.).
- Add a No Input branch for callers who don't press anything — typically plays the prompt again or transfers to the operator.
- Add an Invalid Input branch for callers who press a digit you haven't configured — typically plays "I didn't recognize that option" and replays the menu.
Nested Menus
You can link a DTMF branch to another Gather step to create multi-level menus. Best practices for nested menus:
- Limit to 2 levels. Deeper menus frustrate callers and increase hang-up rates.
- Always include a "Return to main menu" option (typically 0 or *) on submenus.
- Keep menu options short — callers cannot re-hear them while dialing.
DTMF During a Live Call
DTMF input can also be collected during an active AI voice conversation. For example, after the AI asks "What is your account number?", a Gather step can collect the entered digits directly rather than requiring the caller to speak them. This is more reliable for numeric inputs and prevents transcription errors.
Testing Your DTMF Menu
- In the IVR builder, click Test Call and enter your phone number.
- Call in and navigate through each menu branch to verify routing.
- Check the IVR Diagnostics page (Settings → IVR → Diagnostics) to see a step-by-step trace of test calls, including which digit was pressed at each gather step.
Was this article helpful?