The directory.
Press 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for billing — and on Team Pro, sub-menus inside each option for "press 1 for new accounts, 2 for existing accounts." Time-of-day branches and holiday overrides happen automatically. Visual builder in the admin portal at app.kelir.io. Versioned config with one-click rollback when Friday's update breaks something.
Multi-level IVR on Kelir.
An Interactive Voice Response menu (IVR) is the press-a-keypad-digit-to-route-the-call surface every business buyer knows. The caller hears a greeting ("Thanks for calling Reeves Construction. Press 1 for sales, 2 for service, 3 for billing, or stay on the line for an operator"), enters a digit, and the call routes to whatever is configured for that digit. Kelir ships the same IVR primitive UCaaS competitors do — multi-level, configurable, time-aware.
On Team Starter the IVR is two levels deep: top-level menu plus one level of sub-menus. On Team Pro the IVR goes up to four levels deep with sub-sub-menus, plus skill-based routing rules at any node. Most businesses run between two and three levels in practice — going deeper makes the caller experience worse, not better.
Configuration uses a visual drag-and-drop tree builder in the admin portal at app.kelir.io. Each node is a menu prompt (TTS-generated or audio-uploaded greeting), each option is a digit (1–9, 0, *) that routes to: another menu, a hunt group, a department, a voicemail box, an external number (forward), or a hang-up. Test paths with a phantom call before activating; roll back to the prior version if a change breaks something.
Time-of-day branches mean the same digit can do different things based on the hour or day. "Press 1 for sales" routes to the sales hunt group during business hours and to a sales voicemail after hours, automatically — no manual switching. Holiday overrides do the same at the calendar level: mark Memorial Day in October, the IVR routes accordingly without anyone touching it on the day.
Setup walkthrough.
Configured from Admin portal at app.kelir.io. The setup below assumes a working Kelir account and an active eSIM.
- 1
Open app.kelir.io and sign in as an admin. Navigate to Routing → IVR menus.
- 2
Click New IVR. Name it ("Main menu", "Sales sub-menu", "Holiday menu").
- 3
Compose the menu prompt — type the text the caller hears (or upload audio). Preview the TTS voice.
- 4
Add menu options. For each digit (1–9, 0, *), pick what it routes to: another IVR menu (sub-menu), a hunt group, a department, a voicemail box, an external number, or a hang-up.
- 5
Set the no-input fallback — what happens if the caller doesn't press anything within the timeout (default 5 seconds, configurable up to 30).
- 6
Set the invalid-input fallback — what happens if the caller presses a digit that isn't an option.
- 7
Optionally add time-of-day branches: in-hours behavior, after-hours behavior, weekend behavior, holiday behavior. Each digit can route differently per branch.
- 8
Save the IVR as a draft. Use the Test path tool to walk through every menu option with a phantom call.
- 9
When the tree behaves correctly, activate. Old version is preserved — roll back from the version history if needed.
- 10
Attach the IVR to an inbound number — typically the company main number, but department-specific IVRs can attach to department numbers too.
Where multi-level ivr earns its keep.
Standard 3-option main menu
Top-level: 1 sales → sales hunt group; 2 support → support hunt group; 3 billing → billing voicemail. Time-of-day rule routes everything to a covering voicemail outside business hours.
Sub-menus for new vs existing customers
Top-level: 1 sales (new accounts) → opens sub-menu (1 small business, 2 enterprise, 3 reseller, each routes to a specialist hunt group). 2 customer service (existing accounts) → opens different sub-menu by issue type.
Holiday IVR for the Thanksgiving long weekend
Holiday menu activates Wed afternoon through Mon morning. Plays a holiday-closed greeting, routes everything to an emergency voicemail with a 24/7 paging-service callback number. Configured in late October, runs automatically.
Multi-language entry menu
Top-level: "Press 1 for English, presione 2 para español." Each language opens its full menu tree in that language. Greetings are TTS-generated or audio-uploaded per language.
Skill-routed support menu (Team Pro)
Top-level: 1 technical support → routes to support hunt group, but the routing engine prefers agents tagged with the right product skill based on the caller's CRM record. Falls through to standard cascade if no skill match.
The same feature.A real cellular line.
RingCentral, Dialpad, 8x8, Vonage Business, and Nextiva all ship comparable IVR. Drag-and-drop tree builders, time-of-day branches, multi-level menus. Functionally close. The differences are: how deep the IVR goes on each plan tier, what happens after the IVR routes to a user, and how the configuration surface feels.
- Two-level IVR is on Kelir Team Starter ($29.99/seat); softphone competitors typically gate IVR depth behind their mid-tier plan ($25–35/seat).
- Four-level IVR with sub-sub-menus is on Kelir Team Pro; competitors generally need their enterprise tier for that depth.
- After the IVR routes a call to a user, the call rings on a real cellular eSIM line — not a softphone session that may have been suspended.
- Visual builder runs in the admin portal at app.kelir.io with a phantom-call test tool — walk through every menu option before activating, no live-customer experimentation.
- Versioned config with one-click rollback. If Friday's IVR change breaks the menu, roll back to last week's version while you debug.
- TTS-generated greetings include US-English voice options previewable in-line. No render queue, no separate "audio production" surface.
Common questions
No. IVR is multi-user routing — it directs callers to the right person or team. On Solo (single seat), there's no team to direct to, so the auto-attendant covers the simpler greet-then-route flow. IVR activates on Team Starter ($29.99/seat) with two levels, and Team Pro ($39.99/seat) with up to four levels.
Two levels on Team Starter — top-level menu plus one layer of sub-menus. Up to four levels on Team Pro — top-level, two intermediate layers of sub-menus, and a final layer. Most businesses run two or three levels in practice; going deeper hurts caller experience.
Yes. Any IVR option can route to an external number — useful for forwarding to an answering service, a paging service, or a colleague's personal cell. External destinations don't get the cellular-eSIM benefits (the call leaves Kelir's network), but the IVR routes correctly.
The no-input fallback fires — by default after 5 seconds (configurable up to 30). Common fallback configurations: route to an operator hunt group, repeat the menu once, or route to voicemail. You set this per menu in the IVR builder.
Yes. Each menu option can have separate routing for in-hours, after-hours, weekends, and holidays. "Press 1 for sales" might route to the sales hunt group 9–6 weekdays and to a sales voicemail every other time. Configured per option, not per menu.
Versioned config means every save creates a new version. Roll back to a prior version with one click in the admin portal. The prior version takes effect immediately on the next inbound call. Useful when a Friday-afternoon "quick fix" turns out not to be a fix.