How to add a call menu to an inbound DID

When a caller dials your main number, you probably don't want every call hitting the same queue. A call menu lets them pick where to go: press 1 for sales, press 2 for support, and so on. Setting this up is two pieces. First you build the menu. Then you point your phone number at it. That phone number is a DID (direct inward dialing), the direct inward dialing number people actually call.

Step one: build the call menu

A Call menu is the recorded set of choices a caller hears, the thing most people just call an IVR (interactive voice response). In the inbound section, add a new call menu entry. Give it an ID like WELCOME_MENU and a short name. Save it, and the rest of the fields appear.

Now set the prompt and the options. The menu prompt is your greeting and instructions, built from one or more audio file names separated by pipe characters. Each option is a key the caller can press, paired with a route. For a sales-or-support menu, option 1 routes to your sales in-group and option 2 routes to your support in-group. An Ingroup is the inbound queue agents log into to take calls.

1. Set the menu prompt audio so the caller hears the choices.
2. Add option 1, route INGROUP, and select your sales queue.
3. Add option 2, route INGROUP, and select your support queue. Create that queue first if it does not exist.
4. Submit, then wait about a minute for the menu to go live.

Step two: point the DID at the menu

Add a new DID and enter your main number. Save it, then set Active to Y and set the DID route to CALLMENU. Pick the menu you just built. The DID route is the DID route setting that decides where an incoming call goes the moment it arrives, and CALLMENU sends it to your recorded options instead of straight to a queue.

flowchart LR
  A[Caller dials DID] --> B[DID route CALLMENU]
  B --> C[Plays menu prompt]
  C --> D{Caller presses key}
  D -->|1| E[Sales in-group]
  D -->|2| F[Support in-group]
  D -->|No input| G[Repeat or timeout]

The keys callers press are read as DTMF tones, so a flaky carrier line can occasionally drop a digit. Keep your menu short, two or three options, and callers will get it right the first time.

Test it end to end

Call your number, wait for the greeting, and press each option. You should land in the matching queue. If nothing happens, double check that the DID route is CALLMENU and that the menu options actually point at real in-groups. For the wider view of how numbers, menus, and queues connect, see the inbound call handling guide. If you want to compare other ways a number can route, read pointing a VICIdial DID at a call menu.

All of this assumes you already have a running dialer and a number on it. If you don't, our managed VICIdial hosting spins up a working box in under 40 seconds so you can go straight to building menus.