Menu options: mapping a keypress to a destination

The whole point of a phone menu is mapping a key press to somewhere useful. Press 1 for sales, 2 for billing. In a Call menu, each of those mappings is a menu option, and getting them right is what turns a greeting into a working IVR (interactive voice response).

The Option Value

Each option starts with an Option Value, the key that triggers it. The available choices are 0 through 9, the star and pound keys, and the letters A, B, C, and D. There are also special values: TIMEOUT sets what happens when the caller stays silent, INVALID handles a wrong key, and TIMECHECK works with time-based restrictions. When the caller presses a key, the system reads it as a DTMF tone and finds the matching option.

To remove an option you no longer want, set its route to REMOVE and submit. There is also an Option Description field, a short note that ends up as a comment in the call routing logic so future you knows what each key was for.

Where a key can send the call

The Option Route is the destination type. Your choices include CALLMENU to chain into another menu, INGROUP to drop the caller into an inbound queue, DID to send them to a dialed number pattern, HANGUP to end the call, EXTENSION and PHONE for internal targets, and VOICEMAIL or VMAIL_NO_INST for a mailbox.

The Option Route Value then says exactly which destination. For CALLMENU it is the Menu ID of the next menu. For INGROUP it is the queue, plus a few extra fields that define how the call enters that queue. For HANGUP, the route value can even name an audio file to play before the line drops. Routing to an Ingroup is the most common path because that is where a live Agent picks up.

flowchart TD
  A[Caller presses key] --> B[Match Option Value]
  B --> C{Option Route}
  C -->|INGROUP| D[Send to queue]
  C -->|CALLMENU| E[Go to next menu]
  C -->|VOICEMAIL| F[Leave a message]
  C -->|HANGUP| G[Play file then end]
  C -->|EXTENSION| H[Internal extension]

Route value details that trip people up

Each route type expects a slightly different route value, and that is where new admins stumble. An EXTENSION route needs the dialplan extension to send the call to, with an optional context field; leave the context blank and it falls back to the default. A PHONE route needs the login value of the phone you want the call to ring, not a phone number. A VOICEMAIL route needs the mailbox number, and there is a variant that plays the mailbox greeting without the usual instructions if you prefer a cleaner experience.

You can also have the menu log which key a caller pressed, which is handy for understanding how people actually move through your options. Over time those logs tell you which choices get used and which are dead weight you can drop. The Option Description you write for each key shows up alongside the routing logic as a plain comment, so a teammate reading it later can see at a glance what each key was meant to do.

Plan your tree before you build

Sketch your options on paper first: which key goes where, and which keys chain to a deeper menu. For the full inbound picture, read our inbound call handling guide. The queue most options point at is covered in what is a VICIdial inbound group.

To get a working box without an install, our managed VICIdial hosting provisions one in under a minute so you can map options on day one.