Allow Callers to Change IVR Prompt Remotely

Sometimes a greeting has to change on short notice: bad weather forces an early close, a holiday is announced, or the office is unexpectedly unavailable. An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is the automated menu that answers incoming calls and plays your greeting before routing the caller. Normally you would sign in to the portal on a computer to re-record that greeting. This feature lets an authorized person do it straight from any phone instead: they call the IVR, dial a feature code (a short key sequence that triggers a built-in function), enter a password, and record the replacement on the spot.

Before you begin

• The number of custom prompts on the system must be below the limit. If you have already reached the maximum number of custom prompts, no new recording can be saved for the IVR.
• Each recording can run up to 2 minutes. A recording longer than that is not accepted.

Caution

Check the custom prompt count before you count on this in an emergency. If the system is already at its custom prompt limit, a caller can still dial in and record, but the new greeting cannot be saved and the change will not take effect.

Enable remote prompt recording

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice portal and go to Call Features > IVR, then open the IVR you want to update.
2. On the Basic tab, select Dial #9 to Modify IVR Prompt. This turns on the #9 feature code for this IVR.
3. In IVR Prompt Modify Password, set a password. Callers must enter this password before they can change the greeting, so it is the one control standing between a caller and your public message.
4. Click Save, then Apply.

Caution

Anyone who can reach this IVR and knows the password can replace the greeting that every caller hears. Choose a strong password, share it only with staff who need it, and change it if it is ever exposed.

What callers can now do

Anyone who reaches the IVR can dial #9, enter the password, and follow the voice guidance to record a new greeting from their phone. The keys are sent as normal touch-tone presses (DTMF, the tones a phone keypad sends), so any standard phone works.

When a new recording is applied, it replaces the old greeting on the IVR: the previous prompt is detached from the IVR configuration and the new one takes its place.

Caution

Applying a new recording swaps out the greeting every caller hears, and there is no undo from the phone. Avoid experimenting on a live IVR that is taking real calls, and only press the “apply” key once you are happy with the take.

Note

The new recording is stored under PBX Settings > Voice Prompt > Custom Prompt. Its name follows the pattern IVR{ivr_number}Date{date}Number{extension_number}, so you can find it again later in the portal.

Example walkthrough

The following flow shows how a caller records and applies a new greeting end to end.

1. While connected to the IVR, the caller dials #9 and enters the password to authenticate.
2. After the beep, the caller records the new greeting and presses # when finished.
3. The caller then chooses what to do with the recording:
   • 1: Play the recording back.
   • 2: Save it and apply it to the IVR.
   • 3: Discard the recording.

Tip

Have the caller press 1 to listen before pressing 2 to apply. Reviewing the take first avoids publishing a greeting with background noise or a mistake to every caller.