An IVR script is every prompt your phone system can play to a caller: the greeting, the menu, what it says when someone presses the wrong key, the queue messages, the after-hours and holiday greetings, and the lines before a transfer or voicemail. Write it as one document with an ID on every prompt, and keep each prompt short enough that callers reach their option quickly.
The sheet below is a full starter set for a contact center that takes order, billing, appointment and support calls. The exact wording of every prompt is further down. Word counts use sample values in the brackets (a company name, a queue position, a phone number read aloud), and play times assume 150 words a minute. Your voice talent or text-to-speech voice will run faster or slower, so time the finished recordings before you build the flow.
| ID | Plays when | Words | About |
|---|---|---|---|
| GREET-01 | Every call during open hours | 5 | 2 seconds |
| MENU-01 | Right after the greeting | 39 | 16 seconds, plus pauses |
| MENU-02 | The caller presses nothing | 6 | 2 seconds |
| MENU-03 | The caller presses a key that isn't on the menu | 7 | 3 seconds |
| MENU-04 | The second miss in a row | 10 | 4 seconds |
| INPUT-01 | You need an account number keyed in | 10 | 4 seconds |
| INPUT-02 | The number isn't found | 15 | 6 seconds |
| QUEUE-01 | The caller joins the queue | 15 | 6 seconds |
| QUEUE-02 | Every 45 to 60 seconds in the queue | 9 | 4 seconds |
| QUEUE-03 | Offering an AI assistant from the queue | 31 | 12 seconds |
| QUEUE-04 | Offering a callback | 18 | 7 seconds |
| OVER-01 | The wait passes your overflow limit | 14 | 6 seconds |
| HOURS-01 | Outside opening hours | 37 | 15 seconds |
| HOURS-02 | A planned holiday | 20 | 8 seconds |
| HOURS-03 | An unplanned closure | 24 | 10 seconds |
| XFER-01 | Before a transfer to another team | 24 | 10 seconds |
| VM-01 | Before the voicemail tone | 24 | 10 seconds |
What should an IVR script include?
An IVR script should cover every prompt a caller can hear, not only the greeting and menu. The prompts people forget to write are the ones that play when something goes wrong: no key pressed, a wrong key, an account number that isn't found, a long wait, or a call that arrives on a holiday nobody scheduled in the phone system.
Genesys describes a prompt as something that "informs the caller that an action is required or that a process is complete," and adds that "in general, prompts tell callers what to do" (Genesys Cloud, Prompts overview). That's a good test for each line: if a prompt doesn't tell the caller what to do or what just happened, cut it.
For each prompt, the script should record:
- its ID, used in the recording session, the file name and the flow
- the exact words, with any value the system fills in shown in brackets
- when it plays, in terms the person building the call flow can turn into a branch
- which keys it accepts and where each one goes
- what happens when the caller presses nothing
- whether it's recorded or text-to-speech, and who approved the current version
The script covers the words. Which queue a choice leads to belongs to call routing, and what a person says once they answer belongs to the agent's call script.
How do you write IVR prompts callers can follow?
Write IVR prompts the way a caller listens: once, in order, with no way to scroll back. Name the organization, put the reason before the key, use the caller's words for each option, keep one key for one job on every menu, and give every failed attempt a way to reach someone instead of a dead end.
- Keep the greeting to your name and any notice your legal team requires. Every word before the menu is heard by every caller, and the section on timing below shows what a long greeting adds.
- Put the reason before the key: "For billing, press 2," not "Press 2 for billing." Callers listen for their need and then catch the number. With the key first, they have to hold a number in mind until they find out whether it was theirs.
- Order the options by how often callers choose them, and keep "anything else" last. Your IVR menu report shows the split.
- Prefer one longer menu over a tree of short ones. The common advice to stop at five options usually leans on Miller's 1956 paper on memory span. In a 2008 Human Factors study, Commarford and colleagues argued the paper doesn't support that rule, and found that people using a broad menu structure performed better and were more satisfied than people using a deep one, with the gap largest for people with low working memory capacity (Commarford et al., 2008). It was a lab study of email tasks on a speech-enabled IVR, so test your own menu, but it's a good reason not to split six options into two levels of three.
- Use the words callers use. "Billing and payments" works where "accounts receivable" doesn't.
- Keep each key's job the same on every menu. If 9 repeats the options on the main menu, it repeats them everywhere, and the same goes for the key that goes back a level.
- When callers key in a number, tell them how to finish. When keyed input goes to a Lex bot in Amazon Connect, the pound key ends the entry and the star key clears it by default. If callers aren't told to press pound, they wait five seconds for the system to decide they're done (Amazon Connect, Get customer input).
- Drop "please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed" once the change is a few weeks old. By then it's just more seconds in front of the menu.
- Never end a call because of input errors. After two misses, send the caller to a person or a general queue.
IVR script examples you can copy
These are the prompts from the sheet, ready to edit. Replace anything in brackets with your own details, keep the IDs, and read each prompt aloud before it goes to the voice talent. A line that looks short on the page can still run long out loud.
Greeting and main menu
GREET-01, every call during open hours:
Thanks for calling [organization].
If you record calls, the recording notice your legal team approved goes right after this line. MENU-01 follows:
For an order or a delivery, press 1. For billing and payments, press 2. To book or change an appointment, press 3. For technical support, press 4. For anything else, press 5. To hear these options again, press 9.
A menu that lets callers say their reason instead of pressing a key is a different design with its own trade-offs, covered in the conversational IVR guide.
When the caller presses nothing or the wrong key
MENU-02 plays before the menu repeats when nothing is pressed:
Sorry, I didn't catch a choice.
MENU-03 plays before the menu repeats after a key that isn't an option:
Sorry, that isn't one of the options.
MENU-04 plays after the second miss, and the call goes to your general queue:
Let's get you to someone who can help. Please hold.
INPUT-01 and INPUT-02 handle a keyed account number:
Please enter your account number, then press the pound key.
I couldn't find that account number. Please enter it again, then press the pound key.
After a second failed lookup, send the call to a person with MENU-04 rather than asking a third time.
Queue messages and the callback offer
Tell callers where they stand. In a study of 123 real calls, Munichor and Rafaeli found abandonment was lowest and callers rated their calls best when the wait was filled with their position in the queue, compared with music or apologies. A follow-up experiment pointed to the sense of progress as the reason (Munichor and Rafaeli, Journal of Applied Psychology, 2007). The sample is small, so use it as a reason to test position messages against what you play now, and watch your abandonment rate.
QUEUE-01, when the caller joins the queue:
Everyone on our team is helping other callers right now. You're number [position] in line.
QUEUE-02, every 45 to 60 seconds:
Thanks for waiting. You're now number [position] in line.
QUEUE-03, offering an AI assistant to callers who'd rather not wait:
To talk to our AI assistant now, press 1. It can [check an order, take a payment or change a booking]. To keep waiting for a person, stay on the line.
QUEUE-04, offering a callback:
To get a call back when it's your turn, press 2. We'll call the number you're calling from.
OVER-01 plays once the expected wait passes the limit you set, followed by QUEUE-03 or QUEUE-04:
We're getting more calls than usual, and the wait is longer than [ten minutes].
Only announce a position or wait time that your platform actually calculates. If the number it shows is unreliable, say nothing rather than give a number that turns out wrong. Average speed of answer tells you whether your typical wait is long enough to need these prompts at all.
Check how your platform loops queue audio. AWS warns that when the prompts in an Amazon Connect Loop prompts block run longer than its interrupt time, callers may never hear the later ones. In its example, three 40-second prompts with a 60-second interrupt can keep the third prompt from ever playing (Amazon Connect, Loop prompts). Put anything callers must hear in the first prompt, or keep the whole loop shorter than the interrupt.
After-hours, holiday and closure greetings
Amazon Connect's Check hours of operation block sends calls down an open or closed branch, and you can add override branches, for example to play a holiday greeting before the usual after-hours path (Amazon Connect, Check hours of operation). Whatever your platform calls it, each of these prompts needs its own branch.
HOURS-01, outside opening hours:
Thanks for calling [organization]. We're closed right now. We're open [Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central time]. To talk to our AI assistant, press 1. To leave a message, press 2.
HOURS-02, a planned holiday, recorded before the date and switched off after it:
Thanks for calling [organization]. We're closed today for [Thanksgiving] and open again [Friday at 8 a.m. Central time].
HOURS-03, an unplanned closure, written ahead of time so a supervisor only has to fill in the reason and the reopening time:
Thanks for calling [organization]. We closed early today because of [the storm]. We'll be open again [tomorrow at 8 a.m. Central time].
Say the time zone in every hours prompt. A caller in another state who hears "8 a.m." has to guess which 8 a.m. you mean.
Transfer and voicemail lines
XFER-01, before a transfer to another team:
I'm connecting you to [team] now. If the call drops, you can reach them at [number].
VM-01, before the voicemail tone:
Please leave your name, your number and the reason for your call after the tone. We return messages by [noon the next business day].
Only promise a return time your team can keep.
How long does a caller listen before hearing their option?
With a five-word greeting and the six-option menu above, a caller whose reason is option 5 hears it about 17 seconds into the call. Put a 35-word greeting in front of the same menu and that becomes about 29 seconds. Every option plays 12 seconds later on every call.
Both columns use the menu above at 150 words a minute, with half a second of pause after the greeting and between options. The longer greeting is a common pattern: "Thank you for calling [organization], where your satisfaction is our priority. Your call is important to us. Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed. For faster service, visit our website any time."
| Option ends | Five-word greeting | 35-word greeting |
|---|---|---|
| 1, order or delivery | 5.7 seconds | 17.7 seconds |
| 2, billing and payments | 8.6 seconds | 20.6 seconds |
| 3, book or change an appointment | 12.3 seconds | 24.3 seconds |
| 4, technical support | 14.8 seconds | 26.8 seconds |
| 5, anything else | 17.3 seconds | 29.3 seconds |
| 9, hear the options again | 20.6 seconds | 32.6 seconds |
At 20,000 calls a month, the longer greeting costs your callers about 67 hours of listening a month before anyone presses a key. The call center IVR guide covers what that menu time costs you in telephone minutes.
What should you check before recording and loading prompts?
Check the audio format your platform wants, decide which prompts are recorded and which are text-to-speech, and listen to every path on a real phone before launch. Phone calls carry narrow-band audio, so a file that sounds clean on studio speakers can sound worse once your platform converts it.
Platform requirements differ, so read yours before the recording session:
| Platform | What its documentation says |
|---|---|
| Amazon Connect | Upload a .wav file or record in the browser. AWS recommends 8 kHz .wav files under 50 MB and under five minutes. Higher-rate files such as 16 kHz are down-sampled to 8 kHz because of telephone network limits, which can lower the quality (Amazon Connect, Create prompts). |
| Genesys Cloud | Prompt audio should be .wav, files are limited to 25 MB, and the upload fails if Architect can't convert the file to a playable format (Genesys Cloud, Prompts overview). |
| NICE CXone | Text-to-speech prompts can be built from typed sequences for numbers, money, dates, times and spelled-out letters, so the voice reads a value correctly instead of guessing (NICE CXone, Manage Prompts). |
Values that change, such as queue position or a return date, suit text-to-speech, because the system fills them in at the moment the prompt plays. Greetings and menus that rarely change are where a recorded voice is worth paying for. If you use both, pick a text-to-speech voice close to your voice talent, so the switch between them doesn't sound like a second company joining the call.
Before launch, call every path from an ordinary phone: each menu key, no key, a wrong key twice, a bad account number twice, the queue for longer than the loop, and the after-hours and holiday branches with the schedule changed for the test. The call flow test sheet lists the branches that get missed most often.
Adding a Telvana agent to these prompts
QUEUE-03 and HOURS-01 are where an AI agent usually joins an existing script. With Telvana, the option is one more line in your menu, "Press 1 to talk to our AI assistant now," set up in your phone system as a transfer to the agent's number (phone system guide). Callers who press it are answered right away. Callers who would rather wait for a person keep their place in line (hold-queue relief). The same number can take your after-hours forwarding or overflow (after-hours and overflow), and the rest of your prompts stay as they are.
When a caller needs a person, the agent transfers the call to the number you choose, such as your main queue. That's an ordinary call to that number, and whoever picks up can read the transcript and summary in the portal afterward. Our team builds and tests the agent with you before it takes a live call. Pricing starts at $399 a month, based on call volume, plus a one-time setup fee.
Frequently asked questions
What is an IVR script?
An IVR script is the written set of prompts a phone system plays to callers, from the greeting and menu to queue, closure, transfer and voicemail messages. Each prompt has an ID, its exact wording, when it plays and what each key does, so it can be recorded, built and tested from one document.
What are voice prompts?
Voice prompts are the recorded or text-to-speech messages an IVR plays. Each one tells the caller what to do next, such as pressing a key or entering a number, or what just happened, such as a transfer starting. Genesys Cloud stores a prompt as audio plus text-to-speech for each language it supports.
Can you give an example of interactive voice response?
A caller rings a support line, hears "For billing and payments, press 2," presses 2, keys in an account number followed by the pound key, and joins the billing queue, where a prompt tells them they're number four in line. The menu, the keyed number and the queue message are all IVR prompts.
How many options should an IVR menu have?
As many as callers actually need on one level, with the most-used first and "anything else" last. The five-option limit is common advice, but Commarford and colleagues found people did better with a broad menu than with a deep one that split the same choices across levels.
How long should an IVR greeting be?
As short as your name plus any notice you're required to give, which takes a few seconds. Every word of greeting plays on every call before the menu starts, so at 150 words a minute, each extra word adds about 0.4 seconds per caller. Move marketing lines to the queue or cut them.
Should IVR prompts be recorded or text-to-speech?
Use a recorded voice for the greeting and menus, which rarely change, and text-to-speech for values that do, such as queue position, hours and dates. Text-to-speech also lets a supervisor change a closure message without booking a recording session. Match the two voices as closely as you can.
Send us the prompts you play today
If callers hang up while they wait in your queue, bring your current prompt list to a demo. We'll show where an AI assistant option would sit in it and how a transfer to your team works. Book a demo.