Replacing an IVR or an automated switchboard
Press one for sales. Press two for accounts. Press three to hear these options again. There is now a version of that job which simply asks the caller what they need, and it is the same job an IVR, an auto attendant and an automated switchboard were all built to do.
Short answer. An IVR sorts callers by button press, which means asking somebody to translate their problem into your departmental structure before they have described it. Enquiry 360 asks them what they are ringing about, takes the enquiry there and then where it can, and routes the rest on what they actually said. It answers on the number you already publish, and it runs in your own Microsoft tenant.
What IVR means, and where the friction comes from
IVR stands for interactive voice response. It is the phone menu: a recorded voice reads a list, the caller presses a number, and the system uses that number to put them in a queue or to play them another list. It was a genuine advance when the alternative was a switchboard operator, and it does one thing well, which is sorting a very high volume of calls into a small number of buckets cheaply.
The friction is that it asks the caller to do the sorting. Somebody ringing about a leak under their sink has to decide whether that is repairs, maintenance, emergencies or none of the above, and they have to decide it before they have said a word. Get it wrong and they are in the wrong queue, which is where most of the frustration with phone menus actually comes from.
What conversational IVR means
Conversational IVR is the name usually given to the next step: instead of a menu, the caller says what they want and the system works out where it belongs. Enquiry 360 sits in that category, with one difference worth knowing. Most conversational IVR still exists to route the call to a person. This can route, and it can also finish the job: take the booking, log the repair, register the enquiry, and write it into your system as a structured record before anybody picks up a phone.
Auto attendant, automated switchboard, AI switchboard: the same job, different names
These names describe roughly the same function at different points in its history. An automated switchboard replaced the operator. An auto attendant is the same thing built into a phone system. An AI switchboard is the current name for doing it by conversation rather than by menu. What matters is not the label but where the sorting effort sits: with the caller, or with the software.
How automated call routing works when there is no menu
You define what you want to know and where each kind of enquiry should go. The assistant asks the questions in your order, and it routes on the answers. A repair goes to the repairs number, an out of hours emergency goes to whoever is on call, and a sales enquiry is captured in full and lands in your system rather than in a queue. Where a call genuinely needs a person, it puts them through with what has already been said attached, so nobody has to start again.
It is configuration rather than code, so the routing rules are yours to change, and changing them does not need a developer or a release.
Where an IVR is still the right answer
Worth saying plainly. If your call volume is enormous and genuinely does divide into three or four fixed buckets, a menu is fast, cheap and predictable, and callers who ring you every week learn the numbers and stop listening to the options. Card payment lines and other flows that must stay strictly scripted are also better left as they are.
What you get back that a menu cannot give you
A menu produces a routing decision and nothing else. Every call that arrives here produces a structured record in your own Microsoft Dataverse, with each detail in its own field, so it can be searched, reported on, counted and picked up by whatever else you run. You can see how many calls came in out of hours, what they were about, and which ones nobody has answered yet. That is the part that tends to matter three months in.
Does it work with the phone system we already have
You keep your number. Calls reach the assistant by forwarding or diversion, so you can send it everything, or only the out of hours calls, or only the overflow when every line is busy, and change your mind later without touching your numbering.
Hear it handle one. Ring 01905 918444. It is a live line, not a recording, and it takes about a minute.
From £99 + VAT a month. Free setup, cancel anytime. Or read where your call data lives and which languages it answers in.
Frequently asked
What does IVR stand for?
Interactive voice response. In practice it means the phone menu: a recorded voice reads out options, the caller presses a number, and the number decides where the call goes.
What is conversational IVR?
Conversational IVR replaces the menu with a conversation. The caller says what they need in their own words and the system works out where it belongs, rather than asking them to pick from a list first.
Is this an IVR replacement or an IVR upgrade?
Either, and the choice is yours. It can take every call on a number, or only the calls the menu currently sends to voicemail, or only the overflow when every line is busy. Plenty of people start with one route and widen it once they trust what comes back.
Is an AI switchboard the same as an auto attendant?
They do the same job at different points in its history. An auto attendant reads a menu and transfers on a keypress. An AI switchboard holds a short conversation and routes on what was said, and can complete the enquiry itself where it does not need a person at all.
Can it do automated call routing without a menu?
Yes, and that is the point of it. You set what should go where, and it routes on the answers the caller gives rather than on a button. Anything it hands to a person arrives with what has already been said attached.
What is the difference between an auto attendant and a call queue?
An auto attendant decides where a call should go. A call queue is what the caller waits in once it has been decided. Answering the call properly at the first step means far fewer calls reach the second.
Will it work with the phone system we already have?
Yes. You keep your existing number and forward or divert calls to the assistant, so nothing about your numbering changes and you can send it as much or as little of your traffic as you want.