How to build an IVR with Twilio Studio

Before you start, you need:

• A Twilio account. If you are new to Twilio, create a free account. You can review the features and limitations of a free account.
• A Twilio phone number. Follow the instructions to purchase a phone number.

Create a new Studio Flow that will hold the logic for the IVR.

Use the Twilio Console to create a Flow from scratch. If this is your first Flow, see Create a Flow for detailed steps. Name the Flow, for example, "IVR Tutorial."

The first task is to gather information from callers.

1. In the Widget Library, locate the Gather Input on Call widget and drag it to the Canvas.
2. Connect the Trigger (Start) widget to the new widget by dragging from the red dot under Incoming Call to the Gather widget. This connection tells the Flow how to handle an incoming call.

1. Select the widget on the Canvas and, in the configuration pane, rename it to greet_caller.

2. Ensure Say/Play a Message is set to "Say a message," then enter the following prompt (or similar) in the text field:

   Hello, how can we direct your call? Press 1 for Sales or say "Sales". Press 2 for Support or say "Support".

3. Scroll to Stop gathering on keypress?, choose YES, and set Stop gathering after _ digits to 1. This setting prevents the widget from waiting for additional input after the caller presses one key.

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With caller input collected, determine where to route the call.

1. Drag a Split Based On… widget to the Canvas and connect it to the User Pressed Keys transition from greet_caller.
2. Rename the widget to split_key_press.
3. In the configuration pane, set Variable to test to widgets.greet_caller.Digits.

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1. In the Transitions tab of split_key_press, click New, select Condition Matches, and set If value equal_to… to 1.
   This transition represents callers who pressed 1 for Sales.
2. Repeat the step above, creating a second condition where the value equals 2 for Support.

The widget now shows transitions for "1," "2," and No Matches.

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Use the Connect Call To widget to forward the call.

1. Drag two Connect Call To widgets to the Canvas—one for Sales and one for Support.
2. Rename them connect_call_to_sales and connect_call_to_support.
3. For each widget, choose Single Number and enter the appropriate destination phone number (use different test numbers for Sales and Support).

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Connect the transition labeled 1 from split_key_press to connect_call_to_sales, and the transition labeled 2 to connect_call_to_support.

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Next, handle callers who speak their selection.

1. Drag another Split Based On… widget to the Canvas and rename it split_voice_input.
2. Set Variable to test to widgets.greet_caller.SpeechResult.
3. Connect User Said Something from greet_caller to split_voice_input.

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1. In Transitions for split_voice_input, click +, choose Condition Matches, select Contains, and set the value to Sales.
2. Add another Contains condition with the value Support.

Using Contains instead of Equal To allows the match even if punctuation is present (for example, "Sales.").

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4. Connect the Sales transition to connect_call_to_sales and the Support transition to connect_call_to_support.

The final Canvas should show:

• Trigger (Start) → Gather Input on Call (greet_caller)
• greet_caller → split_key_press (Digits) → Connect Call To (Sales or Support)
• greet_caller → split_voice_input (Speech) → Connect Call To (Sales or Support)

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After saving and publishing the Flow, connect it to a Twilio phone number.

Once you're happy with your Flow and you've published all changes, you can connect it to a Twilio Number so people can start interacting with it.

Navigate to the Active Numbers section of the Twilio Console and click on the number you'd like to connect to the Flow. (If you do not have any phone numbers, you can purchase one from the Console.)

After clicking on the number, you will see its configuration menu where you can connect the number to your Studio Flow.

To configure this number to trigger your Studio Flow from an Incoming Call, scroll down to the Voice & Fax section of the configuration menu. Under Configure With, select the dropdown option "Webhook, TwiML Bin, Function, Studio Flow, Proxy Service". Then, under A Call Comes In, select the dropdown option "Studio Flow". You'll see another dropdown menu appear where you can select the Studio Flow you'd like to connect to when a call comes in to this number.

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Choose the Flow you'd like to connect the number to, and then press Save to save these changes. Your Flow is now connected to your Twilio number!

Call the configured Twilio number and verify that keypress or speech input routes the call to the correct destination.

Explore additional Studio tutorials:

• Conduct a survey with Studio
• Set up an SMS auto-responder
• Route leads
• Use Studio's Liquid templates