There is no single IVR object you create in Salesforce. You stand up IVR by configuring a Salesforce Voice contact center and then building the menu in the telephony layer. These steps describe the Amazon Connect model, the most common starting point.
- Turn on Salesforce Voice with Amazon Connect
In Setup, enable Voice and complete the Amazon Connect model setup. Salesforce provisions an AWS account and an Amazon Connect instance tied to your contact center, including the tax and AWS root contact details the wizard asks for.
- Create the contact center and assign access
Create a contact center record that links Salesforce to your Amazon Connect instance, then grant agents and supervisors access through the Voice permission sets so the softphone shows in the utility bar.
- Build the IVR as an Amazon Connect Flow
In the Amazon Connect console, edit the inbound flow. Add Play prompt and Store customer input blocks for the menu, and add Invoke AWS Lambda function blocks where you want a Salesforce data dip to personalize or pre-route the call.
- Route the handoff into Omni-Channel
Configure the flow to transfer to Salesforce when a caller needs an agent so the work item flows through Omni-Channel with the collected context, and the agent gets a screen pop instead of asking for details again.
- Publish, assign a number, and tune
Publish the flow, assign it to a phone number, and place test calls. Review IVR analytics for abandonment points and top intents, then reword prompts or reorder branches based on what callers actually do.
Amazon Connect, Partner Telephony, or Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect. The choice sets whether you build the IVR in Amazon Connect Flows or in a partner managed package.
An optional AWS Lambda callout from the flow that queries Salesforce by phone number or account number and returns context the menu branches on.
An optional Agentforce or Einstein Bot agent extended into voice to replace numbered menus with natural-language intent capture and self-service.
Skills-based routing through Omni-Channel for queue distribution, or direct-to-rep routing for named-account relationships.
- Keep menus shallow. Every extra level drops completion, and three levels is the practical maximum for touch-tone trees.
- Always offer an escape to a human at each level. Trapping callers in self-service when they want a person hurts satisfaction.
- Data dips run against a time limit. The Trailhead sample uses an eight-second window, so build an error path for slow or failed callouts.
- Open CTI reaches end of life on February 28, 2028. If your IVR screen pop still rides on Open CTI, plan the move to Salesforce Voice well ahead.