Q: DTMF <> IVR Menu <> Weird behaviour

[fortech]

Hi all, I wonder if anyone has comments/thoughts on this. I've got a 3cx instance (hosted on a VM on OVH public cloud) - is current release 3cx - 18.0 (Build 314)

I've got inbound calls coming in

- first to a top level IVR menu of "STANDARD" type. Where callers can
press 1 for reception
press 2 for sales
press 3 for support
press 4 to dial by lastname/company directory

if callers press 1,2,3,4 this works fine.

Then if callers go into (4 - dial by lastname) - I have another IVR setup, "TYPE" is designated as "DTMF INPUT". Then I've got a variety of 4-digit things listed that callers may dial to spell first 4 letters of names of people at company.

what appears to happen currently, is that most of the time, 3cx just says sometihng like "Invalid response, try again"
as if the DTMF codes are not coming through clean

but it is just weird because my top-level "standard" menu is working perfectly

I've used this kind of dial-by-name setup with "DTMF" IVR on other small 3cx instances I've setup last year, and none of them have this problem

I'm curious if anyone has ideas about some 'poison pill' that causes the DTMF recognition to just totally crap out.

many thanks,

Tim

 

[leejor]

Have you tried setting the second IVR to "Standard" and letting 3CX handle the dial by name, without you having to create a custom a list of users?
Are the other 3CX installs, where this is working, running the same version?

"what appears to happen currently, is that most of the time, 3cx just says sometihng like "Invalid response, try again"
as if the DTMF codes are not coming through clean"

Do I take this to mean, that it does work at times, or when selecting certain extensions?

Does the Activity Log show what 3CX is actually trying to make a match to?

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Before delving deeper into this I do recommend what @leejor said about using the 3CX dial by name built-in feature. If you want to find more about it check out slide 6 in our Digital Receptionist training here: https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/basic/digital-receptionist/

Nore: Remember to click on the three dots and the "Speaker Notes" for more info.

 

[fortech]

Hi, thanks for the reply. My understanding of 'standard' menu in 3cx is that it wants straightforward (1,2,3,4,) numerical button push - up to 10 options. So that is not an option here, we've got more than 10 people to pick from in the 'company directory'. Unless I am misunderstanding how to use 'standard menu'.

So, my other 3cx installs are running same version / same hosting environment / same sip trunk provider. Or some different sip trunk providers in some cases also, but at least a few are 'same'.

WIth this one particular 3cx setup, I have not exhaustively tested all the dial-by-name (there are about 25 in the company directory) but all the ones I've tested in last few days fail in same mannner. - none of them work.

I will try to review activity log and see if there are any traces / hints.

will followup after that.

thanks!

Tim

 

[leejor]

Have all of the users recorded the required Self Identification Message?

 

[Evolute IT]

Also, in v18, dial by name can be either first name or last name.

 

[fortech]

Hi, thanks for the followup. This config has 25 users, so I think the built-in dial-by-name feature is limited to 10 only.
so not the way to do this I think.
from what I can tell a manual DTMF menu structure is the only way I can do this. Unless I did some diddling around such as
for people with last names A-F press one. For lastnames G-M press two. For N to Z press three.
and then hive off 3 submenus with 10 or fewer entries each.
so I can use the 0-9 / 10 pick options (only)

but. It is weird, I have the DTMF menu model in use on other pbx setups and it 'seems to work fine'
but entirely not on this one.

sigh.

I just looked and it is not clear to me where in the logs this is captured. (does anyone know?)

thanks,

Tim

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

I think you may have misunderstood how the 3CX Call by name function works. It has no extension limitations and, if I've understood correctly, is actually exactly what you are trying to achieve. It uses the T9 predictive text scheme to allow callers to make a name based selection. I strongly recommend you check out our video explaining the Digital Receptionist and it's functions:

The call by name function starts at approximately 4 minutes in.

 

[fortech]

thank you, I will review video. I thought I went to the ppt presentation speakers notes last week when the link was first given / and I thought it had some footnote text comment like "note this feature is limited to 10 people/extensions" or something like that. But I may have been simply entirely mistaken - would be lovely if there is a built-in feature that does what I want / which will help me resolve this problem. I'll followup bit later today on this thread.. thank you!

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Yes do let us know how it goes!

About the speaker notes, we've made some amendments to make it a bit more clear for future readers.