An approach for providing interactive voice response services is disclosed. A voice response platform receives a call and generates an automated menu in response. The menu, according to one embodiment, includes an option to transfer the call to an available agent and in response thereto the voice response platform transmits a request for the available agent to an intelligent call router (ICR) over a communications network. The intelligent call router receives the request for the available agent and transmits identification information for the available agent to the voice response platform. The voice response platform then transfers the call to the available agent based on the identification information for the available agent.