Creating inbound flows

A flow allows you to define what happens to a call or message when it arrives. Perhaps you want to give the caller a message when they call outside of opening hours, or to give them a choice of department to contact, or language to use. These can all be handled by flows, without having to involve an agent.

Planning your flow

Before you begin building your flow, it is a good idea to establish what you want it to be able to do. Check out the descriptions and some sample flows to give you some ideas.

There is no limit to the number of actions that can be connected, but the more steps the caller needs to navigate before they get to speak to an agent, the more frustrating the experience. Consider how many levels you need!

Flows with many branches and variations can be complex, it is always a good idea to plan them out before you start, to make sure you prepare for dead-ends and error checking.

For more suggestions on how to plan your flow, check out this blog post about the best practices for IVR scripts.

Creating a flow

Once you know what your flow should do, you can create it.

1. In the Admin application, click Inbound from the top menu.
2. Click the Flows sub-page.

You will be shown a list of any previously created flows.

3. To create a new flow, click the button.

4. Type a Flow Name. As always, it is a good idea to choose a meaningful name.
5. Click OK.

You can now begin building your flow.

Call flow or message flow

The New Flow button assumes that you wish to create a flow for handling incoming calls. If you wish to create a flow for handling incoming messages instead:

1. Create the flow as described above.
2. Click the Flows sub-page to return to the list of existing flows.
3. Find the flow you just created in the list.
4. Click Create Message Flow.

Building the flow works the same as for a call flow, but you will have different applets to choose from.

Building a flow

Building a flow involves connecting different actions, called applets, together. Each of these applets can give the caller information, route the call, or gather information from the caller.

Adding applets to your flow

To add an applet to your flow, click and drag it from the Voice Applets list onto the flow. For example, to begin with a greeting:

1. Click and drag the Greeting applet from the Voice Applets list.
2. Drop it over the Drop applet here box in the Call Start section.

Once you have added an applet to your flow, you will normally need to define things about that action.

For example, after adding a greeting, you must:

1. Add the greeting the caller will hear, either as a sound recording, or getting a robot to read it. Click Read Text to type a greeting for the robot to read. Click Upload to attach an existing sound file in mp3 format.
2. Drag and drop a new applet to the Drop applet here box to define what happens after the greeting.

Navigating flows

As each new applet is added, the previous flow moves to the left. For example, if you add a Menu applet after your greeting:

To return to a previous applet:

1. Click on the item you wish to edit in the previous applet.

If the applet you need to change is too far to the left:

2. Click the  button in the top right of an applet’s section to minimise it, and all applets to its right. Clicking the  button in the Greeting applet in the example above will minimise both the Greeting and Menu applets.

Note: This does not remove the applet from your flow. You can move forwards by clicking the applet again. For example, if you have minimised the Menu applet here:

1. In the Greeting section, click the Menu applet to reopen it.

Removing applets from your flow

If you have dragged the incorrect applet to your flow:

1. Drag the correct applet over to replace the incorrect one.

2. If you replace an existing applet in your flow, it and all applets that follow from it will be deleted. To confirm this, click OK.

If you have added an applet and want to delete it without immediately replacing it:

1. Click the icon in the bottom left of the applet.

2. If you remove an applet from your flow, it and all applets that follow from it will be deleted. To confirm this, click OK.

Saving your flow

You can save your progress with a flow at any time.

1. Click the button in the top left of the flow screen.

You can leave your flow at any time by clicking on other pages in the menus. Any changes since clicking Save will be lost.