This article is a summary of each of the applets useful in creating flows for inbound calls. For more information about how to create flows, see this article. To see some ideas for how you might want to use flows, check out the examples in this article.
Talking to the caller
Several of the applets described below can speak to the caller, as a greeting or to communicate menu options, for example. This can be done in one of two ways:
- Read text: allows you to write your message to the customer in text form. The message will be presented to your customer using text-to-speech.
Write out exactly what you want the robot to say, not just as you would write it normally. For example, to say “We are open 9-17 Mon-Fri.” write “We are open nine to five, Monday to Friday.”
Various languages can be selected from the applet settings. - Upload: allows you to upload an MP3 file.
Although Upload will generally let you have a friendlier, less robotic voice, Read Text is easier to update on the fly.
Basic and Advanced
If you have access to flows, you will always have all of the Basic applets available. If you need access to any of the Advanced applets, contact your client manager.
The Descriptions
GreetingAvailability: Basic Use: Plays a greeting of your choice. Although the applet is called "greeting", you can use it anywhere in your flow that you need to make an announcement. For example, to inform the caller you are transferring their call, or that the call will be ended.
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MenuAvailability: Advanced Use: Let the caller choose a course of action by pressing a number. This applet will read a list of choices to the caller and wait for them to press a number to choose an option. Choose an applet to follow from each number choice. If the caller doesn't press a number within a number of seconds which you specify, the flow will continue to another applet.
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TimingAvailability: Advanced Use: Route the call based on opening hours. Specify a timezone, then define your opening hours for the week. You can then decide what happens if the caller calls when you are open, by choosing an Open applet, or when you are closed, by choosing a Closed applet. Alternatively, the applet can take its opening hours from one of your existing call queues. Although the applet refers to open and closed times, Timing can be used for other purposes. For example, you may be open 24-hours, but route calls to a different queue in the evening.
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QueueAvailability: Basic Use: Transfer the call to a voice queue. Select which queue the calls should be added to. You can also specify what happens in two fail conditions:
In either case, if you do not specify an applet, Hangup will be selected by default.
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AgentAvailability: Basic Use: Transfer the call directly to an agent. Click the drop-down list to select an agent to direct the call to. You can search the list if you have a lot of agents. If you direct a call to a specific person, it is possible they are not available. Choose how long that agent has to answer the call and what applet to proceed to if the agent does not answer.
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ForwardAvailability: Basic Use: Transfer the call to an external phone number. The number must be formatted as: The call will leave the flow at this point.
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HangupAvailability: Basic Use: Hangs up the call. The call ends and leaves the flow.
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LeadMLAvailability: Advanced Use: Code your own actions using LeadML. This lets you write your own behaviour using the markup language LeadML. Click the link in the applet to learn more about LeadML (you should save your flow before you do). Choose the applet to proceed to afterwards.
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Send SMSAvailability: Advanced Use: Sends a predefined SMS message to the caller's number. Give a name for the sender of the message, then choose an existing message template, or type a message in the applet. Note that message template tags cannot be used. The sent SMS message will not currently appear in the contact's history. The flow then progresses to a choice of applets, depending on whether the message was successfully sent or not. The normal cost for sending SMS messages applies. |
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Reply routingAvailability: Advanced Use: Route the call to the agent who last called that customer. If an agent calls a customer and then the customer calls back, we may want to provide continuity of service, connecting the customer to the same agent. The Reply routing applet checks the caller and determines if one of our agents called them within the last 30 days. If so, this applet will attempt to direct the call to that agent. There are three reasons this may not work, and you can specify an applet to proceed to in each of these cases. If agent is offline: Route when the agent is offline If agent is unavailable: The agent may be online but unavailable. Cannot find an agent or anonymous phone call: If the applet can't identify the caller, or an agent who called them recently.
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Ring groupAvailability: Advanced Use: Transfer the call to multiple numbers. Define a list of up to ten numbers which this applet can call. The applet will attempt to contact each of these numbers, either in the listed order, a random order, or all at the same time, depending on your choice of Dial mode. If the call is not picked up within the timeout period, the applet will either try the next number on the list or hang up (if you choose the Simultaneous dial mode).
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GatherAvailability: Advanced Use: Collect a number sequence from the caller. Ask the caller to type a multi-digit number and collect that information. This could be used to gather a phone number, membership id, postcode or other numerical value. Optionally you can specify an expected length. Define the number of attempts the caller gets, and whether you want the caller to confirm the number, well as a timeout period. You can give voice prompts for what the caller should enter, when the caller should confirm, or if they run out of attempts. After gathering the information, the flow proceeds to the next applet. Important: To use gather effectively, you will also need to define what happens to the data after it is gathered. This cannot be done in flows and will require defining and creating an integration to do so.
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CalloutAvailability: Advanced Use: Trigger some action on an external web page. Connect to an external service via a URL, which will take some action. You can pass information to that web service using parameters in the URL, such as:
For example:
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CallbackAvailability: Basic Use: Creates a callback in a given campaign. Write a Callback Comment so that agents can see how this callback was generated. Then click the drop-down list to select the campaign that this callback should appear for. Optionally, you can also choose to make this a private callback by selecting a specific agent. Leave this blank to make the callback public. After the callback has been generated, choose the next applet to use.
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Agent fail overAvailability: Advanced Use: Check to see if a specific agent is available. Choose an applet depending on the agent's availability. For example:
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LanguageAvailability: Basic Use: Set the language for any automated messages in the flow or queues. Most of the read aloud text within flows has a setting used to determine its language. Several automated messages both in flows and queues do not have their own setting. Instead, use the Language applet to specify the language used. These announcements include:
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PrioritizationAvailability: Advanced Use: Handle contacts on a particular contact list differently. Check the phone number of the caller against a specified contact list, for example, premium customers. If the caller is on the list, choose one applet. If they are not, choose a second applet. This lets you direct a particular set of customers to one queue, for example, and all other callers to another.
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PostfixAvailability: Advanced Use: Add a 2-digit code to the end of a caller's number. If you need to forward this call to external numbers, this will let the recipient recognise where the call came from at a glance.
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RedirectAvailability: Advanced Use: Redirect the call to another flow or LeadML document. The URL of your Flows can be found in the Flows page. |