Category: #AWSConnect

Dextr adds Global Quick Connects for Amazon Call Centers!

Posted on by DrVoIP

 

Dextr Quick Connects

Dextr has always had a “directory” service that enabled agents to transfer callers in and out of the Amazon Connect instance, typically to the company PBX. Dextr now makes it possible to add contacts to the Directory system that can be shared with the entire call center as a “quick connect”! Just add the contact to the Directory system and it is shared with all other agents and is automatically added to Amazon Connect as a quick connect.   Anyone that has deployed Amazon Connect knows that you have to assign quick connects for each queue.   Dextr eliminates this painful step and there is no need to log into Amazon Connect, you can create the contact right in your Dextr Agent dashboard, mark it Global and it is shared with all the Agents in the Call Center!

 

Dial, Transfer or Conference

All Contacts in your Directory now show up as Quick Connects when you go to transfer an active phone call.   Contacts marked as GLOBAL, are shared through the Directory system of all other agents in your Amazon Connect instance and are added to the Quick Connect list.   Contacts in your Directory can be used to call, transfer or initiate a conference call!

NotePad

In addition to the “disposition codes” that can easily be configured in an Dextr Agent dashboard, each incoming call brings up a Note Pad.   The Note Pad shows all previous notes added by all agents in the call center to that caller ID.   These notes are searchable and can also be integrated to pass content to your favorite CRM.

 

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Amazon Connect – Can Agents log in and out of individual Queues?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Agents in Multiple Queues

One of the more requested features among call center managers is to freely move Agents in and out of customer service queues!   In Amazon Connect, routing profiles associate agents with queues.  If Agent Gandalf DeGrey is a member of the Technical Support team and also a member of the Customer Service team he would most likely belong to a call profile aptly named “TechSupport&CustomerService” (Voice and Chat).

Queue Priority

Call Profiles not only associate the agent with the queues that they engage customers through, but they also enable you to set the priority of each queue.  If Gandalf is able to server both queues and both queues have callers waiting for an Agent, which caller will Gandalf be presented with when he again becomes Available?   The answer to this is based on the priority established in the routing profile for each queue in the profile.   It may be that Gandalf is particularly skilled in the area of Technical Support and it has been determined that he should answer these call request first and only handle customer service calls when the Tech Support queue is empty.   This is handled by configure the routing profile in such a way as to favor technical support callers.

Call Profile or User settings determine Priority?

So do we set the priority based on the user or in the routing profile?   The fact is that the call routing profile determines the priority of calls processed by the users configured in that call profile.  This is a powerful tool that enables a great deal of options in the configuration of call handling goals.   Contact centers are living dynamic  entities that change the level of demand by the hour, the day of the week and external events of the day!  There is not a staff for-casting solution that can cover the impact of the days events on a call center.  For that reason, we need a way to dynamically reconfigure our work force to meet the demands of the day.

Can you move an Agent between Queues?

We created the Dextr dashboard feature set to enable options that most call center managers demand.  Being able to move an agent between queues to reconfigure the call center to meet the demands of the day is most certainly an essential management tool!   The Dextr dashboard for Amazon Connect enables you to quickly reconfigure your agent pools easily with a few key strokes by those with the required permissions.    The Dextr dashboard has a user management TAB and enables you to easily move users between queues!

Creating Matching routing profiles

In this example, Gandalf  is in the “TechSupport&CustomerService” (Voice and Chat) profile that enables him to handle calls for both Technical Support and Customer Service.  Events of the day are such that we need Gandalf to service only Technical Support callers.  To enable this, there would be a Technical Support call profile that only serves callers to that queue.  Agents that are assigned to this call profile will be fully dedicated to the Technical Support Queue.

To effect this change, click the User TAB and select the agent management wants to reconfigure.

 

 

Then select the the call profile you want to assign that agent to and save your change.

 

The DexterDashboard enables the call centers most required features available to Contact Center supervisors.   Head over to https://DexterDashboard.com and sign up for a free trial of 15000 minutes of usage.  Try before you buy and pay only for what you use1   Tell them DrVoIP sent you!

 

 

Amazon Connect & Dextr now support Chat

Posted on by DrVoIP

Dextr Website Chat Integration

The ability to integrate your Company Website with your call center is a powerful customer experience management tool.  Being able to integrate your website with a ChatBot is even more powerful, but imagine the power of being able to escalate a chat session to a voice call!  Now that is a truly powerful customer engagement strategy and now a standard Amazon Connect Call Center feature.

Features of Amazon Connect Chat

The Chat functionality enables you to reuse the very same contact flows that you established for a voice call or you can create new contact flows that are chat specific.  This significantly reduces the deployment time.  A “Play prompt” step, for example, that would normally be spoken to a caller, is now pushed out as a chat message.   Chats are persistent and given the asynchronous nature of these interactions, responses can be anytime over a 25 hour period.    Let us assume you have a chat session with a client who asks a question about your product or service and the agent asks a follow  up question to clarify the customers enquiry.  Maybe the customer has to go find the answer form another team member and does not reply for an hour.   The Agent might disconnect, but if the customer continues the chat session later, a new session will be created with the entire chat history  and transfered to a new agent.  It is possible also to send the chat back to the same agent, but assuming that agent is no longer available, the entire chat history is made available to a new agent.

 

The Dextr Dashboard implementation

Dextr now includes the Chat engagement option as part of its standard desktop agent offering and the Engage tab now shows Phone, SMS, Email and Chat!   Dextr also adds Chat to its activity screen adding a new icon and a READ button.  The Activity page now notes the chat details including the appropriate metrics.  A supervisor or agent with the proper permissions can also bring back the entire chat history, by hitting the READ button, in a manner similar to how Dextr brings back a recorded phone call!

Dextr is a subscription based portal in which, if you have an existing Amazon Connect call center, you can be driving a Dextr dashboard in less than 15 minutes!   If you don’t have a Dextr dashboard, we will be happy to create one for you!  Ask DrVoIP about our Dextr Contact Center Managed Service Solution in which we provide an  Amazon Connect Call Center for your enterprise, with no money down, no contracts and pay only for what you use!   We take care of everything from deign, through setup, training, “go live”, on going technical support and a Dextr Dashboard for every agent at a nominal per connected minute, exclusive of telephone carrier charges!   DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

 

 

 

 

Amazon Connect Deep Call Back Option! – a lesson in Contact Attributes

Posted on by DrVoIP

The Call Back Dilemma !

It is now common place to hear an option while you are on hold in a call center that suggests “If you would like to arrange a call back when an agent is available, press 1 or continue to hold for the next available agent”.    The caller can then enter a phone number, hand up and when an agent becomes available, the system first connects the agent and the places and outbound call to the phone number that requested the call back.  This all works well except when the number entered is the main switch board number at the company that the caller works in.  The receptionist answers the inbound call and says “how can I route your call” and the agent has no clue who in the company requested the call back.

Here is one Solution!

During the call back process, in our contact flows, we ask the caller to enter the number they want us to call them back at.   We read back the number to them and offer them an opportunity to re-enter the phone number if it was incorrectly entered.  We then follow with a prompt that says “if the number you entered was the main number of the company you work for, please enter the phone number of the extension we should ask for when we return your call.  if there is no extension number please press #”.   We store the extension number as a contact attribute which is saved with the contract trace record.  You can even select contact search in the real time metrics of your Amazon Connect dashboard and verify that this attribute is in fact saved with the the contact ID record.

Default Outbound Contact Flow

There is a default outbound contact flow in all Amazon Connect instances and you can modify and “save as”  or use it as you desire.  The trick is to create an outbound prompt that plays  a prompt that says “This is a return call from DrVoIP office as requested by someone in your company.  That person is located at <extensionNumber> so please transfer this call to that extension as an agent will now join the conference”.  In this way the receptionist is alerted to how the call should be routed and we have no accomplished what we call “deep call back”.

 

 

In this example we check the contact attributes to see if <extension number> starts with # which would indicate there is no extension number. For this reason we want to play a different prompt “this is the call back you request from DrVoIP technical support”.

Options to Improve the experience for the Agent

There is a default Agent Whisper Contact flow that is regularly used in an Amazon Connect call center to let the agent know what Queue Name the caller hit!  Agents who are part of multiple queues find this very helpful.  This contact flow can be modified to play the contact attribute <extension number> when an outbound call is connected.    Optionally, you can present the <extension number> in the agent desktop as a text field.

 

The configuration of contact attributes in the  Amazon Connect solution is a very powerful tool and can be used to solve a lot of customized challenges!  Give us a call if we can help you set this up! – DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon Connect – A Voice Mail Solution!

Posted on by DrVoIP

What no Voice Mail?

One of the surprises you get when working with Amazon Connect is the fact that, out of the box, there is no voice messaging capability.   However, given the rich library of services available in the AWS ecosystem, you can most certainly configure a solution that will get the job done!    Amazon Connect has built in recording capabilities and both logs and recordings are saved in an S3 bucket, so it would seem that the basic ingredients are there for configuring a voice messaging function.   Lets take a look at several different ways of implementing this functionality without breaking the bank in professional software development services!

Option 1 – High Voice Message Feature Content with Transcription, Email and SMS delivery options

This Voice Mail service is built on several AWS services but is rich in features and functionality:

  • Each Agent will have their own Extension number
    • This enables folks to leave a voice message for a particular Agent;
  • Voice Messages can be Transcribed and Encrypted;
  • Voice messages can be emailed or sent as an SMS (Text) message;
  • We create a Web Interface to administer voice mail options (i.e. set agent extension number, delivery options

There is an additional AWS cost as the solution will make use of Lambda Functions, DynamoDB, SES, SNS, Cognito and CloudFormation AWS Service options.   Amazon estimates that this will have a cost of approximately .03 cents per voice message.

We offer several configuration Options:

  1. A separate phone number that is used for this function exclusively.   Caller dials the VM number and is asked to enter the extension number of the Agent (we could also create a spell by name option).  The system will then attempt to send the call to the Agent and failing to connect with the Agent, the system will take a voice message for that agent and deliver it based on the options set by the administrator.  Delivery options are email or SMS.  The message can be sent as a WAV file or it can be transcribed to text.
  2. Continue to use your normal call flow and set one agent (or create a fake agent) to accept messages for the Queue they are a part of.  During the period in which the caller is holding in queue for the next available agent, as they might now do, they are offered the usual options, expect we replace the option to leave a voice message that you currently now transfer out of the system, to the agent nominated for queue mail.  Clearly the email address could also be an email address of a distribution group so the message goes to many others.
  3. LEX speech recognition “dial by name”.  The problem with extension numbers, is that callers will need to know them or you will  have to create a directory system.   Enabling “thanks for calling I can route your call in you speak the name of a team member or a function like sales” is way more impressive and provides a much better customer experience.

We offer a flat fee deployment option of $395  ($595 with dial by name option) to existing clients.    We will need AWS Management User Access with a User that has System Administration permissions as we have to access all of the AWS service above to configure the solution.

Option 2 Cheap and Quick: The Basic Recipe

We configure a Voice Messaging solution for call center queues very easily using the following formula:

1 – First Create a Queue with a creative name like Voice Messages!

2 – Second Create a Customer Whisper Function to act as the front end greeting for your voice mail box.

The Whisper function is going to provide your mailbox greeting and even the Beep!  This Whisper, set to play to the customer (rather than the agent) is played to the caller as they are connected to the Agent user.

3 – Third Create a User with an appropriate name like VoiceMail-Sales.

We want the user to be assigned a routing profile that contains only the VoiceMail Queue!  Also note that the User MUST be set to Auto-answer as this is the key to making this work the way we want it to work!

4 – Lastly, create a contact flow to integrate the above into a simple, but workable voice messaging system.

 

The contact flow can be very simple or you can make it a more complex by adding options like return to main menu!  The goal  however is to offer the option to leave a voice message or route a caller to voice mail if the caller arrives after hours.  Nothing to sophisticated here.   We set the Recording behavior to record both the caller and the agent.  We then set the Whisper flow, the Queue and then transfer the caller to the queue.  The queue will contain only one User in this example, but if you anticipate a lot of traffic, you could actually create multiple users with the same basic configuration essentially creating multiple voice mail boxes.   You can also create different users and voice message queues to accommodate various different queues.

The caller will be transferred to the VoiceMessage Queue which will then select the only User in that Queue, who is logged on and available.  This user was setup was setup with “auto-answer” so the behavior is to answer the call, play the Whisper to the caller as they connect to the Agent.  The Whisper contains the prompt “Sorry we are not here to answer your call but at the Beep please leave your voice message and we will follow up first thing next business day.  BEEP”.

The caller will then speak to the “agent” and the conversation will be recorded and saved to your designated S3 bucket!

Retrieving Voice Messages

The basic tools available to you  for retrieving your voice messages require a minimum permission of Call CenterQuality Analyst or Manager, as you may not want to make users Administrators!  Just log into the Amazon Connect dashboard and head over to Metrics and Quality and then select Contact Search.  Here you can set up a number of filters. For example we can search for the VoiceMail Agent configured above and also set the date range of interest, typically Yesterday!   This will bring up all the contacts handled by that agent and you can then hit the playback button under the Recording column.

Variations on a Theme

One of the user interfaces that makes this strategy a bit more useable is to use the Dextr.Cloud Dashboard.  The Dextr dashboard has an Activity screen that enables a Supervisor or Agent with the proper permission, to sort by Agent.  Then the playback button is right in the Dextr dashboard and there is no need to sign into the Amazon Connect dashboard to play back recordings.

Summary

We are struggling to find things we can’t do in an Amazon Connect contact center instance!   The rich library of AWS services makes it possible to solve any call center goal you might development you might define as a requirement. If you can imagine it you can make it happen!  Then again, you can always call on us and we can do it for you! – DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

 

 

 

Amazon Connect – Is today a Holiday?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Is Today A Holiday?

Having deployed hundreds of CISCO UCCX and ShoreTel ECC and other Contact Centers, checking to see if today is a holiday seemed to be the “minimum daily adult requirement” for contact center management.  In fact one of the most popular scripts on the net for CISCO UCCX was named “HolidayCheck”!    In fact we used this script to provide an XML tutorial  on the DrVoIP YouTube channel.  Checking a list of holidays to deal with periodic contact center closings is usually a standard feature in most call center applications and telephone systems.

Amazon Connect, however, does not provide a “holiday check” out of the box!   If you want one, like many other features in Amazon Connect you are going to have to create it by writing your own function.  The good news is that the wealth of services in AWS makes this a very simple task using nothing more than a Lambda function!

Contact Flow – Invoke Lambda

An Amazon Connect contact flow would do the normal “check hours” to figure out if the caller was hitting the system during “on hours” or “off hours”.  If the call arrived during normal business hours, then the next step would be to check and see if today was a holiday.    The contact flow adds a simple “invokeLambda” function to make this determination. To simplify the lambda function, we include the list of holiday’s as an object array within the environmental variables.

We determined to create a simple lambda holiday check function using the fewest lines of Node.js code as possible!  In fact there is no need to invoke the function by passing in a date.  You simply invoke lambda and it uses the javascript date() function to parse through your list of holidays comparing todays date with the individual list items.   What we want returned is a simple “true” if today is in fact a “holiday”; or a “false” if today is not a holiday!  Very simple!   The branch step in your contact flow will be based on this simple boolean value returned from lambda.

Improving the function

Now that we know if “today is a holiday” we have the basics in place.   Improving the function has endless possibilities.  For example:

The basic function assumes a full day closure.  What about half days.

It would also be desirable to have an ability to play a custom audio prompt based on the specific holiday closure.

Clearly you can make the administrative interface much more acceptable to a call center supervisor while eliminating the need to let non-development professionals access the AWS Console.  In the basic function, updating the holiday schedule would require folks be able to access the lambda functions directly to update the environmental variables.    Creating an S3 bucket as a static website host, with a simple HTML interface to enable system administrators to update the holiday list from year to year would be an obvious improvement.   This option would open the door to allowing supervisors to close a queue for a team meeting.

Summary

Amazon Connect is an element of a very large ecosystem in which the available services enable you to create a contact center that can meet your wildest imagination!   If you can “see it”  you can make it happen!  Optionally, you can call on DrVoIP and we will make it happen for you!

The Lambda Function is available here.

The function is written in Node.js and is built out using the Serverless framework which you will need to make use of, to deploy the function in your own Amazon Portal:

First you have to configure an AWS CLI profile in order to deploy here is steps to configure it:
step 1: Open terminal
step 2: Execute command “aws configure –profile <profileName>” it will ask for input key id, access key, and region
Next here is steps to deploy service:
step 1: Open terminal
step 2: Get to project root directory
step 3: Execute command “serverless deploy –aws-profile <profileName>”

 

 

 

 

DrVoIP Amazon Connect Tech Tip – LEX Bot Versions!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Well, it is the 21st century and though we still drag around fax machines, we do seem to be getting away from Touch Tone Call Tree IVR systems!  Really, are you not tired of “Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that”?   I know I am at every opportunity to replace a DTMF IVR with a speech recognition I jump on it!  “Thanks for calling how can I route your call” is a lot more like what you would imagine we would have in the era of Artificial Intelligence and natural language speech processing.   Thanks to the ever expanding ecosystem found in the AWS, we can add this technology to an Amazon Connect Call Center with ease and economy.  Long gone are the outrageous “per-port” license fees historically charged for speech recognition technology.

We have other tutorials on our YouTube Channel that deal with configuration of LEX, the AWS speech recognition capable BOT!   In this tech tip we review the process of “versioning” you LEX bot and we explore the concept of “Alias” publications.  This is often a misunderstood concept and hopefully this tutorial will help eliminate or reduce the mystery of this subject matter!    Keep those cards and letters coming – DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

 

Amazon Connect Tips, Tricks and Trouble Shooting!

Posted on by DrVoIP

What no Delete for Contact Flows?

One of the first discoveries you will make while configuring contact flows is that you can NOT delete a contact flow.   Once it is created, you can “save as” but you cannot delete it.  There is a good reason for this and hopefully by the end of this blog it will make sense to you.   Out of the Box, Amazon Connect comes pre-configured with a wide variety of contact flows and system parameters.  You will see this listed as sample and default in a newly created instance.  If you poke around you will also see that a schedule of basic hours has been configured along with a basic queue.  There are preconfigured security profiles and preconfigured routing profiles along with a small library of professionally recorded voice and music  prompts.


This pre-configuration and population of basic and default parameters is done for a reason that also helps explain why you cannot delete anything after you create it!   Assume you open a new Amazon Connect instance and following the setup menu, add a telephone number.  Assign that number in the drop down window in the phone number configuration to point to the “Sample inbound flow (first call experience”.   Then call the number.  This Call flow will make use of most if not all of the default and sample contact flow listed in a fresh out of the box, unmodified Contact instance.  Since we did not configure an agent or queue it draws on several preconfigured parameters including the “Default Customer Queue” which describes what a caller hears while waiting for an Agent to become available and the “Basic Queue” along with the “Basic Hours”.

How Amazon Connect stages Default Contact Flows

If you open the “Sample inbound flow (first customer experience)”  note that it does NOT make use the “Default customer queue” step.  How is that we hear it if it is not in the contact flow?  When the call is transferred to an Agent we did not even configure yet (we are logged in as the Instance Administrator on a CCP softphone), we even hear the “Default agent whisper”.   Nor did we configure a Queue?  Likewise if we put the caller on hold we are tapping the “Default customer hold” contact flow.  If we are in Call Wrap up, the caller would be hearing the “Default customer queue” contact flow while awaiting for an agent to become available.

This is the key reason you can not delete anything!  To do so would jeopardize the stability of the Connect Instance.  These defaults assure that configuration newbies cannot stray materially from the experience they intended to configure.   While the Connect instance is setting up an outbound connection to the agent CCP softphone, and even longer if dialing an agent’s hard phone.   The caller will hear the “Default customer queue” experience.  We recommend that you get a “ring back” audio prompt and use that in either the default customer queue or the customer queue you create.  We think it is a bit confusing for a caller to call in and hear music while being transferred.  You should also note the possible impact on your inbound call statistics.   Additionally, note that billing started the moment your caller hit the phone number regardless of the fact that they are not yet connected to an agent.

Creating and Modifying Contact Flows using “Save As”

Each of the Contact flows in an Amazon Connect instance has an Amazon Resource Number or ARN. This is a globally unique identification number and defines every contact flow in the instance.  Generally, you will build a new contact flow from an existing one.  To do this, you first open the contact flow you want to copy and do a save as.    You have to pay attention here, or you will have a big problem!   Some folks open a contact flow,  change the name and make some modifications and then publish it!  It will show up in your list of contact flows, but it will still have the ARN of the original contact flow even though you renamed it!   This means that other contact flows that call on that original contact flow will now get all your changes!   What you want to do is rename the contact flow and do a “save as” in this way you create a new ARN and will not be over writing the original contact flow.

 

Not all Contact flows have all contact flow Options?

There are about 9 different types of contact flows that you can create to meet your call flow requirements.  If you create a new Contact Flow you need to understand that not all contact flow types will have all the contact flow options.  For example if you are describing the experience you want a customer to have while in queue waiting for an agent to become available, you will  open the “Default Customer Queue ” and do a “save as” to create your experience.   Do not expect to find a “Transfer to Flow” option in the list of possible steps as that option is not available in this type of contact flow.  The list of step options changes based on the type of contact flow you are creating, so keep this in mind!

 

Error Handling

Generally, every step in a Contact Flow has an error exit.   We have found that it is best to create a Contact Flow named “error handling” and to use this as the solution to all of the options that you must provide an error exit.

 

Use Speech Markup Language for Text to Speech prompts!

As a consultant deploying call center and IVR solutions, one of the most frustrating aspects of the implementation is waiting for clients to get their voice prompts together!   Generally we will not start an implementation until we have the prompts!  Text to Speech is a life saver for deployment engineers.  You can create prompts on the fly and let people test them, suggest modifications and really fine tune the prompts to achieve the desired level of customer care.   When the prompts are all agreed to, you can then get them professionally voiced or not!  We find that Amazon Polly is an excellent option for prompts but we also suggest that you use the Speech Synthesis Markup Language option.  In all of the prompt areas you can choose between loading a Wave file, or using Text to Speech. When using Text to Speech you have the option of interpreting the text as text or as SSML.     SSML enables you to add tags that can control the various components of speech including tone, pitch, speed and format.   You may want a number read as a phone number for example, rather than a long integer.   SSML is simple to configure and it very powerful.  Learn to use it always and you will have very excellent results.

Don’t forget to assign outbound phone numbers to your Queues

In Queues in which Agents are expected to make out bound calls you must associate a phone number to that queue for outbound dialing.  The Agent will not be allowed to make outbound calls if they do not have a phone number assigned to the queue.  You can also try to put an outbound name in the same configuration area, but there is no guarantee that this name will be displayed to the CallED party.  The phone number will most likely display to the CallED party, however names are provided by multiple options at both the carrier level and the end device level.

Trouble Shooting 101

When trouble shooting Amazon Connect contact flows your best friend is CloudWatch and Contact Flow Filters!   Lets take a look at each of these tools to better understand how they work together to provide a history of how a specific call behaves.    First while in the Connect dashboard you will find under “Metrics and Quality” you will find a  TAB for “Contact Search” .  Selecting this option will enable you to set search filters for the contact record you are trouble shooting.  You can filter on the usual date and time parameters, but also by queue, and by call type and direction (Inbound, Outbound, Transfer, API, Call Back and Queue Transfer).   The goal is to obtain the “ContactId” the key to all activity in the Connect Instance.  If you know this ContactId you can just search for it and skip the filters.  Optionally you can just “Search” and you will see a list of ContactId’ based on the default filter.

Now that you have the Contact ID you can move over to CloudWatch (this assumes you have enabled logging) and you can search for this ContactId record and follow the entire call flow from start to finish,  Go to the CloudWatch service, click on Logs and then locate the “Log group” for your Amazon Connect Instance.  This will pop a list of “Log streams” and “last event time”.  Find a row that closely matches the date and time of your target ContactID and open that log stream by clicking on it.

Note that the time in the even stream is in UTC and matching log times is always interesting.  In this example we searched for a particular Contact ID in the Connect dashboard and it shows that the call we are interested in had a “Initiation TimeStamp” of *7:46 PM”  GMT/UTC  or Zulu  time (if you are military, which all mean the same time reference regardless of where you are located on the globe).

 

The Contact ID is a clickable link, and will bring up some information of interest as contained in the Contact Trace Record.  There will be a Contact Summary, A recording if enabled with the location of the recording and a playback button, Connection Endpoint pairing and Queue information.

Heading over to CloudWatch and checking the respective Log Stream in the instance log group, we find that the time is being adjusted to the GMT offset of the time zone the Instance time reference, which in our case is GMT -7 hours!  S o the Contact Filter Search in the Amazon Connect dashboard is being Time Stamped for GMT/UTC but the log is offset (Terminate at 7:46 PM in dashboard is listed at 12:48 in the CloudWatch logs).   Keeping track of this time offset will drive you a bit nuts, but if you are aware of it, you can figure it out.  SUMMARY – Look in Cloudwatch for the UTC offset in your Connect Instance and NOT the time stamped in the Contact Filter of your Amazon Connect dashboard!

 

 

When searching for records in the CloudWatch logs you will note that you can set it for ROWS or TEXT and you can also select to search by specific times and choose between UTC time or Local Time zone>

When you set your search by ROW you will get an orderly list of multiple Contact ID’s within the event range reported.  Logs are posted about every minute or so.  In an instance with a heavy call flow you are going to find many different Contact ID’s in that event range and will have to search for a specific record using a search filter in the format of “ContactId” = “ca822db4-98aa-4de3-9254-461177a6d259”.   In Text mode you can also search using the CTRL F feature of your browser.

When you use the ROW mode you will get a list of Contact Flow steps that, by pushing the down arrow will open each step for inspection.  This is necessary to see each step of your call flow, what Contact FlowId  was used by ARN.

Selecting the TEXT mode will generate the same list of JSON objects but they will be fully expanded:

CCP Trouble Shooting

There is a very useful tool for testing the connectivity of a specific desktop call control (CCP) to your Amazon Connect instance.  It provides useful information about the latency, resource, reachability and connectivity that are essential base lines for trouble shooting.   Click here!

CCP LOGS

On the CCP you will find the little GEAR symbol and if you click on that you will be able to download the logs for this Agent Desktop.

 

You can open the logs with any text editor and the content often spells out the issue pronto quick!

 

(to be continued)

 

A Call Center for Cheap, Penny Pinching, Tightwads on a budget!

Posted on by DrVoIP

We Design, Deploy, Service and Customize Amazon Connect!

Since 2008 DrVoIP had been working  in the support of VoIP based call centers from CISCO, Avaya and Mitel/ShoreTel solutions.   Since 2017 we have focused exclusively on AWS services with a particular focus on ‘Amazon Connect” call centers.   From Recording and Voice Mail solutions, through Workforce Management and Voice analytics we have provided custom software  integrations on time, on budget and with the highest customer satisfaction scores.  Our references are public, verifiable and serve as a guide to our abilities and commitment to excellence.

We are not here to run up your professional service bill.  We are here to help you realize your call center vision an always work on a “fixed fee” basis.

We deploy “virtually” and “globally” so just click or call! – DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

DrVoIP fixed cost deployment packages

  • Complete design, deployment and training base package includes:
    • Amazon Connect instance setup in customer AWS Account, with usage billing direct from AWS;
      •  Up to 10 inbound toll or DID numbers
        • DNIS direct to queue routing or 1 IVR DTMF Options Menu
      •  Up to  5 Customer Service Queues
      • English Language support (option for Spanish, French)
      • Unlimited Agents
        • We configure 5 Agents for your use as a template and you configure all the others you may want
      • Up to 5 Routing Profiles
        • Routing profiles bind Agents to the CSQ they are assigned to work in.
      • Voice Mail with Email and SMS delivery
      • Queue Hold  with options for “call back”, voice mail, transfer or continue to hold for Agent
      • Website Chat
        • a single queue connector that enables website visitor to “chat” with call center Agent
      • Dextr Dashboard integration
        • Dextr can provide email routing, text routing, real time and historical reporting
      • Fixed Price Deployment $2995
        • Larger call centers quickly quoted!
    • OPTION PACKAGES
      • Multiple Language support
      • DIAL by Extension
        • Each agent has faux Extension number that can be used for direct call to agent
      • Dial by Name
        • Speech Recognition enables caller to speak a name (i.e. Tom) or function (i.e. Sales)
      • CRM Integration
        • Standard Publish Connector for Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, ZoHo, ServiceNow and others
          • Functionality defined by the CRM provider and author of the connector
      • CHAT BOT
        • FAQ, or Data acquisition before escalation to a Call Center Agent.
  • Free Trial of Dextr Dashboard is included!

To order an Initial Basic Configuration package and receive a detailed planing guide click here .  Contact DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com or Better yet,  Call 800-946-6127 ask LEX for the the Doctor!

Amazon Connect Call Center build strategy

We offer qualified companies a no cost “Proof of Concept “ (POC) Amazon Call Center Instance built in our portal for your use and testing with your agents able to log in and take phone calls on a number we provide.  A POC can be set up within a few hours!  From the POC, we design and deploy a solution that meets your requirements in your Amazon Connect portal.  We make use of our discovery process and planning guides.   We also build our solutions with our own Agent dashboard, named Dextr.   Dextr  provides the core feature set  that all call center professionals expect including voice, text and email routing to the ‘next available agent’.   We can also provide outbound “auto campaign dialers” to increase agent productivity for notifications, recorded announcements and appointment reminders.

Your TCO is further reduced, when compared to the cost of the  software engineering or professional services required to obtain the same feature set as that available to Dextr subscribers.    Dextr is a UCaaS solution that front ends Amazon Connect Instances with a custom agent dashboard and supervisor display.  Any enterprise with an Amazon Connect instance can onboard themselves at https://Dextr.cloud.  We deploy “virtually” and “globally” so just click or call!

DrVoIP Amazon Connect for the Business Manager

  1. What makes up a Basic Amazon Connect Call Center?
  2. Amazon Connect Discover Questions for Call Center Planning
  3. Amazon Connect Planning Guide
  4. Amazon Connect Historical Reporting Options
  5. The ROI and TCO when using the Dextr Dashboard
  6. Amazon Connect Check List
  7. Amazon Reporting Elements
  8. Understanding Amazon Connect Billing
  9. Amazon Connect & Dextr.Cloud Agent Dashboard
  10. Three Minute Video Overview of the Dextr Dashboard for Amazon Connect 
  11. What are “soft limitations” on new accounts?
  12. Advanced Post Call Survey strategies 
  13. Speech Analytics now a standard part of Amazon Connect and Dextr!

DrVoIP Amazon Connect for the Technical Manager

  1. Amazon Connect Basic Configuration Tutorial
  2. Amazon Connect Custom integration Tools
  3. Amazon Connect Configuration “tips and tricks”
  4. Tech Tip – Understanding LEX BOT Versioning and Alias 
  5. Deep Call Back from Queue without losing your place in Queue 
  6. Simple, Cheap and useful Voice Mail Solution 
  7. Is Today a Holiday Check?
  8. Amazon Connect “Forced Release” Options 
  9. Amazon Connect building prompts with Polly
  10. Building Conversational LEX Solutions
  11. Amazon Connect Call Back from Queue Options
  12. Email Routing in Amazon Connect
  13. What are “Soft Limits”
  14. Building Custom CCP for CRM Integrations
  15. SMS Inbound request for call back 

DrVoIP YouTube Channel – Complete Amazon Connect Configuration training!

Amazon Connect Email Routing using Dextr.Cloud

Posted on by DrVoIP

The Dextr Dashboard for Amazon Connect Agents has added email routing to its existing voice and SMS/MMS channels.   Similar to a voice call, an incoming email message is routed to the next available in the queue assigned for email.   Dextr will collect emails, provide auto responders.   The email is “sticky” and the email conversation will stay with the first Agent to respond to the email until the conversation is ended.  Similar to the Dextr SMS channel, if the original agent is not available to handle the follow on conversations, the entire conversation will be forwarded to the next available agent.

Setup is easy, in the Channels tab of a Dextr user with Administrator permissions, simply enter the appropriate email user, password, imap and smtp host address!  Then configure the queue that should be the target of an inbound email along with the initial email auto responder and the end of conversation auto responder.  Multiple emails can be established and can point to different customer service queues!

Email setup and queue selection!

Agents can manage email and voice calls depending on the permissions and queue assignments.  Creating an email named CustomerCare@yourcompanyname.com can be routed to the customer service team.  Email is an asynchronous yet powerful customer tools and many folks prefer it to waiting on hold for the next available agent!  When an incoming email is routed to an available agent, they accept the mail exactly as they do a voice or sms call.   Opening the ENGAGE EMAIL tab displays the content of the incoming email.  As the email conversations ping pongs back and forth, the agent will see the entire email conversation in the ENGAGE portal.

The Agent will find the accepted email in the email client registered for that agent’s email box.   The agent will then respond to the email and Dextr will assure that the recipient of the email sees that it is from the address of the origitanl email TO: filed.   There is a button to END the conversation and when clicked, the final auto responder defined during the email channel setup, is sent to the author of the original incoming email.  (Those familiar with ShoreTel ECC routing will be very comfortable with this email implementation which has the additional benefit of being “sticky”.  If the agent who originally responded to the incoming email is unavailable, the entire email conversation is forwarded to the next available agent for follow up.

Dextr email routing is a bundled feature in your subscription and you should give it a try!  Price is what you pay, value is what you receive.   DrVoIP@DrVoiP.com