Category: Business Managers

Would you answer a call from a toll free number?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Campaign Dialer Feature Request?

We are often asked to comment on how to increase answer rates on cold calls.   Calls either made manually by an Agent in an outbound contact center, or an auto dialer or campaign dialer.   Generally, in the era of smartphones, we generally reject calls from unknown numbers and all 800. numbers are unknown!   Some of the strategies we have developed include matching the area code of the number we are calling.  If we are calling someone with a 212 area code, we present a 212 area code in our outbound number.  Not fool proof, but it does increase the answer rate.   Historically, sip trunks were used to fake outbound caller id.  It was a simple trick to make it appear that Bill Clinton was calling you!  Now, with calling number ID restrictions, it is much more difficult to “fake” caller id and you must use a number that you actually own!

If you cant match the area code with a number you have, the second strategy is almost effective.  Do not use a toll free number!  Use a DID number and even though it may not be known by the individual being called, it peeks enough curiosity to have the call answered.   Generally, Amazon Connect will not allow you to present a caller ID that is not a phone number on your contact center.   AWS has made an accommodation, by allowing you to display a caller id  in which you have provided documentation that supports your ownership of the number.  In that case, even though the number is not directly on your contact center, they will let you display it on an outbound call.

Lambda and Dynamodb to the Rescue!

To accommodate the change of caller id on an outbound call, we need to apply some software engineering.  First, we need a database of phone numbers that we legitimately own.  Index the database by area code and it is a simple task for a python function to take the number dialed, look it up, and then return it as an attribute to an Amazon Connect contact flow.  Change the default outbound contact flow, to invoke the lambda function that looks up the dialed number, and return it to a caller id  attribute that is displayed to the called party.  This simple strategy increases answer rate measurably more than using an 800 number.

Amazon Connect Campaign Dialer?

The V2 of the Amazon Connect campaign dialer is an astonishing step forward from the previous “high density outbound calling” solution.   Though there is still a requirement that non-technical managers need to have permissions in the AWS Console to configure and load lists into Pinpoint,  the V2  configuration is almost entirely accomplished through the Amazon Connect dashboard.    Generally managers of a call center would need to contact the IT team to load lists, as security concerns abbreviated  the assignment of  IAM permissions to none technical users accessing the  AWS Console!  V2 all but eliminates this concern.

Unfortunately CID is fixed!

The Lambda strategy for area code swapping discussed above, will not work with the V2 campaign dialer as of the date of this publication.   (Things move quickly in AWS, so this is subject to change, check often).   When you create a campaign you select the number the system should use to place each phone call.  We are not currently able to change that number as we can with a manually dialed number.   From our desk, this is a serious short coming in the world of campaign dialing!  The only option currently available is to divide the “list” into smaller lists segmented by area code.   This increases the administrative burden on list creation.

We are hopeful that AWS will address this market requirement while making DNC and list scrubbing an important subset of the campaign dialer feature set!

 

DrVoIP Amazon Connect Demo Center – Try it you will like it!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Amazon Connect Demo Center

We offer a complete Amazon Connect Contact center with all the bells and whistles free for you to try with up to 5 of your own team members.  We provide a dedicated phone number, a custom greeting with your company messages.  Test drive the contact center, experience the call quality and the feature set.   In less than an hour or so, we can have you setup and operational.  Click, call or email and we will get you setup, its the only way to fully understand a cloud based contact center.

Demo Feature Set

– Dedicated phone number

– Voice Inbound

– US outbound calling

– SMS

– Email

– Video and Screen sharing

– Advanced Agent Dashboard

–  Real time metrics

– Supervisor Console

– Call Recording with Transcription

Contact grace@drvoip.com or call in and talk to her!

 

Amazon Connect 2025 Update Tutorial

Posted on by DrVoIP

Amazon Connect 2025 Update!

During the past year and as we enter 2025, Amazon Connect has made some significant changes.  AWS has added new channels including SMS, Video and Email, many new features including AI assistance and a refreshing new look and feel to the cloud console in general and the Amazon Connect portal in particular.   We have been generating YouTube tutorials on Amazon Connect since our first deployment in 2017!    As new features were released we would update our tutorials and our blog, but the changes are so dramatic this year, that we plan to just create a new tutorial series on the DrVoIP YouTube Channel.

There is a Youtube video covering this material!

Our goal is to create and release a “soup to nuts” tutorial series that will walk you through the creation of an Amazon Connect contact center, complete with all you might need to execute your own solution.   We start with a very basic, but working Contact Center and then with each succeeding Videos, we will slowly increase the functionality and efficiency of the Call center.   We will add new channels, BOTS, Messaging and review many of the most popular CRM and Practice Management software integrations.   First using only Amazon Connect contact flow resources and then, as requirements develop, we will begin to make use of other AWS services including lambda, dynamodb and other resources.

Amazon Connect has always been a work in progress but 2025 is set to be an amazing year for Amazon Connect!  So stay tuned, as we continue to help you stay abreast of all the new capabilities of this already amazing technology! – DrVoIP

How can an Agent Originate an SMS message in Amazon Connect !

Posted on by DrVoIP

Pinpoint SMS

For some time now, you have been able to channel SMS messages through the Amazon Connect CHAT API, using Pinpoint services.  Typically, you would create a new project, enable SMS and then use SNS to trigger a lambda function to handle your SMS conversation.  Most recently, AWS has created Pinpoint SMS, a dashboard that enables you to directly integrate SMS services into your Amazon Connect instance, appearing like any other phone number.   This enables you to capture an SMS event directly to a contact flow eliminating the need to use SNS.

How to Originate an SMS in Amazon Connect?

Getting an inbound SMS message into the call center and routed to the next available agent in a specific queue has been a feature for some time.  As high lighed above, it is now even less complex as we can eliminate the use of SNS, enabling a contact flow to trigger the  lambda function that would handle the SMS session.   The real trick, however,  is how can an Agent originate an SMS message?   If an agent could originate an outbound SMS message, how would the return message be routed back to the agent who originally sent it?

Origination Options?

In this blog we will consider three different strategies that enable an Amazon Connect Agent the ability to ORIGINATE an outbound SMS message.  As noted above, responding to an inbound text message is well documented but originating an SMS message is a real challenge!  (Figuring out how to route the return message to the Agent that originated the message, is yet another challenge! )

  • Option 1 – User a TASK Template
  • Option 2 – Create an HTML Form
  • Option 3 – Create an Email to SMS solution

Each option is successively more complex to configure, each requiring additional AWS services including Lambda and ultimately DynamoDB tables.    Lets take these options one at a time and hopefully learn something as we attempt these different solutions and learn how to configure them.

Can an Agent Launch a Contact flow?

In order for an Agent to originate an SMS message, we needed to find away for an Agent to launch a Contact flow.   The contact flow can string together the steps we need to generate an outbound SMS.  We can turn on logging, trigger a lambda function, pass in the target phone number and message content and hand the message off to Pinpoint SMS for processing.   How can a agent launch a contact flow?  First we considered using a quick connect in which we could modify one of the default handlers to form the contact flow steps we required.  Unfortunately, with the exception of the External quick connect which had no call flow associated with it, the others required the Agent to have an active call before they could trigger the quick connect.  Drat! Foiled again!

Option 1 – Enter the TASK template!

We discovered that TASK templates might be a solution!  Creating a TASK template we found that we could add custom fields!  Yeah! So lets add a field for a phone number and one for message content! Also we might want to know which agent originated the message so we could route the return message back to that agent.   This started to feel like a real solution and but hen reality set in.  The good news was that you could assign the TASK to a contact flow!  This was very powerful, enabling the Agent to enter the phone and message and then send the TASK to the contact flow where we could invoke Lambda to handle the rest.   That is when the bad news surfaced!  There is no way to pass a custom field as a parameter that you could take advantage of in a “Set Contact Attribute” step.  Ah Snap!

Digging through the documentation we did find that there are only three variables (at the time of this bog) that can be passed as contact attributes.  These are the TASKid, the Name of the Task and the Description of the TASK.  So to solve our problem, we had to play with words such that NAME would now = phoneNumber and Description would now =the  messageContent.   This worked remarkably well and has become our current solution for enabling Agents to originate an outbound SMS message.

Click for Video on the DrVoIP channel!

The advantage of this solution is that you do not need to write any code other than the Lambda handler that your contact flow will invoke to send the outbound SMS through Pinpoint.  The entire solution uses existing Amazon Connect resources: Tasks, Contact Flows and the CHAT API behind the scenes.  The downside is the user interface is not intuitive and agents need to remember which field it the real phoneNumber and messageContent field.  It is not a workable solution if you are concerned about routing a return message to the Agent that originated the message.  If those are not concerns, then this is an effective and easy solution to implement.

Option 2 – Use an HTML form

Given the challenges of launching a contact flow, it might be easier to create a pop up HTML form.  When the Agent wants to originate an SMS message, they click a link that presents an HTML form.  The form has a field for the phone number of the recipient,  the message content.  The form also has a field for the Agent ID, which we will discuss further in part 2.    To enable this configuration we need to string together several AWS services:

  • Pinpoint SMS, which we assume you already have setup and handling inbound SMS to your call center instance!
  • We need to build a static website to host our HTML form.   The website will be built in an S3 bucket, in the same region and account as the Amazon Connect instance.
  • The HTML form needs to POST the form contents to an API Gateway.
  • Lastly, the Gateway needs to launch a lambda function to process the  request and provide a hand off to Pinpoint 2 way SMS.  Putting the api-gateway behind CloudFront as a subdomain defined in Route 53, can assure website security if you couple it with a cognito user group for authentication.

Option 3 – Create an Email to SMS solution

This is the most sophisticated of the three options, but is also the most powerful.  It also is the best solution for enabling a return message to be routed to the Agent that originated the message.   The configuration will require configuring a number of AWS services:

  • You will need access to your DNS records, or you will need to create a new domain in Route53, the AWS DNS service.
  • We will be creating a subdomain.  As our domain is DrVoIP.com our new subdomain will be SMS.DrVoIP.Com.
  • This subdomain will add a MX record in the appropriate DNS.   The MX record will point to an SMTP service, in this case using AWS Simple Email Services (SES).
  • SES will have an email receiving rule that will route any incoming email to this subdomain, to an SNS topic.
  • The SNS topic will trigger a Lambda function.
  • We need a Lambda function that will process the event and parse the recipient phone number, message content and the FROM field of the incoming email.  We will discuss the FROM field part 2 of this blog.

How to get the return message back to the originating Agent?

The next challenge was getting the return SMS message routed back to the Agent who originated the message to begin with.  As noted above, the CHAT stream does not provide a way of extracting attributes.   For example, lets assume your chat conversation asks the visitor (keyboard or SMS) what is the order number they are enquiring about?   We can overcome this with some clever event management and we will discuss this option in Part 2.

Routing a return SMS message to the Agent that originated the message, is a subject we will explore in Part 2 of this blog on Amazon Connect SMS channel management!

 

Configuring Amazon Connect Voice Mail

Posted on by DrVoIP

Configuring Amazon Connect Voice Mail

For several years we have been deploying a modified version of the Amazon Connect Voice Mail solution as published by the AWS team to GitHub!   When Amazon Connect first hit the market in 2017, it was without a voice mail solution.  Actually it was without lots of features that most call center folks would expect!  However, as time unfolds in its petty pace, new features are regularly being added.  Today, Amazon Connect continues to lead the way in call center technology.   The voice mail solution, has changed over the last few years, and though in January of 2024, AWS archived the application and no longer supports it, the solution is still quite useable with a few tweaks.   AWS indicates they are rewriting the solution, but they have not published a target release date.

Dial Agent Direct Option

We have modified the solution in a variety of ways.  For example, many folks want a caller to be able to dial an extension number to reach an agent directly.   We created contact flows to do just that and we rely heavily on the published solution.   You can dial an extension, if the Agent is not available, you can leave a message or transfer off to another agent or customer service queue.  Messages can be transcribed and sent via email or as an SMS message.    Given that you can not “transfer to flow” from within a customer queue hold flow, we build the voice processing option into the hold flow.  In this way you can offer your customers waiting for an agent to become available options that include leave a voice mail.   The voice mail, taken in a customer service queue, can be routed like a phone call to the next available agent as a task.

The voice messaging framework opens up a range of new functionality for the Amazon Connect instance!   Let us know if we can help, just email drvop@drvoip.com and we will get you pointed in the right direction.  There is a YouTube video on this configuration:

 

 

 

 

“Do it yourself” kit for deploying an advanced Amazon Connect Instance!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Dynamic Call Centers?

We can dynamically reconfigure our contact flows, the experience a caller has when calling our contact center.   To do this, we us DNIS (i.e. dialed number information services) essentially using the number the caller dialed, to index a configuration database and return all of the options we need to route an care for the call.   Rather than “cut and paste” contact flows, modified for each queue, why not just use one contact flow that can be reconfigured on the fly?  DNIS is a system attribute in Amazon Connect, it can be passed to the contact flows as such and used to route the caller.   In this solution we provide everything you need to quickly implement a very advanced, flexible and scaleable voice only contact center.

We provide a complete “Do It Yourself” Amazon Connect Contact Center

Core features of this solution include the ability to reconfigure greetings, menus and options based on the DNIS, the number the caller dialed ot reach your call center.   Other features include the option to Directly Dial an Agent, or to have IVR option menus.   Queue hold options include “call back”, leave a voice message for follow up that is queue specific.   Contact flows check staffing, hours of operation and  include after hours call handlers.

What is in the DIY Kit?

In addition to several video tutorials to help the non-engineering professional build out the contact center, we provide all the contact flows ready for you to import!  We provide the lambda functions used to index the configuration database and the dynamodb table descriptions. Each contact flow is heavily commented to enable easy modifications of options and prompts.  Tech Tip videos for installing the voice mail system;  custom agent dashboard and  instructions on how to configure other AWS services that the contact center requires.  Finally, we throw in an hour of technical support to answer your questions!   You will find the package in the DrVoIP.com store!

 

Agent Step-by-Step Guide

Posted on by DrVoIP

Amazon Connect Agent Scripts?

We have been very impressed with Amazon Connect’s growing move into an embedded CRM.  Customer Profiles and Cases are powerful capabilities that are now integrated in the “pay only for what you use” cloud based contact center.  Recently, Amazon has added “step-by-step” Agent guides!  This powerful new functionality brings “one call” customer problem resolution from concept to reality.    It offers a unified experience for contact center agents to access the tools they need to address customer calls effectively.  Each phone call can generate  a screen pop of information resources.   These information or action resources can be tailored  for each queue.  This sample screen shot illustrates what might be presented to an Agent in an Airline who might handle reservations and claims for lost luggage!

Step-by-Step Agent Guides

Using the existing contact flow designer, you can configure “cards” (picture above”) that prompt the agent through how best to handle a customer request.  You can create detailed views, forms and confirmations that kick off back end actions!  No longer is it necessary to open a separate  browser tab to update your CRM, this can all be handled by the back end functions lunched from the guides.

Give us a call to setup a demo or to discuss how this amazing new set of productivity solutions can assist in achieving your contact center vision! – DrVoIP@DrVoIP.

Amazon Connect adds a CRM package?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Is Amazon building a CRM Competitor?

Amazon Connect continues to innovate and is adding new features at an accelerated rate.   They do not seem to be leaving any flesh on the bones for other third party providers and seem to be taking aim at the CRM market.  There are two new features that address the most common request of call center supervisors: can we pop a screen with info about the caller on call presentation to an agent?   Historically, this was done by integrating the CRM or Practice Management system with the call center though a complex web of connectors, API’s, Internet Gateways and the other RESTFUL tools that populate the wonderful world of inter-networking.  (See the DrVoIP article: What do you mean Integrate?)

Here is a summary of these new features:

CUSTOMER PROFILES

This feature enables you to assign a profile to a caller. A profile is a form that you create that contains the usual contact data.   When that caller enters the system  again, we can greet them by name and also “pop” the profile to the agent on call presentation.  The profile is filled with data extracted  from two locations:  First, your caller history which is basically the CTR database of all the callers that have contacted you through the call center.  Secondly, it can draw data from your CRM or Practice Management database.   AWS supports a growing list of these databases which today include Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk and S3.    You can also output data from a CRM or Practice management database into an S3  bucket in the call center and this can be tapped by the customer profile feature as well.

CASES

This feature enables you to open a “case ticket” during an active phone call that is associated with an above “customer profile”.   You can see existing open tickets, create new tickets and you have the ability to “assign” the ticket as a task to another team member along with due dates and follow up actions.
These features are “permission” based and assigned to your agents through their security profile.  The use case for these features should be obvious.   AWS is basically developing its own CRM and Practice Management solution and this is just the first release of what will undoubtedly become a very powerful solution in the management of you practice.  We can’t wait for the WFM option!
We are happy to set this up for you,  so please click or call! – DrVoIP

Deploy an Amazon Connect Contact Center for $195?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Pay Only for what you use

We have been working with Amazon Connect since the product was introduced back in 2017.   “Pay only for what you use” is a very attractive economic principle!  We note that a lot of folks login into AWS and spin up a contact center and then though they get it working, it is featureless and they need help.   We have built  “proof of concepts” contact centers over the years many of which have matured into full blown, fully feature contact centers complete with CRM integrations and custom agent dashboards.  Sometimes, in the sale process, it is just easier for everyone to just take a seat in the call center and learn by experience.   The technical team and the business teams all get to use the product and gain useful insight into how Amazon Connect can be a winning customer engagement platform for your business.

Historically, we had offered access to a demo system with your own incoming phone number and call routing solution.  Just give us a few basics and we setup your incoming greeting and add your agents.  Your agents log in and you are off to the races.   This helped the business folks, but not the technical folks.  We needed another solution.

The Amazon Connect Deployment kit!

Enter our complete Amazon Connect inbound voice call center!  For about the cost of an hour of technical support you can build out a fully usable call center.  We provide the contact flows to support inbound call routing direct to a target customer service queue (CSQ).  Optionally, you can route incoming calls to an Integrated Voice Response (IVR) system that provides menu options for caller selection.    The options available to callers waiting for the “next available representative” include receiving a call back when an agent becomes available, leave a voice message or continue to hold.  There is an “after hours” call handling solution along with an error handler.  All the basics.

Video Tutorial for the non-technical Business Manager

The kit includes all the contact flows ready for download and importing into your AWS account and instance.  Along with this kit, we include a video tutorial that will not only coach you along, but provide the background you need to understand the configuration options.   A non-technical business professional should be able to have this solution fully operational and working in about an hour.

 

So, invest $195 and stop wasting time.  Visit the Store!  You will learn what works and what you need to achieve your Contact Center Vision.

Email DrVoiP@DrVoIP.com

 

Adding Video to your Amazon Connect Contact Center

Posted on by DrVoIP

Why Video?

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is an encyclopedia of information!   I remember a team building exercise in communications in which all the team mates sat with their back to the grease board at the front of the room.  Each team mate  had a blank sheet of paper and a pen on their desktop.   Another team member drew a simple share on the grease board and then described it verbally to the rest of the team.  Instructions included how to orient the paper and a verbal map of how to replicate the grease board drawing was narrated.   It was amazing how many different versions of the illustration were created by the team with verbal descriptions from the team artist!  No two alike!

So now put yourself in a technical support contact center listening to your caller describing how they have the yellow cable plugged into the thing next to the other thing?   How more effective would it be if the help desk technician could see the wifi router the caller was trying to install.    One call resolution time would be reduced,  average holding time would be reduced and SLA’s would improve as agents spend less time listening to caller descriptions and more time seeing issues enabling them to handle more calls and solve more problems more quickly.

Mobile Video Chat!

Enabling a link on the company website that opens a chat session with a customer service representative in your call center has always been possible with Amazon Connect.   Now with the aid of AWS Chime, you can escalate a keyboard chat to a video call complete with audio!  You can also push the chat link out to IOS and Android devices, making it possible for mobile video solutions.    Insurance companies could see real time accident reports.    Contractors could quote jobs more quickly, reducing time by eliminating site visits in favor of  video ‘meet ups”.   Telemedicine is also a rich vertical for video in the call center.

Video for Amazon Connect Contact Centers

Integrating video into your Amazon Connect contact center is relatively straight forward.   The solution makes use of a custom CCP, Chime SDK and a bit of serverless code on the back end.    Agents are alerted to an incoming request through the Amazon Connect chat facility using LEX to orchestrate the dialog and gather preliminary data from the caller.  Once the chat is connected between the caller and the agent, both have buttons to escalate to video.

REQUEST  A DEMO

If you would like a demo of this functionality, send us a request and we will send you a link. DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com