Linking IVR apps with CRM

Posted on January 18, 2022 | By Voicent

The following article Using Voicent CRM Data shows the way to access and change the CRM fields from an IVR app. In this article we explain in more details.

1. theCustomer

The way to access Voicent CRM data is through a variable. All variables used in an IVR app must be declared in the top node. In the example, it is named as theCustomer, which is just a regular variable and can be named anything you like. It must be first initialized as a CRM variable that binds to a particular database table. In most cases, the table name should be CUSTOMER.

crminit(‘CUSTOMER’)

2. Link to a customer record

The crm variable must be linked to a particular customer record, which is accomplished by the searching a record with a phone number.

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(’16505555555′)

There are system variables that represent the current phone number. For outbound calls, use:

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(__VG__CALLED_NUMBER__)

and for inbound calls, use:

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(__VG__CALLER_ID_NUMBER__)

3. Get and Set CRM fields

Once theCustomer variable is linked to a customer record, then it can be used to manipulate the CRM fields through the dot notation. For example, to use the customer’s first name in a prompt, use

theCustomer.FIRST_NAME

For a custom field, for example, Order_Number, use

theCustomer.Order_Number = ’12345′

 

Posted in IVR Developer |

Automated Customer Service Survey

Posted on January 7, 2022 | By Voicent

Hello, I’d like the option to send customers to an automated customer service survey if they agree to it at the end of our calls.  Would Voicent be able to do this for me with our current phone system?

Yes, absolutely. The follow is an article about how to set it up.

How to setup an inbound phone survey

For deployment, you can get a dedicated incoming phone number from our cloud service. Deploy the survey app to that phone number as shown in the article.

Now, once your customer agrees to take the survey, your agent can simply transfer the call to that dedicated phone number.

Please note that we also offer on-premise software, which is the same one runs on our cloud service. With this option, you can configure the software to answer calls from your current phone system, such as a dedicated extension. Once a call is transferred to that extension, the automated phone survey can kick in. Please also note setting up the on premise software takes more work than just using our cloud service.

Posted in IVR Usage |

Configure Inbound Call Center

Posted on October 7, 2020 | By Voicent

In order for people to call your call center, you will need inbound call center features, such as a dedicated telephone number, phone lines to handle simultaneous calls, voice mail, auto attendant, extensions, call distribution , advanced IVR app, etc. We normally refer a call center as a blended call center when both outbound features (out bound dialers) and inbound features are used together.

To enable inbound features for your cloud account, first add the following feature: Inbound Call Center With Phone Number ($15) to your subscription plan.

Then you need to decide how many concurrent incoming calls you may have in peak time. For example, if your busiest time is the beginning of the day and you normally have 10 people call you at 8 am, then you will need to add at least 9 Inbound voice channels ($7) to your plan. (If there are more people call you at the same time than the number of available channels, the extra calls will hear busy tones)

You do not need to have an agent for each channel. This is where the auto attendant feature can help. For example, if you have 3 agents answer incoming calls and you got 10 concurrent calls, the system will put the extra calls in a queue. The caller will hear music while waiting.

Posted in PBX |