Engage Voice | Building an advanced IVR (part 1)

The case

Dan Clay owns a propane and propane accessories company in Dallas, Texas. Due to an increase in customer service calls, Dan builds an IVR that can determine if calls are placed during business hours.

If the office is closed, the IVR plays a message, asks the caller to leave a voicemail, and then hangs up. If the office is open, the IVR asks callers for input to determine if they want to discuss billing or something else. The IVR then transfers calls to one of two queues. If the caller has billing questions, the IVR collects the caller’s 5-digit account number, repeats it back to them for confirmation, and then transfers the call to billing.

However, Dan decides to edit his existing IVR and add an advanced feature. Previously, the account number collected from the caller could only be accessed via Prebuilt Reports. Now, he wants the account number injected into an agent’s script once the call has been re-queued.

Goals

Edit an existing IVR so that it can:

Collect account numbers from callers with questions about billing.
Inject the collected account number into an agent’s script.

Plan

Edit an existing IVR by adding a Scripting node that will collect account numbers from the call and send them to an agent’s script.

Lesson

Using and configuring the Scripting node.

Preconditions

Remember that Dan is editing his existing IVR. Dan needs to make sure his script is ready to receive IVR tokens by configuring agent settings on his billing queue. After enabling IVR tokens on the queue, he then needs to edit the script assigned to that queue.

For this scenario, Dan will be using a Text Block element on his script page and add a tag to access the data from the IVR. Some of these actions require specialized knowledge of JavaScript, so Dan may ask for help from his CSM.

After configuring the script and the billing queue, Dan is now ready to navigate to IVR Studio and begin configuring his IVR. Keep in mind that the actions mentioned below will be utilizing the Scripting node, which requires some knowledge of JavaScript.

Actions

Disassembling the IVR skeleton and adding a new node.
Reconfiguring the nodes and connection settings of the IVR branch for the billing queue.

Step 1: Disassembling the IVR skeleton and adding new nodes

Disconnect the third Get Input node from the Route node in the IVR branch for the billing queue.

Drag the Route node farther to the right to leave enough space for one more node.
Drag a Scripting node between the third Get Input node and the Route node.
Connect the third Get Input node to the Scripting node.
Connect the Scripting node to the Route node.

Step 2: Reconfiguring the nodes and connection settings of the IVR branch for the billing queue

Double click the question mark on the arrow connecting the third Get Input node to the Scripting node. This will open the connector arrow property settings so you can perform the following:
1. Select 1 under Selection(s).
2. Click Ok to close the window.
Double click the question mark on the arrow connecting the Scripting node to the Route node. This will open the connector arrow property settings so you can perform the following:
1. Enter the connecting arrow’s name in the Connection Id field. The Connection Id must be in lowercase as it will be referenced in the Scripting node JavaScript code.
Double click the Scripting node to enter the node’s configuration settings.
1. Enter a name in the Node Id field (optional).
2. Click on the third line of code in the JavaScript widget directly below the Node Id field.
3. Press Ctrl + Space to bring up a dropdown menu that lists the preexisting JavaScript functions.
4. Continue entering code as desired.
5. Click Ok to close the window.
Save the IVR by clicking Save in the upper right-hand corner.

Before testing the IVR, Dan should save his changes and check his script as well as his agent settings on the billing queue. Dan’s agents can now see the account number of the caller in their script.