Give Customers the Option to Transfer to SMS in the Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Prerequisites

To learn more about SMS Text Messaging with Salesforce, see Set Up SMS Text Messaging.

Step 1: Create an SMS Messaging Template

1. From Setup, enter Messaging Templates in the Quick Find box, then select Messaging Templates.
2. Click New.
3. Complete the fields as follows.

   Field Name	Value
   Template Name	IVRTransfer
   Developer Name	IVRTransfer
   Message	Enter your message. For example: Our messaging team is here to help you! Please respond to this message to connect with an agent.

4. Click Save.

Step 2: Update Your “SCVB - Voice Actions” Flow

1. Copy the Developer Name for your Messaging channel. You’ll use this exact value in the flow that you’re going to update.
   1. From Setup, enter Messaging Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Messaging Settings.
   2. Click Edit for your desired SMS channel.
   3. Record the value in the Developer Name field. For example, Text_US_15551234567. This value is used later for the Messaging Channel Unique Name.
2. From Setup, enter Flows in the Quick Find box, then select Flows under Process Automation.
3. Open the “SCVB - Voice Actions” flow.
4. Add an outcome to the “IVRSelection” decision element.
   1. Click Edit Element on the decision element.
   2. Click the + next to Outcome Order.
   3. Complete the fields as follows.

      Field Name	Value
      Label	IVRTransfer
      Condition Requirements to Execute Outcome	All Conditions are Are Met (AND)
      Resource	$Record.IVRType__c IVRType__c is a custom field for the VoiceCall Salesforce object.
      Operator	Equals
      Value	IVRTransfer This value matches the value set in the Contact Flow.

   4. Click Done to save the new outcome.
5. On the “IVRTransfer” branch, click the + to add an element action.
   1. On the Add Element screen, select Action.
   2. From the New Action page, search for and select Messaging Notification.
   3. Complete the fields as follows.

      Field Name	Value
      Label	SendTransferSMS
      Messaging Channel Unique Name	Enter the Developer Name for your messaging channel that you recorded earlier. For example, Text_US_15551234567.
      Messaging Template Unique Name	Select the template you previously created (IVRTransfer).
      Context Record ID	Change the toggle to “Include” and enter {!$Record.Id}.
      Recipient Phone Number	Change the toggle to “Include” and select New Resource for the field value. Complete the fields as follows, and then click Done. Resource Type: Formula API Name: SMSPhone Data Type: Text Formula: Enter RIGHT({!$Record.FromPhoneNumber}, 10). In other markets, such as in the UK, if the caller number is already in E164 format, use {!$Record.FromPhoneNumber} to ensure the outbound SMS is sent. Note: Amazon Connect passes in the caller’s phone number in E164 format. We use a formula to convert the number to the necessary format. (This example assumes US-based phone numbers. For example, +155512234567 is converted to 5551234567.) See the Recipient Phone Number image below this table.
      Recipient Record ID	Change the toggle to “Include” and enter {!$Record.Id}.

      Recipient Phone Number: Add new resource
   4. Click Done to save the new action.
6. On your flow with the new outcome, click Save As, and then click Save.
7. Click Activate to activate your flow.

Step 3: Import the “SCVCB - SMS Transfer” Contact Flow

When the “SCVCB - SMS Transfer” contact flow is called, it creates a voice call record with the IVRSelection equal to SMSTransfer.

1. Download the “SCVCB - SMS Transfer” contact flow from our GitHub repo.

   From GitHub, right-click the Raw button to download or save the linked file. After downloading, you must remove the .txt extension (so that there is no file extension) before attempting to upload it to Amazon Connect. Alternatively, clone our GitHub repository to download all examples at once. This contact flow resides in the Recipes/TransfertoSMSinIVR folder.

   Note

2. From Amazon Connect, select Routing | Contact flows.
3. Click Create contact flow.
4. On the far right of the contact flow page, click the disclosure triangle button and select Import Flow (beta).
5. Click Select and browse to the “SCVCB - SMS Transfer” contact flow you downloaded.
6. In the “Set contact attributes” block (item 1 in screenshot), ensure that the Destination attribute matches the API name of the IVRSelection field you have on the Voice Call record. For example, sfdc-IVRType__c.
7. Update the function in the “Invoke AWS Lambda function” block. Select xxxx-InvokeTelephonyIntegrationApiFunction.
8. In the “Invoke AWS Lambda function” block (item 2 in screenshot), click the block to open the options and replace the function with your xxxx-InvokeTelephonyIntegrationApiFunction Lambda function. Click Save.
9. Click Publish.

Step 4: Add SMS to the “SCVCB - New Or Existing Case” Contact Flow

Update the “SCVCB - New Or Existing Case” contact flow from the previous example (Link New or Existing Case to Voice Call Record) to include the SMS option.

1. Open the contact flow “SCVCB - New Or Existing Case”.
2. Update the “Get customer input” block.
   1. Click the “Get customer input” block.
   2. To update the text-to-speech entry to include SMS as option 3, change the text to: Thank you for calling. Press 1 if you are calling about an existing case. Press 2 if you are calling about a new case. Or press 3 to Message with our team.
   3. Scroll to the bottom of the block and click Add another condition.
   4. For the new option, enter 3.
   5. Click Save.
3. Add a new “Transfer to flow” block (item 1 in screenshot).
   1. From the left panel, in the “Terminate/Transfer” section, drag the “Transfer to flow” block onto the contact flow.
   2. Open the block and select SCVB - SMS Transfer, which is the contact flow you previously created.

      If you don’t see this flow, go back to that contact flow and click Publish. Only published flows appear in the list.

      Tip

   3. Click Save.
4. Connect Option 3 of the “Get customer input” block to the left side of this “Transfer to flow” block.
5. Add an error message to the “Transfer to flow” block (item 2 in screenshot).
   1. From the left panel, in the “Interact” section, drag the “Play prompt” block to the right of the “Transfer to flow” block.
   2. Open the “Play prompt” block and select Text-to-speech or chat text.
   3. Enter this text: Error with transfer to SMS flow..
   4. Click Save.
6. Connect the output of the “Play prompt” block to one of the closest “Disconnect” blocks.
7. Click Publish.

Test This Example

To test this example, call your number. You should now hear an option 3 for SMS transfer. Press 3 on your phone. The following events should occur:

If you don’t received an SMS, check the Messaging logs.