Types Of Flows
In Phonon Central, we support different kinds of flows for different requirements. To add any new flow, click on Main → Flows → Add new Flow. The type of flows are as below -
Inbound IVR and Call Distributor
Inbound means the customer calls on the given DID and according to the design of the flow the IVR will be played.
Click on ‘Add flow’, select ‘Inbound IVR and call distributor’ and you will be able to create your own inbound IVR flow with customized configurations
You will be able to view two tabs which are -
Details
Flow ID: Unique ID for every flow, automatically given by the system
Flow Name: Customized name for your flow(Only alphanumeric characters and underscore are allowed in name)
Assign DID: Assign DID to the flow. If no DID is available, use this link to purchase a DID
Webhook for Account is: To configure any webhook for the account user can click on the “Configure Webhook” link
Enable Webhook for Flow: Switch ON the option to enable webhook for the particular flow
Enable Call Recording: You can enable call recording of the entire flow using this option
Time Zone: Select the time zone basis the Caller zone or Custom zone
Accepted formats for Date/Time: Select the accepted Date and Time format. The format selected will be applied in the entire flow.
Accepted formats for date : Select the accepted Date format. The format selected will be applied in the entire flow.
Accepted formats for time : Select the accepted Time format. The format selected will be applied in the entire flow.
Designer
Widgets that are visible on the left corner of the screen can be used in the Designer Section using pick and drop to configure your customized flow.
Start: Flow’s execution begins from Start
On Remote Hangup: Widgets designed here will be executed when the customer hangups the call remotely
On Flow Complete: This will executed when the flow is completed
As this is an inbound flow, the first widget after the ‘Start’ should be compulsorily ‘Answer Call’, otherwise the flow will not be executed as per require.
To know more about the widgets, click here.
Once you have created the flow, you can click on the ‘save' and then further click on ‘commit to production’ to make it live.
If you just ‘save’ the flow, then the flow will be in testing state and you will be able to test the flow using whitelisted numbers.
To view some inbound flow templates, you can click here.
How to use widgets in the design area ?
→ To add any widget in the design area, you just need to left click on the widget and drag that widget (while the left click is pressed) and drag the widget to the design area.
→ To connect any two widgets, you just need to left click on the end of the widget and a arrow will get appear, now connect the arrow to the widget whenever you want to connect that widget.
→ When you have added widgets in the design area, and you hover over that widget then you will be able to see title of that widget(if configured in the widget) and main configurations of that widget.
Outbound Multicast
Outbound flow means the calls are performed or broadcast to the customers by the system.
Once you have committed the flow to production, you just need to trigger the flow and the flow will be executed automatically.
Click on ‘Add flow’, select ‘Outbound Multicast’ and you will be able to create your own Outbound flow with customized configurations.
You will be able to see
Details
Flow ID: Unique ID for every flow, given by the system
Flow Name: Customized name for the flow(Only alphanumeric characters and underscore are allowed in name)
DID allocation type: Assign DID to the flow using common pool (any random DID will be selected to perform outbound calls) or exclusive DIDs (you can attach DIDs, from which you want to perform outbound calls).
Assign DID: Assign exclusive DID to the flow. If no DID is available, use this link to purchase a DID
Webhook for Account is: To configure any webhook for the account user can click on the “Configure Webhook” link
Enable Webhook for Flow: Switch ON the option to enable webhook for the particular flow
Enable Call Recording: User can enable call recording of the entire flow using this option
Enable International Calling: You can enable international calling for the flow using this option (if allowed for account, if not allowed send a mail on support@phonon.io for the same)
Configurator
Flow Type: Select the type of flow from Transactional or Marketing. Please note, once type of flow is selected and saved, it cannot be changed later.
Transactional - This type of flow can be used for important conversation calls like payment transaction, account information etc. For this type of flow, NDNC scrubbing will be performed. For some changes in the flow you need to submit the flow for support approval (for some checks) and once our support team approves it, you can commit the flow for production (make it live).
Marketing - This type of flow can be used to broadcast marketing calls. For this type of flow, NDNC scrubbing will not be performed.
Connect to DNC Numbers: Basis the type of flow, this field will be updated automatically
Flow Status: Show the status of the flow ie. whether it is In Production or In Testing
In Production : The flow is committed to production and is live.
In Testing : The flow is either submitted for approval, or in testing state and yet not committed to production.
Accepted formats for Date/Time: Select the accepted Date and Time format
Accepted formats for Date: Select the accepted Date format
Accepted formats for Time: Select the accepted Time format
Configure the flow variable validations, if required
There are two options to trigger outbound broadcast: Email Upload and Web Service. Click here to know how to use this details.
Flow Variable Validation
You can add flow variables in the flow, and then assign value in .csv file or API request when you trigger the outbound flow.
But the flow variables can be of any type and in any form, But while uploading, it may happen that the data or values of flow variable are entered wrong by mistake and so it is not as per needed or does not contain the data of our concern, so that creates problems at run time and the customer encounters a bad experience.
To overcome this problem, a section of ‘flow variable validation' is present in the outbound flows.
In the ‘flow variable validation’ section, you can add and configure validation to put on the flow variables. So after uploading data if the flow variable suffices that conditions then only the system will proceed otherwise the record will be rejected with status ‘FLOW_VARIABLE_VALIDATION_FAILED’.
The flow variables added will be bound to specific flow only. That is, same flow variables can be used in different forms with different validations in other flows.
To add validation, click on ‘add flow variable’
You can give a name to the flow variable, select the type of input that the flow variable contains like - Text, Email, URL and can set the variable as mandatory or not.
If the you have selected type as ‘Text’, then you will have option to select on which parameter you want to put ‘validation on’
Value: The validation will be put on the content of the variable
Length: The validation will be put on the length of the input of the variable
If you select, validation on ‘value’, then you will have further ability to select the criterias like
None: No validation, if mandatory is enable then an input is required
Contains: The user can specify any value and the input should contain that value
Does not contain: The user can specify any value and the input should not contain that value
From list of items: The user can specify list of items separating it with comma and the input must be one of the items
Regex: The user can provide regex expression and the input will be validated with the regex expression.
If you select, validation on ‘length’ then you need to specify minimum and maximum length of the input which will be considered as valid.
Note:
For value: The input will be case insensitive.
For Length: Minimum and Maximum values are inclusive.
If the input does not follow the criteria specified by the user then that entry will be rejected with error reason “FLOW_VARIABLE_VALIDATION_FAILED”
Mandatory: You can set a flow variable as mandatory. If mandatory is enabled, value in that flow variable is required. If mandatory is disabled, value is not required and is optional but if provided, must satisfy the provided validation criterias.
For type as Email and URL, basic validations will be executed.
Business Hours
Call Dialing Business Hours: Select the business hours for the outbound calls.
Time Zone: Select the time zone basis the Caller zone or Custom zone
Working Days: If the Call Dialing Business Hours is Custom then user can configure Business Hours customized for every day of the week
If the Call is past Business Hours: Can be used to define the action to be taken when call is past business hours
Call Failing Conditions: User can define the condition of call failing
Reschedule the call in next dialing time
Reject the call
If calling fails: The reattempt logic is defined here
Number of Reattempts(Minimum 0 and maximum 50 times is valid)
Duration between Attempts(Minimum 0 and maximum 1440 mins valid)
Designer
Widgets that are visible on the left corner of the screen can be used in the Designer Section using pick and drop to configure your customized flow.
Start: Flow’s execution begins from Start
On Remote Hangup: Widgets designed here will be executed when the customer hangups the call remotely
On Flow Complete: This will executed when the flow is completed
As this is outbound flow, the first widget after the ‘start’ widget, must be ‘make call’ otherwise the call will not be dialed.
To know more about widgets, you can click here.
Emergency Notification
This type of flow is specially designed to send notifications via voice, SMSs and Email in any emergency situation. The emergency situation can be delay of flight, fligh crash, sudden thunderstorm etc.
To create emergency notification flow, first you need to create an outbound flow as show in the template so that whenever you want to send notification, that outbound flow will get triggered.
Click on ‘Add flow’, select ‘Emergency Notification’ and you will be able to create your own notification flow with customized configurations.
Details
Flow ID: Unique ID for every flow, automatically given by the system
Flow Name: Customized name for your flow(Only alphanumeric characters and underscore are allowed in name)
Param Configuration
Parameters are the fields that will only change in the script, while sending notification. Parameter can be time, date, flight no., Location etc.
You can select the parameters that are required to be sent in the notification message via the channel selected by the user. The parameters selected here will be mandatory while sending the notification.
You can add parameters, by clicking on ‘add Parameter’ and the list of parameters will get appear. You can multi-select the parameters and later you need to add this variable in the script as and when required.
While sending the notification, the users will have to mandatorily enter the values for these parameters
Script Configuration
The script configuration tab is used to configure the scripts that will be sent via the channels selected by the user to send the notification. Here you can draft the scripts that will used while sending the emergency notification for this scenario.
Here you can write different scripts for different channels. You can use the flow variables of the parameter in the script, so that when the user enters the parameter value in send notification, the flow variable will be replaced with the parameter value in the script.
OutboundFlow Configuration
You needs to select the outbound flow using which the notifications will be sent.
Select an outbound flow to be used for sending the notification and click on ‘save’ and thus your notification flow is ready. You can trigger this flow by using ‘send notification’ page.
Outbound Dialer
Generally, all outbound flows are based on ‘customer first’ logic. That is whenever any outbound call is performed first the customer is connected and then the call is transferred to the queue (based on flow) and the agent is fetched from logged in agents to allocate the call. Sometimes the agents are not available and the customers have to wait for a longer time in the queue and the time of customers gets wasted.
But outbound dialer flows, are specially designed based on logic of ‘Agent First’. In agent first logic, before even the outbound call is performed to customer, the agent will be acquired from the queue. Once the agent gets connected then and then only the customer will be dialled.
Click on ‘Add flow’, select ‘Outbound Dialer’ and you will be able to create your own Dialer flow with customized configurations.
Details
Flow ID: Unique ID for every flow, given by the system
Flow Name: Customized name for the flow(Only alphanumeric characters and underscore are allowed in name)
DID allocation type: Assign DID to the flow using common pool (any random DID will be selected to perform outbound calls) or exclusive DIDs (you can attach DIDs, from which you want to perform outbound calls).
Assign DID: Assign exclusive DID to the flow. If no DID is available, use this link to purchase a DID
Webhook for Account is: To configure any webhook for the account user can click on the “Configure Webhook” link
Enable Webhook for Flow: Switch ON the option to enable webhook for the particular flow
Enable Call Recording: User can enable call recording of the entire flow using this option
Enable International Calling: You can enable international calling for the flow using this option (if allowed for account, if not allowed send a mail on support@phonon.io for the same)
Configurator
Flow Type: Select the type of flow from Transactional or Marketing. Please note, once type of flow is selected and saved, it cannot be changed later.
Transactional - This type of flow can be used for important conversation calls like payment transaction, account information etc. For this type of flow, NDNC scrubbing will be performed. For some changes in the flow you need to submit the flow for support approval (for some checks) and once our support team approves it, you can commit the flow for production (make it live).
Marketing - This type of flow can be used to broadcast marketing calls. For this type of flow, NDNC scrubbing will not be performed.
Connect to DNC Numbers: Basis the type of flow, this field will be updated automatically
Flow Status: Show the status of the flow ie. whether it is In Production or In Testing
In Production : The flow is committed to production and is live.
In Testing : The flow is either submitted for approval, or in testing state and yet not committed to production.
Flow Type (Dialer Type) - The types can be
Manual Dialer : The agents will have to go on ‘manual break’ and dial the number of customer. Once the call is placed, first the agent will get the call and once the agent gets connected the customer will be called.
Automatic Dialer : You need to trigger this dialer flow, just like outbound flow (through Email upload, direct upload or API ) and automatically first the agent from the queue will get acquired and once the agent gets connected, the customer will be called.
Accepted formats for Date/Time: Select the accepted Date and Time format
Accepted formats for Date: Select the accepted Date format
Accepted formats for Time: Select the accepted Time format
Configure the flow variable validations, if required
There are two options to trigger outbound broadcast: Email Upload and Web Service. Click here to know how to use this details.
Business Hours
Call Dialing Business Hours: Select the business hours for the outbound calls.
Time Zone: Select the time zone basis the Caller zone or Custom zone
Working Days: If the Call Dialing Business Hours is Custom then user can configure Business Hours customized for every day of the week
If the Call is past Business Hours: Can be used to define the action to be taken when call is past business hours
Call Failing Conditions: User can define the condition of call failing
Reschedule the call in next dialing time
Reject the call
Call falling condition
As a user, you would always want to limit the number of times a customer is attempted, as well as the duration between them. Getting calls every 1 hour 5 times in a day is not good customer experience. In Customer First products, it's no issue. Set the attempts and the duration between them and flow will be rescheduled if the customer is not connected N times M duration apart.
But in Agent First, unless the agents gets connected, customer will not be attempted! This puts the user in a peculiar position, where you would want to still limit the number of times to attempt the customer, but keep some liberty in attempting agents.
You can now configure the Agent Attempts and Customer Attempts Configurations separately in Outbound Dialer Flow.
Designer
Widgets that are visible on the left corner of the screen can be used in the Designer Section using pick and drop to configure your customized flow.
Start: Flow’s execution begins from Start
On Remote Hangup: Widgets designed here will be executed when the customer hangups the call remotely
On Flow Complete: This will executed when the flow is completed
A simple dialer flow in which an agent is approached first can be as follows and to know more about widget, you can click here -
Masking Number
Masking any number is basically hiding the original number and displaying some other number. You can mask numbers by using the API for maksing or remove masking. To know more about masking number, you can click here.
Click on ‘Add flow’, select ‘masking number’ and you will be able to create your own flow with customized configurations.
Details
Flow ID: Unique ID for every flow, given by the system
Flow Name: Customized name for the flow(Only alphanumeric characters and underscore are allowed in name)
Security ID : Unique ID which will be used in the API to post the request.
Accepted formats for Date/Time: Select the accepted Date and Time format
Accepted formats for Date: Select the accepted Date format
Accepted formats for Time: Select the accepted Time format
Enabling call recording : You can enable it if you want to enable the call recording for the flow.
For making, you can use given API format and webservice end point
For unmasking, you can use given API format and webservice end point
Prompts
You can play different prompts at different situations, as defined below -
Welcome - You can play any prompt as a welcome prompt. To add prompt, you can select ‘yes’ and based on play type, you can play prompt
Enter Pin - You can play any prompt when the user enters the pin. To add prompt, you can select ‘yes’ and based on play type, you can play prompt
Incorrect pin entered - You can play any prompt when the user enters incorrect pin. To add prompt, you can select ‘yes’ and based on play type, you can play prompt
Widgets In Central
Phonon Central provides a wide range of widgets, using which you can design your IVR flows.
The common features in all the widgets are
Widget Title : You can give widget a friendly title according to its use in the flow.
Milestone Widget : You can enable this if you want to show the details of this widget in the milestone report.
1. Answer Call
This widget is only for ‘Inbound Flow’. After start immediately this widget will come, as this widget states the beginning of the flow.
You don’t need to configure anything in this widget.
2. Agent Connect
This widget is specially for outbound dialler flows. The main moto of this widget is to acquire the agents from the queue, before calling to the customer.
You need to configure following parameters for this widget.
Target - Target is the place from where the agents will be acquired. Currently they can only be acquired from queues.
Queue - You will be able to see all the queues assigned to this flow. To assign queue, you first need to configure queue. You can select any one queue from which you want to acquire agents for the customers.
Queue Type - This field will be auto-filled based on the queue selected by you. The queue type can be
Dynamic Queue : All the agents of that queue are having agent login interface.
Direct Dial Queue : All the agents of that queue are having direct dial numbers.
Preferred Agent - This field will only come if the ring strategy is selected as ‘provided’ in queue. In this field you can either provide the flow variable in which the preferred agents are stored or you can provide agent keys of the preferred agents separating it with comma.
Preferred Agents means the agents that will only be approached from the queue for dialing the customer. You can define a flow variable here for preferred and then upload that variable’s value (in terms of agent keys of agent) at the time of triggering dialer flow.
You can add multiple preferred agents separating it with comma.
Agent Connect - If the agent gets successfully connected, then the flow will move forward to line '0'.
Agent not connected - You can select the action you want to perform when the agent is not connected.
Reschedule : The call will get rescheduled and according to the configurations made in the business hours tab, the call will be placed again.
Continue : The flow will move forward to the next widget.
3. Counter
The counter widget is used to keep track of the number of times a flow passes through a certain path; the value of the counter changes accordingly.
Counter Function - You can select the function of the counter. The function can be
Create New Counter - A new counter will be created in the flow
Counter Variable Name : Give a flow variable name to the counter so that everytime the value of the counter will get stored in that variable. The variable can be of type ‘$flow.counter.<keyname>’.
Counter Initialization value : You can initialize the value of the counter so that the increment of the counter will get start from that number.
Modify existing counter - If you already have any counter in the flow and you want to use that counter and perform some action on it, then you can select this function.
Change value of count : You will be able to see all the counters present in the flow and you can select the counter which you want to modify.
Change Value : You can change the value of selected counter, each time the call passes through this widget like
Reset to 0
Increment by 1
Decrement by 1
4. Decision
The decision box is used to make certain choices that influence the direction of flow, depending on the DTMF/Voice input by the user or/and other flow variables.
Number of Breaks - The number of breaks are the number of conditions to be added. The flow goes into the respective break number once a condition is met. The number of breaks can vary from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 7.
Condition Name - The condition names get added once their rules are specified and they are assigned a break number. The default condition on break 0 holds true once all of the other conditions are checked and none of them are met.
Condition Details - The condition which you need to check can be added in this section. You can click on '+' button to add condition. For any condition following things are to be configured
Variable Type : The type of variable. It can be integer, string, boolean, datetime etc.
If variable : Enter the variable which you need to check. The variable can be flow variable (defined in flow) or any system variable (fixed variable defined by system for a purpose)
Operator : You can select the operator which you want to put on variable. The operators can be equal to, not equal to, less than, greater than etc.
Value Type : The type of value through which the variable is compared. It can be static or variable
Value : The value through which the variable is to be compared. You can either enter static value or variable.
Add Rule/Add Group - You can add any rule or whole group as a condition to check along with the your condition using ‘OR’/'ADD' operator.
Breaks - Breaks are the number of condition in which it will go if the condition is satisfied. Break number will depend on the number of breaks selected by you.
5. Delay
This widget is used to pause the flow for the time configured (in order to have some delay).
Delay Timer - Enter the delay to be applied in seconds(User can add a delay of minimum 1 sec and maximum 50 seconds to the flow)
6. Email
This widget is used to send real time Emails to the customers. You can compose whole email in this widget and according to the configuration when the flow is reached on this widget, an email will be send.
Emails can be sent only through validated email IDs and using a cloud account enabled for sending emails.
From - Select the email sender ID. If no email sender ID is configured, please follow the steps mentioned here to complete the configuration
To/CC/BCC - Enter the static/variable recipients list for the email
Subject - Enter the Subject line for the email
Email body - Email content to be entered here
7. Hang Up
This widget is used to disconnect the call at any point of time in the flow. That is when flow reaches to this widget, it will disconnect the call without any configurations.
Any other widget branching out of it is not played on the call anymore. Although the flow is still maintained, off-call.
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