Voice-to-messaging user guide
The Voice-to-Messaging solution can be set up and managed in the Configuration user interface, part of the Enterprise Callback system.
Use the guides below to enable or disable messaging for different operation modes, configure the data used to create messaging interactions, and link your Enterprise Callback system to your Messaging cloud instance.
Enable the Messaging offer
The messaging offer can be enabled/disabled for individual queues, and each queue can offer Messaging in three operation modes: Normal, Virtual Queue, and Datebook. You can offer Messaging on as many queues as you would like, in any combination of the three supported operation modes.
Try it: Voice Experience > Menu Options
Messaging can be offered in three operation modes: Normal, DateBook, and Virtual Queue. You can enable or disable the messaging feature for each operation mode on the Voice Experience > Menu Options screen.
With Messaging enabled, callers will hear "To receive a message, press 5" in Normal operation mode, or "...press 4" in Datebook or Virtual Queue. The messaging offer is presented alongside other options, such as ASAP and scheduled callbacks, in the main menu.
The following options can be used to enable or disable the messaging feature:
Description | Values |
---|---|
| Valid: TRUE / FALSE Default: FALSE |
Description | Values |
---|---|
| Valid: TRUE / FALSE Default: FALSE |
Description | Values |
---|---|
| Valid: TRUE / FALSE Default: FALSE |
Configure Messaging info for individual segments
For each segment that will offer messaging to callers, only two required parameters must be set: an initial Offer Message, and a Messaging Handle. You can optionally set Tags and an Override Country Code, as well.
Try it: Segments > VHT Messaging
To transition from a voice conversation to messaging, Callback packages required and optional parameters, configured per segment, then sends that data to the Messaging cloud instance.
Offer Message
Description | Values |
---|---|
Notes
| Valid: String up to 4,000 characters Default: "This is the message you requested" |
Handle
Description | Values |
---|---|
| Valid: Any handle configured on the Messaging platform for your organization Default: N/A |
Handles are assigned to different teams on the VHT Messaging platform, and each team has its own handle. A team's handle is its phone number, which displays on Caller ID for outbound messages. It should be a phone number to which customers can send messages, as well.
Tags
Description | Values |
---|---|
| Valid: Any tags configured on the Messaging platform for your organization Default: N/A |
Tags can be created on the Messaging platform for customers, agents, and conversations. They can provide supervisors with a high-level view of important information. Tags can also help agents to prioritize and claim new conversations according to their skills.
EXAMPLE
You want to use tags for customer language and account status. In that case, an English-speaking agent could view tags in the team lobby to prioritize a Gold-level English conversation over a Silver-level English conversation. Another agent could prioritize Spanish conversations, and so on.
When assigning tags to a segment in Callback, consider your tagging strategy and how you would like conversations to appear in Messaging team lobbies.
Override Country Code
Description | Values |
---|---|
Note This value is not needed if the Callback segment already uses a valid country code for the customers' region. | Valid: Any country code Default: N/A |
The OverrideCountryCode specifies a country code to dial before the customer's phone number when sending outbound messages.
The CountryCode variable for On-Premise Callback segments can assign specific dial patterns, such as prefixes and suffixes, to use for each segment's outbound voice calls. Some On-Premise Callback users assign CountryCodes to segments for internal routing purposes. In these cases, the segment's CountryCode may not be valid to use when sending outbound messages.
For example, the CountryCode to dial for the United States is "1". If a segment is using a CountryCode other than "1", then outbound messages to a customer in the United States would fail. In this case, you can use an OverrideCountryCode of "1" for outbound messages.
Link Enterprise Callback to your Messaging cloud instance
After you have your API Token, add it into a new row in the System Variables table in the VHT_Config database. This provides Callback the permissions it needs to send requests for new messaging conversations via the messaging API.
Try it: System Variables
- Obtain the messaging API token from your VHT Messaging® cloud instance.
- Create a new row in the System Variables table in the VHT_Config database, with the following values:
- SiteName: Your VHT site name
- VariableName: "MessagingToken"
- Value: Your messaging API token
For more information on using the Configuration user interface, see the Configuration User Guide.
Configure Apache Tomcat
The toolkit.properties file contains settings used by the VoiceXML Interaction Server (VIS) application to manage Messaging API requests.
Messaging properties
Property | Description | Default value |
---|---|---|
com.virtualhold.toolkit.messaging.timeout | Timeout for HTTP Client's SendMessage API requests | 5 seconds |
com.virtualhold.toolkit.contact.number.regex | (Optional) A regular expression specifying an expected phone number format. Often used to reject phone numbers that contain letters or other unacceptable characters. Validation is performed before calling the SendMessage API. | ^\\d{10}$ |
com.virtualhold.toolkit.messaging.url | The URL of your organization's Messaging platform. This should be configured during installation, and it can be changed later if needed. | N/A |
- Update the com.virtualhold.toolkit.messaging.timeout setting if you wish to provide more than the default five-second waiting period before considering a Messaging API request to be timed out.
- Uncomment and update the com.virtualhold.toolkit.contact.number.regex setting if you wish to provide more specific rules for the pattern of customer phone numbers used for messaging requests. If this remains commented in the file, the default value of ^\\d{10}$ (accept only 10-digit numbers) will be used.
- The com.virtualhold.toolkit.messaging.url setting should be updated during the initial deployment of the VHT Messagingsolution.