Queued Callback and Voicemail

The Queued Callback and Voicemail for Flex solution helps Flex admins automate handling of agent callback requests from customers instead of having them wait longer in a queue. In this solution, the customer hears the callback menu options as soon as they call the number provisioned on your Flex application. Your contact center agents will receive the details including the requested callback number, and a localized time for the customer's inbound call.

The call is on hold for the period of time that you've configured within queue-menu.protected.js. When the time period expires, it will go on and route according to the workflow configuration.

Architecture

User leaving a voicemail message or requesting a callback from an agent

Agent calling the user

This solution leverages Twilio Studio and Twilio Functions & Assets (Serverless) to give the customer options to register for a callback or leave a voicemail. When the customer decides on:

• Registering for a callback
  • A new Callback task is created in TaskRouter
  • The task is routed to the same workflow that the originating call was on, which means that it follows the same logic of routing calls to agents as the originating call placed by the customer
• Leaving a voicemail message
• Limitation: 20-30 second audio recording and transcription
• After the agent gives the customer a callback (3 attempts), they get the option to delete the recording

Prerequisites

To deploy this solution, you will need:

• An active Twilio account with Flex provisioned. Refer to the Flex Quickstart to create one.
• npm version 6.0.0 or higher (type npm -v in your terminal to check)
• A Node.js long-term-support (LTS) version installed, 14 recommended (type node -v in your terminal to check)
• Native Dialpad configured on your Flex application
• Twilio CLI along with the Flex CLI Plugin and the Serverless Plugin. Run the following commands to install them:
  

  # Install the Twilio CLI
  npm install twilio-cli@2.0 -g
  # Install the Serverless and Flex as Plugins
  twilio plugins:install @twilio-labs/plugin-serverless
  twilio plugins:install @twilio-labs/plugin-flex

Deployment Time

30-45 minutes

Tested Flex Versions and Operating Systems

• Flex v1.18.1 - 1.30.1
• macOS / Unix
• Windows 10

Step 2

Retrieve your Flex Task Assignment workspace ID:

twilio api:taskrouter:v1:workspaces:list

Example Workspace SID

SID                                      Friendly Name               Prioritize Queue Order
WSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX       Flex Task Assignment        FIFO    

To retrieve your Flex workspace SID from the Twilio Console, navigate to the TaskRouter Dashboard.

Step 3

In the Twilio Console, select your Flex project and navigate to All Products & Services > TaskRouter > Workspaces > Flex Task Assignment > TaskChannels. Create two task channels: one for callback and one for voicemail, so you can route the associated tasks to available agents.

Step 4

Create a task queue for callback and voicemail tasks named CallbackandVoicemailQueue. Make sure to pass 1==0 as the queue expression. This effectively “queues” callback and voicemail tasks.

Step 5

Create workflow filters for each callback attempt. In this guide, we will modify the "Assign To Anyone" workflow and configure three filters. Run the following command in a command shell:

• For each filter, replace the queue fields in the JSON configuration with the SIDs of the "Callback and Voicemail" queue and the "Everyone" queue.

• Pass the "Assign to Anyone" workflow SID to the --sid CLI flag.

• Also set the default queue to the SID of the "Everyone" Queue. Replace the --workspace-sid value in the API request with your Flex Task Assignment workspace.

Example API Response

SID                                                                 Friendly Name      Document Content Type
WWXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                  Assign to Anyone   null

To learn about configuring more complex workflows, see Create a Workflow Resource and Configuring Workflows: Complex Routing Example.

Download the Flex Queued Callbacks and Voicemail Plugin

Step 1: In your browser, download the plugin source code and unzip the files in a local directory.

Step 2: Run npm install to install the plugin package dependencies.

Deploy your Twilio Functions and Assets

We will deploy the functions associated with the Callback and Voicemail Flex plugin to your Flex application. The functions are called from the plugin you will deploy in the next step and integrate with TaskRouter, passing in required attributes to generate the callback and voicemail tasks, depending on the customer selection while listening to the in-queue menu options.

Pre-deployment Steps

Step 1: From the root directory of your copy of the source code, change into serverless and rename .env.example to .env.

Step 2: Open .env with your text editor and modify TWILIO_WORKSPACE_SID with your Flex Task Assignment SID.

TWILIO_WORKSPACE_SID=WSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Step 3: Run npm install to install your Serverless dependencies.

To deploy your Callback and Voicemail functions and assets, run the following:

serverless $ twilio serverless:deploy --assets

Example Output

Deploying functions & assets to the Twilio Runtime
Env Variables
⠇ Creating 4 Functions
✔ Serverless project successfully deployed

Deployment Details
Domain: https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io
Service:
   plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions 
Functions:
   https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-callback

https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-utils  

https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/queue-menu
   https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-voicemail

Assets:
   https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/assets/alertTone.mp3
   https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io/assets/guitar_music.mp3

Copy and save the domain returned when you deploy a function. You will need it in the next step.

If you forget to copy the domain, you can also find it by navigating to Functions > API in the Twilio Console.

Debugging Tip: Pass the -l or logging flag to review deployment logs. For example, you can pass -l debug to turn on debugging logs.

Create a Studio Flow

Step 1: With your Flex project selected, navigate to the Studio Dashboard.

Step 2: Click "+" to create a new flow. Give it a friendly name. For example, "CallbackVoicemailFlow".

Step 3: Select "Start from scratch".

Step 4: Drag and drop "Send To Flex" from the Widget Library on the right corner of the screen.

Step 5: Connect it with the "Incoming Call" trigger.

Step 6: In the Config tab, enter the following details:

• Widget Name: Friendly name for your Send To Flex widget
• Workflow: Assign to Anyone
• Channel: Voice
• Attributes: { "type": "inbound", "name": "{{trigger.call.From}}", "direction": "inbound" }
• URL Method: POST
• Hold Music TwiML URL: https://<deployment-domain-name>/queue-menu?mode=main (Replace with the value you saved from the Functions and Assets deployment step)

Step 7: Click Save and Publish to apply your changes.

Associate Incoming Calls with Studio Flow

Step 1: Navigate to the Phone Numbers page in the Twilio Console and click on the number associated with your Flex application.

Step 2: Scroll down to the "Voice" section and update the incoming call trigger with the Studio Flow that you created.

Step 3: Click Save.

Deploy your Flex Plugin

Once you have deployed the function, it is time to deploy the plugin to your Flex application.

Run the following commands in the plugin root directory. We will leverage the Twilio CLI to build and deploy the Plugin. First, rename .env.example to .env.

Open .env with your text editor and modify the REACT_APP_SERVICE_BASE_URL property to the Domain name you copied in the previous step. Make sure to prefix it with "https://".

 # .env REACT_APP_SERVICE_BASE_URL=https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io 

When you are ready to deploy the plugin, run the following in a command shell:

plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail $ twilio flex:plugins:deploy --major --changelog "Change plugin to use the latest Flex plugin for the Twilio CLI" --description "Queued Callback and Voicemail Plugin"

Example Deployment Output

✔ Validating deployment of plugin plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail
⠧ Compiling a production build of plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail
✔ Compiling a production build of plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail
✔ Uploading plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail
✔ Registering plugin plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail with Plugins API
✔ Registering version v1.0.0 with Plugins API

🚀 Plugin (private) plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail@1.0.0 was successfully deployed using Plugins API

Next Steps:
Run $ twilio flex:plugins:release --plugin plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail@1.0.0 --name "Autogenerated Release 1602189036080" --description "The description of this Flex Plugin Configuration" to enable this plugin on your Flex application

Enable the Plugin on your Flex application

The previous step only deploys your plugin. You still need to enable the Plugin on your Flex application. To enable, run the following:

twilio flex:plugins:release --plugin plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail@1.0.0 --name "Queued Callback and Voicemail" --description "Enabling queued callback and voicemail using Solution Guide"

View plugin on the Plugins Dashboard

After running the suggested next step, navigate to the Plugins Dashboard to review your recently deployed plugin and confirm that it’s enabled for your contact center.

You are all set to test Queued Callback and Voicemail on your Flex application!

Testing the solution

Step 1: Log in as an admin to the Flex instance where you deployed the plugin.

Step 2: Change your status to Available on the upper right corner of the Flex UI. This enables you to receive incoming calls and messages (SMS or chat).

Step 3: Call the number displayed on the landing page of your Flex application.

Step 4: Press "1" to listen to the menu options:

Press "1" again to remain in the queue.

Press "2" to receive a callback. Follow the callback number confirmation prompt.

Press "3" to leave a voicemail for the agent. Follow the prompt and leave your voicemail message. Press * when you're done. Note that your voicemail will be transcribed up to 30 seconds.

Step 5: When choosing the "callback" option, a preview callback task pops up on the Agent Desktop after the configured "timeout" setting in your workflow filter. In this example, we set it to 10 seconds.

• Accept the task. Upon accepting the task, the agent should see an Info panel with all the callback details as shown in the following image:

• The agent can either place the callback immediately or forward the call to a queue of other agents.

• After wrapping up the call with the customer, the agent should also complete the callback task.

Step 6: When choosing the "voicemail" option, a preview voicemail task pops up on the Agent Desktop after the configured "timeout" setting in your workflow filter. In this example, we set it to 10 seconds.

• Accept the task. On accepting the task, the agent should see an Info panel with all the voicemail audio and text transcription as shown in the following image:

• Similar to the callback task, the agent can either place the callback immediately or forward the call to a queue of other agents. After the third requeue attempt, you then have the option to delete the recording.

• After wrapping up the call with the customer, the agent should also complete the voicemail task.