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The most popular requests are to "pop" a customer record on incoming phone call. Which Customer record? Well we can take the incoming caller ID, the number dialed (i.e. DNIS) or prompt the caller to enter some information that could be used to uniquely identify the caller. Caller ID can be helpful, but more times than note it is wrong. The contact record in your database might list the callers main company phone number, but they are calling using their cell phone or a DID number within the internals of the company. For this reason it is always more accurate to prompt the caller to enter an account number, or ticket number. The system would capture that number in an Amazon Connect Call Center deployment, as a "contact attribute' which can travel around the system as kind of a "post it" note. This note could be seen by all who interact with the caller and an agent could even update the information. Ultimately all of the telephony related information could then be transfered to the CRM system.
Call Center Integration
It is rare to find a call center that does not have an integration requirement. Sometimes the integration is with a popular CRM package like SalesForce, ZoHo, FreshDesk or SugarCRM. Sometimes the integration request is for some internal Intra-net accessible database unique to the client and their work process. In all cases, we still have to have an Agent interface to manipulate the telephone and that is where building a customized CCP or softphone interface becomes necessary. There are multiple ways to do this, but the simplest way is to create a marriage of the data sources in a single webpage served up by a simple website. basic Integration Concepts
The most popular requests are to "pop" a customer record on incoming phone call. Which Customer record? Well we can take the incoming caller ID, the number dialed (i.e. DNIS) or prompt the caller to enter some information that could be used to uniquely identify the caller. Caller ID can be helpful, but more times than note it is wrong. The contact record in your database might list the callers main company phone number, but they are calling using their cell phone or a DID number within the internals of the company. For this reason it is always more accurate to prompt the caller to enter an account number, or ticket number. The system would capture that number in an Amazon Connect Call Center deployment, as a "contact attribute' which can travel around the system as kind of a "post it" note. This note could be seen by all who interact with the caller and an agent could even update the information. Ultimately all of the telephony related information could then be transfered to the CRM system.
What is an API?
How is the information transferred to the CRM? Again that will depend on the CRM platform provider. Most of the popular CRM platforms have an 'application programming interface" that enables third party applications to perform some level of CRUD or create, read, update and delete contact records. These API's are generally of the RESTful variety, a webhook that enables an application invoking the API to POST or GET some information streaming between the two applications.Why a Custom CCP?
Generally, we want all the information the agent requires to manage the callers experience, immediately available and in a single display. Most moder systems are Browser based and that interface is basically a WebPage. In the case of Amazon Connect we can create a simple static website that lives in an Amazon S3 bucket to handle this "marriage". Below is an example of a custom CCP softphone for Amazon Connect. The website hosting this page draws from Amazon Connect and could be configured with a note filed for example. The Agent would see a lot of information about the caller when the call is presented to the Agent and the note field would enable them to add information about the phone call. Drop down lists, "disposition codes" and other related document artifacts could be added, all saved and available for further processing. Even though it has many moving parts, this is the simplest of the integration solutions.