Author: DrVoIP

Peter S. Buswell (aka DrVoIP) is a rare blend of C-level executive leadership and deep technical expertise in telecommunications and cloud infrastructure. With a career that began at AT&T in 1970, he has founded and led multiple industry-defining companies, including Dextr.Cloud—acquired by AWS Global Partner CloudHesive. Peter has held senior roles at firms like Exxon Enterprises, Intervoice/Brite, and Franklin Telecommunications, and has consistently driven innovation from traditional PBX to Amazon Connect cloud deployments. A hands-on architect with certifications from Cisco (CCNP/CCDP, UCCX/UCCE) and AWS (Solutions Architect, Developer, SysOps), he combines strategic vision with engineering precision. Known as DrVoIP, he continues to bridge the gap between enterprise goals and technical execution in today’s evolving cloud communications landscape.

2025 DrVoIP Contact Center Planning Guide!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Rethinking Your Amazon Connect Contact Center: Start with the Experience, Not the Technology

When planning a new Amazon Connect contact center, the temptation is to jump straight into the technology — menus, routing profiles, integrations. But the truth is, great contact centers start with the caller’s journey, not the IVR script.

If your plan is to copy the same call tree you built a decade ago, you’re missing the opportunity to create a modern, frictionless customer experience. Today’s customers expect faster resolutions, smarter routing, and a personal touch — not endless menu options.

That’s where the DrVoIP Amazon Connect Planning Guide comes in. It walks you through the critical questions that must be answered before a single line of code is written or a design spec is handed to the implementation engineers. Questions about:

  • How will calls, chats, and messages be routed based on customer needs?
  • What self-service options make sense — and where should live agents step in?
  • How will you measure success from day one?

As an Amazon Certified Delivery Partner, DrVoIP brings the expertise to turn your vision into a contact center that’s on time, on budget, and delivering the highest customer satisfaction scores.



Want the full Planning Guide? We’re offering the DrVoIP Amazon Connect Planning Guide free of charge.

Just contact Grace@DrVoIP.com, call, or textto get your copy.

Why Your Website and Call Center Should Be Besties: The Amazon Connect Love Story!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Ever feel like your website and call center are two ships passing in the night? One’s all flashy and interactive, the other’s stuck in a queue playing elevator music. Well, buckle up, because integrating them with Amazon Connect is like giving them a matchmaking app – sparks fly, efficiency soars, and your customers? They’re the ones getting the happy ending!

The Perks of Playing Matchmaker

Picture this: A customer lands on your site, browses your killer products, but hits a snag. Instead of rage-quitting to a competitor, they click a chat button and – poof! – instant help. No more “hold please” nightmares. With Amazon Connect, you get:

  • Seamless Chat Integration: Start with text-based chit-chat right on your site. It’s like whispering sweet nothings to your customers without the awkward small talk.
  • Escalation Shenanigans: Chat not cutting it? Escalate to voice, video, or even desktop sharing. Imagine screen-sharing a troubleshooting session – it’s like having a virtual IT genie pop out of your browser!
  • AI-Powered Wit: Our AWS Lex bots handle the basics, answering product queries with the charm of a stand-up comedian. “What’s the warranty on that widget?” Boom, answered faster than you can say “human agent.” Only escalate when things get real – saving time, money, and sanity.

The benefits? Happier customers who feel heard (literally), lower abandonment rates, and agents freed up for the tough stuff. It’s not just integration; it’s a full-on bromance between digital and human touchpoints.

How DrVoIP Makes the Magic Happen

At DrVoIP, we’re the wizards behind Amazon Connect deployments. We weave in AWS AI to make your Lex bot smarter than your average bear – or at least smarter than that one uncle who thinks he’s tech-savvy. From chat to video escalation, we ensure your setup is as smooth as a well-oiled meme machine. No more siloed systems; everything chats, calls, and collaborates like they’re at a family reunion (minus the drama).

Wrap It Up: Don’t Leave Your Site Hanging

Integrating your website with your call center via Amazon Connect isn’t just smart – it’s hilarious how much easier life gets. Customers get help without the hassle, your team avoids burnout, and your bottom line? It does a happy dance. Ready to play cupid? Demo by clicking the chat icon below or Hit us up at DrVoIP.com – we’ll connect the dots (and the calls)!

“Pick and Park” feature?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Pick & Park™ for Amazon Connect – Finally, Real Agent Call Control

Amazon Connect is amazing – but sometimes, agents need more control than a routing flow can provide.

That’s why we created Pick & Park™, a pair of features designed by DrVoIP to give agents the power to:

  • See who’s waiting in queue – and choose the right caller
  • Park any live call – and return to it later without losing context
  • Toggle between multiple calls – like a trading desk or dispatcher

What is Pick & Park™?

Pick lets agents view all waiting contacts in real time and click to answer a specific one. This is ideal for VIP customers, repeat callers, or when judgment matters more than FIFO logic.

Park enables agents to place a call into a “staged” state – not HOLD, but a true pause – so they can answer another call, then return to the original conversation when ready. Think of it as call juggling without the chaos.

Together, they form CallBoard™ – a single-agent control dashboard that works with your existing Amazon Connect instance.

Why This Matters

Most Amazon Connect deployments rely entirely on flows and automation. That’s great for scaling – but what about when a human agent needs to act like a human?

Call escalation teams, sales desks, healthcare triage, and dispatch centers all need tools to:

  • Pick the right call at the right moment
  • Switch between calls in progress
  • Park a call while researching or collaborating

🚀 Now Available: CallBoard™ – Built by DrVoIP

Pick & Park™ lives inside CallBoard™, our new agent dashboard designed to extend Amazon Connect functionality without changing your flows.

No rip-and-replace. No complex setup. No need to modify routing profiles. We deploy in under a day.

🎬 Watch the Live Demo:

This short video shows:

  • Real calls entering the queue
  • Agents using Pick & Park™ to control call flow
  • Live toggling between parked calls
  • All powered by Amazon Connect

Pick & Park™ lives inside CallBoard™, our new agent dashboard designed to extend Amazon Connect functionality without changing your flows.

No rip-and-replace. No complex setup. No need to modify routing profiles. We deploy in under a day.

Live Demo Video Coming Soon! We’ll walk you through a working version of CallBoard™, showing live calls entering queue, being picked by agents, parked, and returned – all without breaking the Amazon Connect model.

Use Cases

  • VIP Queue Monitoring – Prioritize high-value contacts manually
  • Escalation Handling – Park and rejoin calls while gathering solutions
  • Trading Desk / Buy-Sell – Switch between multiple parties in real time
  • Dispatch Centers – Queue scanning and fast response to critical contacts
  • Tech Support – Move between sessions without losing context

How to Get It

We’re currently offering Pick & Park™ as a deployable solution for Amazon Connect environments.

Want to see it in your instance? Reach out and we’ll spin up a live demo.

Or visit our Contact Page to request a walkthrough.

Amazon Connect Pick a Caller from Queue?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Would You Let Agents “Cherry Pick” Callers from the Queue?

Not everyone agrees with the idea—but in some situations, allowing agents to “cherry pick” callers can save time and improve the customer experience.

By default, Amazon Connect routes callers to the next available agent. It does not ring all agents simultaneously, and it certainly doesn’t allow agents to choose who they want to speak with.

But what if they could?

A Real-World Use Case

Imagine you’re a technician supporting a customer base using your company’s High-Tech Shiny Gadget. Most callers aren’t very technical. You do your best to walk them through a solution, but sometimes, they need to go back and do “homework”—check which cable is plugged in, see which light is blinking, etc.

They hang up, go do the homework, and call back. But now they’re speaking with a different technician, who has to start from scratch—even if you’re using Amazon Connect Cases or another ticket system.

This is inefficient. It frustrates the customer and wastes valuable technical support time.

Enter “Cherry Picking”

What if the original technician could see that the customer is calling back and simply pluck them from the queue? No rerouting, no retelling the story—just seamless, contextual support.

While you might have a way to route calls by extension number, most contact centers aren’t set up that way. That’s where cherry picking comes in.

Watch the Demo

In the video below (Part 9 of our Amazon Connect 2025 Refresh Series), we walk through:

  • How to configure cherry picking in Amazon Connect
  • What resources are required
  • Key recommendations and potential pitfalls
  • A full demonstration of the solution in action

If you’re curious how this could work in your call center—or you want help building it—contact us at DrVoIP.

Campaign Dialer History and the Current State of the Art in Amazon Connect

Posted on by DrVoIP

A Brief History

Amazon Connect was introduced in 2017 as a revolutionary, cloud-native contact center solution from AWS. That same year, DrVoIP installed its first Amazon Connect instance for a paying client. Having decades of experience building call center solutions with platforms like Cisco, we had developed a clear set of expectations for what a modern contact center should offer.

Initially, Amazon Connect lacked a native campaign dialer, a core requirement for outbound calling environments like telemarketing. This gap limited its early adoption in outbound-heavy verticals. While third-party integrations existed, our goal was to deliver a one-vendor solution built entirely on AWS.

Building with StartOutboundVoiceContact

In the absence of a native campaign dialer, early adopters had to get creative. The StartOutboundVoiceContact API enabled basic outbound calling, but required architects to develop extensive backend logic using Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, and Connect flows.

DrVoIP built a foundational DIY dialer framework, managing contact lists, pacing logic, retries, and reporting through custom code. It worked—but was resource intensive and fragile under scale.

Third-Party Solutions Fill the Gap

As Amazon Connect gained traction, third-party dialer providers stepped in. Platforms from VoiceFoundry, Xaqt, and others offered robust outbound functionality, but came with additional costs, integration complexity, and vendor management burdens—contrary to AWS’s promise of simplicity and scalability.

The Arrival of Campaign Dialer V1

AWS quietly released Campaign Dialer V1, leveraging Amazon Pinpoint as the backend. It introduced basic campaign capabilities, including email, SMS, and voice. However, it suffered from major limitations:

  • No agent-aware dialing logic.
  • Lack of built-in retry policies.
  • Every contact was pushed to Customer Profiles, bloating CRM databases with unqualified leads.
  • Minimal real-time reporting or call disposition visibility.

V1 was a step forward, but it wasn’t production-grade for enterprise outbound needs.

Campaign Dialer V2: A Mature Offering

Campaign Dialer V2 brought substantial improvements:

  • Integrated directly with Amazon Connect, eliminating reliance on Pinpoint.
  • Introduced progressive dialing tied to agent availability.
  • Allowed custom retry logic and contact attribute handling.
  • Accepted CSV and API-based campaign data ingestion.
  • Empowered dynamic screen pops and routing via contact flows.

Despite these advancements, challenges remain:

  • Limited out-of-the-box analytics.
  • Inflexible call recording controls.
  • No native lead scoring or prioritization tools.

The Road Ahead: Event-Driven and AI-Powered Campaigns

We anticipate a future where outbound engagement in Amazon Connect is:

  • Event-triggered using Amazon EventBridge.
  • AI-enhanced via Amazon Bedrock or SageMaker.
  • Dynamically paced based on real-time Connect Streams API data.
  • Seamlessly integrated with Lex bots and CRM systems.

Why DrVoIP?

At DrVoIP LLC, we’ve led the evolution of Amazon Connect since day one. As an AWS Partner focused exclusively on contact center innovation, we:

  • Deliver on time, on budget deployments.
  • Maintain top-tier customer satisfaction scores.
  • Specialize in outbound campaigns, AI integrations, and real-time analytics.

Let’s build your next-gen contact center together.

📞 www.drvoip.com
📧 contactcenter@drvoip.com

Would you answer a call from a toll free number?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Campaign Dialer Feature Request?

We are often asked to comment on how to increase answer rates on cold calls.   Calls either made manually by an Agent in an outbound contact center, or an auto dialer or campaign dialer.   Generally, in the era of smartphones, we generally reject calls from unknown numbers and all 800. numbers are unknown!   Some of the strategies we have developed include matching the area code of the number we are calling.  If we are calling someone with a 212 area code, we present a 212 area code in our outbound number.  Not fool proof, but it does increase the answer rate.   Historically, sip trunks were used to fake outbound caller id.  It was a simple trick to make it appear that Bill Clinton was calling you!  Now, with calling number ID restrictions, it is much more difficult to “fake” caller id and you must use a number that you actually own!

If you cant match the area code with a number you have, the second strategy is almost effective.  Do not use a toll free number!  Use a DID number and even though it may not be known by the individual being called, it peeks enough curiosity to have the call answered.   Generally, Amazon Connect will not allow you to present a caller ID that is not a phone number on your contact center.   AWS has made an accommodation, by allowing you to display a caller id  in which you have provided documentation that supports your ownership of the number.  In that case, even though the number is not directly on your contact center, they will let you display it on an outbound call.

Lambda and Dynamodb to the Rescue!

To accommodate the change of caller id on an outbound call, we need to apply some software engineering.  First, we need a database of phone numbers that we legitimately own.  Index the database by area code and it is a simple task for a python function to take the number dialed, look it up, and then return it as an attribute to an Amazon Connect contact flow.  Change the default outbound contact flow, to invoke the lambda function that looks up the dialed number, and return it to a caller id  attribute that is displayed to the called party.  This simple strategy increases answer rate measurably more than using an 800 number.

Amazon Connect Campaign Dialer?

The V2 of the Amazon Connect campaign dialer is an astonishing step forward from the previous “high density outbound calling” solution.   Though there is still a requirement that non-technical managers need to have permissions in the AWS Console to configure and load lists into Pinpoint,  the V2  configuration is almost entirely accomplished through the Amazon Connect dashboard.    Generally managers of a call center would need to contact the IT team to load lists, as security concerns abbreviated  the assignment of  IAM permissions to none technical users accessing the  AWS Console!  V2 all but eliminates this concern.

Unfortunately CID is fixed!

The Lambda strategy for area code swapping discussed above, will not work with the V2 campaign dialer as of the date of this publication.   (Things move quickly in AWS, so this is subject to change, check often).   When you create a campaign you select the number the system should use to place each phone call.  We are not currently able to change that number as we can with a manually dialed number.   From our desk, this is a serious short coming in the world of campaign dialing!  The only option currently available is to divide the “list” into smaller lists segmented by area code.   This increases the administrative burden on list creation.

We are hopeful that AWS will address this market requirement while making DNC and list scrubbing an important subset of the campaign dialer feature set!

 

DrVoIP Amazon Connect Demo Center – Try it you will like it!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Amazon Connect Demo Center

We offer a complete Amazon Connect Contact center with all the bells and whistles free for you to try with up to 5 of your own team members.  We provide a dedicated phone number, a custom greeting with your company messages.  Test drive the contact center, experience the call quality and the feature set.   In less than an hour or so, we can have you setup and operational.  Click, call or email and we will get you setup, its the only way to fully understand a cloud based contact center.

Demo Feature Set

– Dedicated phone number

– Voice Inbound

– US outbound calling

– SMS

– Email

– Video and Screen sharing

– Advanced Agent Dashboard

–  Real time metrics

– Supervisor Console

– Call Recording with Transcription

Contact grace@drvoip.com or call in and talk to her!

 

Build an ai Receptionist for your call center

Posted on by DrVoIP

An ai Receptionist?

Back when vacuum tubes were still part of the computer science curriculum in most colleges, I read a book by Norber Wiener entitled “the human use of human beings”.   As the title suggested, lets free humans to do the activities that only a human can do and automate the boring, repetitive, tasks!   The Receptionist function has all but disappeared as a career option, but it is still the front door of your company.  “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”, so the function did not go away, but it has suffered with dumb “Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that” IVR systems.

Functions of a Receptionist.

Generally speaking a receptionist provides a number of functions:  Greeting and Salutation; Screen and Routing, Message Acquisition  are the most important.   How would you automated that process?   Until now, the IVR and voice mail system were the best non-human solution.   Today, with ai, the abilities of an automated attendant can be significantly enhanced to include not only those traditional functions, but can also include the ability to answer questions about the company’s product snd services.

Bedrock ai

AWS has a number of solutions from create your own LLM’s to tapping framework models that exist by other providers.  You can link an ai framework to a datasource of your own creation. In AWS this is called a “Knowledge Base”.  You can create an S3 bucket with a library of company files that include PDF and Docx files.  Optionally , you can link your KB to the company website, or any website and Bedrock will scrape the contents, store and index it for search by your ai agent!

Amazon Connect

We created an automated attendant using Bedrock and Antropic Claude V2.  This framework then indexed our website to provide a bot that can answer questions about out company product and services.    We used Lex V2 as the bot and then created a number of “intents” to meet our goal of automating the receptionist function in our company.   The video below walks your through the high points.  Click or Call if we can help you solve your ai requirements, especially if it involves a call center!  – DrVoIP

 

Enable Callers to Dial an Agent Direct?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Direct Dial and Agent?

Not every contact center wants callers to be able to dial a specific agent directly.  In fact, more times than not, it is discourage entirely.  Certain enterprises however find it a real necessity.   Customer service operations, technical support and telemedicine are good examples of service centers that would benefit by this feature.   Often in these use cases, the agent assigns some “homework” that requires the caller to hang up and go check something and call back.   We all know how frustrating it is to call into a contact center and be treated like this is the first call!  Enabling a customer to reach the same representative that they worked with in the last call is a real time saver and improves both the efficiency of the call center and satisfaction of the client!

Not a native feature for Amazon Connect

As is the case in most features in this AWS service, you will have to configure it yourself.   The provided tutorial will walk you through how to build this out (clearly we are in the business of helping you do this)!  The key components of this solution are a number of AWS services and some contact flows that support the feature:

  • Not required by helpful for voice mail,  VoiceMail Express application
  • S3 to support static website used for userAdministration
  • Cognito to protect access to the admin website
  • API Gateway to facilitate connectivity between the website and the lambda back end
  • DynamoDB to list and maintain agent extension numbers
  • Lambda functions to update and maintain user extension list
  • Clearly and Amazon Connect Contact Center!

Configuration Overview

The front end contact flow prompts the caller to enter the extension number of the representative. This is usually just an add on to your existing greeting.  For example: ” Thanks for calling our company, if you know your representatives extension number you can enter it now, or press 1 for sales or 2 for support”.   The caller will be routed through contact flows to the representatives queue and if available, directly connected. If the representative is on the phone, the caller is offered a choice to try another team member, or continue to hold.  If the representative is logged out, the caller is offered the option to try another team member of leave a voice message.

Back End Configuration

The website enables system administrators to add extension numbers to the agents defined in the contact center.   The supporting lambda functions draw form both the user database in the Amazon Connect instance and the DynamoDB table you create to provide extension number to those agents.   Cognito is recommended as a security front end to the website enabling only credentialed administrators to log in!

You can find the sample contact flows and lambda functions and HTML/Javascript for this tutorial  in the DrVoIP store!