AWS has released several improvements to its flow designer experience, which aim to make building and editing a contact center IVR even easier.
Available within Amazon Connect, the routing tool uses drag-and-drop blocks and connectors – or “branches” – to link these blocks. Companies can then configure settings for each block and create an IVR in minutes.
Yet, the new additions will shave even more time off this and allow users to build sophisticated IVR flows even quicker.
First up is its new look and feel designer canvas, as highlighted below. With updates to the appearance of blocks and the “block dock”, the solution becomes more appealing to the eye.
In addition, new color-coded connectors, improved zooming, and an updated user interface – available when selecting a block – will likely enable a more seamless design experience.
Furthermore, a new search feature and more intuitive categories – named “Check”, “Analyze”, and “Logic” – makes it easy for users to isolate the block they are looking for.
Finally, AWS has made it easier to access flow/module metadata, which now appears at the bottom of the block dock. Metadata is also available with every block, allowing users to click and expand its configurations.
These innovations will further bolster an already advanced routing solution, which embeds Amazon Polly and Lex capabilities to power next-generation IVR experiences.
Amazon Polly helps to convert text into lifelike speech – although customers can also upload audio files. Meanwhile, Amazon Lex enables call containment through cutting-edge conversational AI.
Through these features – and others – many adopters have realized several positive outcomes. Sharing an example in an interview with CX Today, Annie Weinberger, Head of Business Applications Product Marketing at AWS, stated:
lekker Energie has been able to increase the number of customers they support to over 30,000 a month by streamlining agent tasks with automated call routing and customer callbacks, and their customers have also been able to reach the right agent faster. This increased the numbers of calls per agent by eight to ten percent.
Other advanced features of Amazon Connect Flows include the ability to personalize welcome messages and address each customer by their first name. CLI recognition enables this.
It is also possible to add messages when customers meet errors/dead-ends, make out-of-hours contacts, or timeout.
In addition, users can set specific recording and analytics – including speech analytics – specifications across various call queues to gain particular insights from the subsequent conversation.
Through this analytics capacity, alongside speech recognition, users can track intent. Once the intent is recognized, the routing tool may pass the conversation to Amazon Lex to automate specific conversations. Alternatively, the contact may pass through various contact center queues, which can be “live” during specified times.
Finally, users can turn on and off additional capabilities, including agent-intelligence routing, voice biometrics, customer profiles, and agent-assist tools.
These advancements follow updates to Amazon Connect’s agent-assist, case management, and proactive customer support capabilities, which it released this summer.
