The Salesforce Omni-Channel engine is a unified routing solution that directs incoming customer interactions to support reps across contact center channels.
However, until recently, it had a glaring gap: voice.
As such, many businesses route calls in the telephony system and digital contacts through the Salesforce Omni-Channel engine.
Not only does that make routing configurations more fiddly, but it makes channel blending across digital and voice difficult.
Thankfully, Salesforce now promises that Service Cloud can route to all channels via its Omni-Channel engine, voice included.
In doing so, it enables smoother work distribution, skill-based and direct-to-agent routing for the channel, alongside centralized configuration.
However, there is a catch: it’s only available to contact centers using Service Cloud together with Amazon Connect, with AWS supporting the behind-the-scenes.
That said, Salesforce has confirmed that it’s also working with “several” more contact center providers to eventually make this capability more widely accessible.
Wait… How Does Salesforce Voice Routing Work?
Amazon Connect initiates the call, managing the IVR flow and establishing the phone line connection.
As the call comes in, it alerts Salesforce, transmitting key data points such as IVR selections, dialled numbers, and customer responses to inform the routing process.
Salesforce Omni-Channel leverages these inputs to drive CRM-powered decisions through Unified Routing, determining the best agent match based on defined logic.
While Salesforce processes the request, Amazon Connect temporarily holds the caller in the queue to prevent delays or misroutes.
From there, the Omni-Channel engine identifies the ideal agent, considering those key data points, and communicates the selection back.
Amazon Connect then bridges the caller to that agent, completing a seamless handoff driven by real-time intelligence and a unified routing architecture.
The following video helps bring this flow to life.
Who Stands to Benefit from Unified Routing?
Unified Voice Routing is especially valuable to organizations already harnessing Salesforce Omni-Channel for digital communication, whether through chat, email, or messaging.
With all channels governed by a unified set of rules, businesses can streamline agent workflows, enhance routing consistency, and deliver a smoother customer experience without the complexity of fragmented systems.
By feeding voice into the same intelligent routing engine, teams gain tighter control over agent availability, skill-based allocation, and queue logic, all while eliminating sync delays and conflict-prone routing overlaps.
The impact goes even deeper for organisations scaling their omnichannel strategy across service and teams.
Why Is It Only Available Via Amazon Connect?
Salesforce and Amazon are close partners, with most Salesforce customers deploying its CRM solutions on the AWS cloud.
That partnership means that Amazon Connect customers will typically be the first to receive new Salesforce innovations to help better connect Service Cloud and CCaaS platforms.
However, Salesforce has always been cautious not to be seen as if it’s playing favorites. Soon after announcements like these, other CCaaS partners get the option to enable similar innovations, and several will soon release them, only a matter of months later.
Indeed, to help close this gap further, Salesforce recently announced a Bring Your Own Channel for CCaaS program, allowing numerous contact center vendors to embed their channels in Service Cloud.
For more on how this works, check out the article: Salesforce on Its New Contact Center Integration Program & the Future of Service Cloud
