Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice

Vonage for Service Cloud Voice integrates Vonage Contact Center (VCC) with Salesforce's Service Cloud Voice. For information about Service Cloud Voice and its benefits, see Service Cloud Voice (Salesforce help). Vonage for Service Cloud Voice enables Salesforce to deliver these benefits using VCC.

Your existing integration between Salesforce and VCC shouldn't change much and this integration continues to provide the existing benefits. Service Cloud Voice just provides a possible alternative to how Salesforce and VCC work together to provide benefit to your contact center.

You can use Service Cloud Voice with existing interaction plans, users, and contact numbers. We recommend that you review your VCC implementation to understand what changes need to be made to take advantage of Service Cloud Voice. For example, you may want to associate the objects that currently pop with the new voice call object.

In this page

Pure and hybrid modes of using Vonage for Service Cloud Voice

When you have configured your VCC account for Service Cloud Voice, you can choose for all of your agents to use SCV, or for some to still use ContactPad with the VCC and Salesforce integration. The different modes are:

  • Pure. All of your VCC agents are using Service Cloud Voice.
  • Hybrid. Some your VCC agents are using Service Cloud Voice and some are using ContactPad with the VCC and Salesforce integration.

The following features are available in the different modes:

FeaturePureHybrid
SCV Voice Call object creation for voice calls(tick)(tick)
Task creation for voice calls(error)(tick)
Presence mapping from SCV to VCC(tick)

(question)

Presence mapping doesn't work in both modes at the same time. For more information see the Presence mapping between SCV and VCC section later in this page.

Features

If SCV is enabled and you have configured your VCC account, agents can use many SCV features including the following:

Making and receiving calls

Using SCV, agents can make and receive calls.

To make an outbound call using SCV, an agent can click a phone number in a Salesforce record, or they can enter the phone number in the Omni-Channel utility. When the agent makes the call, VCC initiates the call to the target number.

When someone, for example a customer, makes an inbound call into VCC, VCC routes that call through the applicable interaction plan to a VCC agent. The call appears in the agent's corresponding Salesforce user's Omni-Channel utility in Salesforce.

While connected to an inbound or outbound call, an agent can work with that call in the Omni-Channel utility. The agent can mute the call, put the call on hold, record the call, or consult, transfer, or add a third party to the call for a conference. For information about making and receiving calls in SCV, see Answer and Make Calls (Salesforce help).

Consulting, transferring, and conferencing (or merging) calls

When using SCV with VCC, agents can consult, transfer, and merge calls.

While on call, an agent can add another agent to consult with them about the call. To do so, the agent clicks Add Caller and selects an agent from the presented list. (Agents in the presented list are Salesforce users, all of whom are linked to agents in VCC.) This puts the original call on hold while the original agent is connected to the agent chosen from the list. The original agent can then perform one of the following actions:

  • Swap between original call and consult.
  • End the consult.
  • Perform a warm transfer to the other agent (by leaving the call themselves).
  • Combine the original call with the consult. Combining the calls is known as merging in SCV — merging is called conferencing in VCC.

Agents can also consult with an external number. To do so, the agent clicks Add Caller, then — instead of selecting an agent — clicks Keypad and enters a number to consult with. This puts the original call on hold while the original agent is connected to the external number. The agent can then perform the same actions as if they were consulting with an agent.

Alternatively, the agent can consult with a VCC interaction plan — or, more specifically, a VCC agent servicing the interaction plan — or transfer (warm or cold) to an interaction plan. To do so, the agent clicks Add Caller and selects an interaction plan from the presented list. This puts the original call on hold while the original agent is connected to the interaction plan. The agent can either hang up to perform a cold transfer to the interaction plan, or wait to be connected to an agent to consult. If the agent waits to be connected, on connection, the original agent can perform the same tasks as described for a consult to agent earlier in this section.

For information about consulting, transferring, and merging calls, see Add Callers or Transfer Calls (Salesforce help).

Vonage Contact Center and Vonage Business Communications integration

If your VCC and VBC accounts are integrated, agents can consult with VBC users in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice as they would any other agent. They can transfer calls to VBC users, or merge original and consult calls as described previously.

For information about VCC and VBC integration, see Vonage Contact Center and Vonage Business Communications integration.

To integrate your VCC and VBC account and enable agents to consult with VBC users, see Configuring Vonage Contact Center and Vonage Business Communications integration.

Vonage Contact Center and Microsoft Teams integration

If your VCC and Microsoft Teams organization are integrated, agents can consult with Teams users in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice  as they would any other agent. They can transfer calls to Teams users, or merge original and consult calls as described previously.

For information about VCC and Microsoft Teams integration, see Vonage Contact Center and Microsoft Teams integration.

To integrate your VCC account and your Microsoft Teams organization and enable agents to consult with Teams users, see Configuring your Vonage Contact Center and Microsoft Teams integration.

For information about consulting and transferring calls to Teams users in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, see With Vonage Contact Center and Microsoft Teams integration in Consulting, transferring, and conferencing (or merging) calls in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Transcription

If SCV is enabled for your account, Vonage transcribes an agent's calls if transcription is enabled for that agent and if their calls are recorded. Transcription turns the customer's and the agent's speech into text in real time. During a call, the transcript appears in the call's voice call record so the agent can view transcription text alongside customer data.

Vonage uses the Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API to transcribe the calls. Vonage can therefore transcribe calls in all the languages that the API supports. For a list of supported languages, see Language support (Google help). Vonage transcribes calls in your account's default language, unless the default language is overridden for an individual call. For information about overriding the default language for calls, see the Overriding the transcription language for individual calls section in Setting up call transcription in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice in VCC.

Transcription with taking payments in SCV

Using SCV an agent can take a payment using VCC's payment solution. Depending on the implementation, payments may involve transferring a customer to an interaction plan in VCC. In this case, after the payment is made, the agent and customer can be reconnected if required. When reconnected, if the agent later clicks to consult with another agent or interaction plan, transcription of the call will stop. The call itself will continue and the agent can continue to consult with — and optionally transfer the call to — a third party, or return to the customer.

For information about VCC's payment solutions, see Payments in Vonage Contact Center.

External Routing

If you have integrated VCC with Salesforce external routing, when interactions arrive in Salesforce, Salesforce delegates routing decisions to mapped interaction plans in VCC. Where configured, Salesforce uses VCC to route chats, cases, and messages (for example, WhatsApp messages) alongside phone calls.

When using Salesforce with external routing and SCV, in addition to phone calls, agents can transfer the following interaction types:

  • Chats. Agents use the transfer button in the chat interface to transfer chats to any of the following:
    • A user

      Agents can transfer chats to any Salesforce user in the presented list, some of whom may be linked to agents in VCC.

    • A chat button

      The selected chat button transfers the chat to a Salesforce queue.
    • A Salesforce queue

    • A Salesforce skill
  • Cases. Agents can transfer cases by changing the case owner to one of the following:

    • A user

      Agents can transfer chats to any Salesforce user in the presented list, some of whom may be linked to agents in VCC.

      Due to a Salesforce limitation, when a case is transferred to another agent, the new agent will not receive an item in the Omni-Channel utility. However, the case's owner will be changed to the agent and, if configured in Salesforce, the agent will receive a notification email.

    • A Salesforce queue

Transferring to a Salesforce queue

Agents can transfer a chat or a case to a Salesforce queue, either by selecting the queue directly or by selecting a chat button. If the queue uses external routing, Salesforce will route the chat to the mapped interaction plan in VCC. The interaction plan can tag the transferred case with required skills and deliver it to the most appropriate agent.

For information about integrating VCC with Salesforce external routing, see Configuring Salesforce external routing for Vonage Contact Center.

Omni-Channel flow routing

When using SCV with VCC, you can delegate routing decisions for inbound calls into VCC to Salesforce's Omni-Channel flows. When configured, VCC notifies Salesforce about applicable inbound calls. Salesforce then uses an Omni-Channel flow to determine which interaction plans or agents VCC should route the calls to next. You can optionally configure the flow to pop multiple records when routing the calls.

For information about configuring VCC to use Salesforce Omni-Channel flows to make routing decisions, see Configuring Vonage Contact Center to use Salesforce Omni-Channel flows.

Presence mapping between SCV and VCC

Salesforce user presences and VCC agent states are synchronized in Salesforce and VCC.

This means that when a Salesforce user's presence changes in the Omni-Channel widget or utility within Salesforce, VCC updates the state of the corresponding agent in VCC. Conversely, when a VCC agent's state changes within VCC, the presence of the corresponding Salesforce user is updated. (This applies to both automatic and manual Salesforce presence and VCC state changes.) The presences and states change based on the mappings configured in VCC.

This ensures that VCC and Salesforce don't assign calls to Salesforce users and VCC agents who aren't available. It also means that VCC is able to report on the agent's activity within Dashboards and other reporting features. For information about mapping Salesforce presence statuses to and from VCC agent states, see Mapping Salesforce user presences to and from VCC agent states for Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Presence updates when using Vonage for Service Cloud Voice in hybrid mode

When presence updates are enabled for SCV, updates will only happen for agents using SCV. Presence updates will not work for agents who use ContactPad with the VCC and Salesforce integration.

Sales Engagement

If you use Sales Engagement (previously known as High Velocity Sales (HVS)) in your Salesforce organization, you can use Sales Engagement features with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice. Agents can use SCV to progress prospects through existing Sales Engagement cadences.

For information about Sales Engagement, see Sales Engagement (Salesforce help).

After-conversation work

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can benefit from After Conversation Work, a feature in Salesforce. Most calls require work after the call ends — for example, sending an email, writing some notes, or updating a case. The After Conversation Work feature enables supervisors to set and manage the amount of time agents spend on work after a conversation. This tells agents roughly how much time to spend on tasks. Supervisors can optionally allow agents to extend this time.

For information about After Conversation Work, see Set and Track After Conversation Work Time (Generally Available) (Salesforce help) and Wrap Up After a Call (Salesforce help).

Timeouts for wrap states

Timeouts for wrap states in VCC must be longer than after-conversation work time in Salesforce — if you give agents the ability to extend their after-conversation work time in Salesforce, make sure you also include this time. This will ensure that the agent is not in a ready state in VCC before they have finished their after-conversation work in Salesforce. If the agent is in a ready state in VCC, VCC may assign an interaction to them before they are ready in Salesforce.

You can configure timeouts for wrap states in various areas within VCC:

  • Outbound call timeouts

    • Account level in Configuration (Account Settings). You should also leave the agent's state after wrap unchanged. For information, see Outbound Wrap-Up Time and Post wrap state/Post call state in Editing Configuration (Account Settings).

    • User level in User Admin. For information, see Outbound Wrap Timeout in Configuring individual users
  • Inbound call timeouts
    • Group level in User Admin for inbound calls routed by an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) applet using longest waiting behavior. For information, see Maximum time in wrap state (s) in Configuring groups.
    • Call level in Interaction Architect for inbound calls routed by a Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet using skills based behavior. You should also leave the agent's state after wrap unchanged. For information, see Wrap timeout (seconds) and State after wrap in Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet.

Desk phone support

Desk phone support in Salesforce enables SCV users to alternate the type of phones they can receive calls on. In SCV, phones are categorized as:

  • 'Softphones', such as WebRTC
  • 'Desk Phones'. Desk phones include:
    • Desk phones
    • Mobile phones
    • Any other phones that use a direct inward dialing (DID), or direct dial-in (DDI), number  such as Vonage Business Communications (VBC).

  Users can set the phone number to use with their 'Desk phone'. Phone numbers must be in E.164 format, which includes the country code. For information about telephone numbers in E.164 format, see Telephone number formats in Vonage Contact Center in Salesforce.

The user doesn't need to rely on an administrator to make these changes for them. 

Known Salesforce limitation

If the user changes their phone type, they must refresh the web page to re-enable the call controls.

For information about desk phone support in Service Cloud Voice, see Use Desk Phones with Service Cloud Voice (Generally Available) (Salesforce help).

Queued callbacks

When using SCV with VCC, you can configure and use queued callbacks in the same way as you would in VCC. Callbacks appear in the Omni-Channel widget like a normal call. The voice call record shows that it is of type "Callback" so that agents know what type of call they are working with.

For information about the queued callbacks feature and how to configure it, see Queued callbacks and Setting up queued callbacks.

Known Salesforce limitation

When an agent, who is using a desk phone, picks up their phone to answer a queued callback, they will hear ringing until the customer answers the call. However, the queued callback call appears immediately to be in the Connected state. During this time, the agent cannot hang up the call. Controlling the call is possible only when the agent is connected to the customer.

Callback numbers

Prefix-based callback numbers

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Salesforce to present a callback number based on the prefix of the number that an agent dialed. For example, when making an outbound call to a geographical number, a callback number from the same geographical region can be automatically selected and then presented. For information about configuring prefix-based callback numbers, see Configuring automatic call recording and callback numbers with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Field-based callback numbers

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Salesforce to present a callback number based on a field within a record that the agent wants to dial. For example, a contact is in a geographical region that is different to the agent's. Based on the Location field on the contact record, agents can present a number corresponding to that region. For more information about configuring field-based callback numbers, see Configuring automatic call recording and callback numbers with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Field-based callback numbers

The configuration only applies when the agent makes a call using Click to dial.

Apex-based callback numbers

When using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Apex code to determine the callback number that is presented when an agent makes an outbound call. For information about configuring Apex-based callback numbers, see Automating callback numbers for Click to dial using Apex.

Manual callback number selection

When using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice to make an outbound call, an agent can select the callback number to display from a list in their Omni-Channel widget. Only callback numbers made available to the agent in User Admin will be displayed, plus -- Default -- and -- Auto --. For information about configuring callback numbers, see How do I define callback numbers for an agent user? in Configuring individual users.

Manually selecting a specific callback number overrides any other callback number configuration that may have been set up, such as field- or prefix-based callback numbers.

Selecting -- Auto -- in the list will use the field- or prefix-based mappings already configured.

Automatic call recording for outbound calls

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can determine whether to automatically record outbound calls and which participants to include in the recording based on the prefix of the number that an agent dialed or on the value in the record that contains the dialed number.

Prefix-based call recording

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Salesforce to record a call based on the prefix of the number that an agent dialed. You can also choose whether to record all participants or only the agent, or you can use the default settings for your account for which participants to record. For example, when making an outbound call to a specific geographical number, the call will be recorded. For information about configuring prefix-based call recording, see Configuring automatic call recording and callback numbers with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Field-based call recording

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Salesforce to record a call based on a field within a record that the agent wants to dial. You can also choose whether to record all participants or only the agent, or you can use the default settings for your account for which participants to record. For example, based on the value of the Location field on the contact record, the call may or may not be recorded. For more information about configuring field-based call recording, see Configuring automatic call recording and callback numbers with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Field-based callback numbers

The configuration only applies when the agent makes a call using Click to dial.

Apex-based call recording

When using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure Apex code to determine whether or not to record an outbound call and which participants to include in the recording. For information about configuring Apex-based call recording, see Configuring automatic call recording for outbound calls using Apex with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Interaction monitoring

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can configure a user with permission to monitor interactions. Having permission to monitor interactions means that the user is able to listen-in to and join agents' calls. In listen-in mode, the monitoring user can only hear the call and is not able to join the call as an active participant, whereas in join mode, the monitoring user can join the conversation and all participants can talk to each other. For information about monitoring interactions, see Configuring interaction monitoring in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice and Monitoring interactions in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Post unexpected or fault states

When using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, unexpected or fault states in VCC are grouped together with other busy states and are mapped to the same busy presence status in Salesforce. An interaction that ended in an unexpected or fault state will therefore look the same as a successful inbound or outbound interaction. The agent that the interaction was routed to cannot see in their Omni-Channel widget or utility that they are in an unexpected or fault state.

When the unexpected or fault state times out, the agent's state changes, by default, to a ready state. This ready state will be mapped a ready presence status in the Omni-Channel widget or utility. Again, the presence status will not indicate that there was a problem with the previous interaction.

To show that the agent was in an unexpected or fault state in the Omni-Channel widget or utility, you must override the default settings and present a more meaningful presence status. To do this, you should perform the following tasks:

  • Firstly, you should configure the timeout for unexpected or fault states to 1 second so that the agent's state changes as soon as possible. For information about configuring timeouts for groups of, or individual, users, see Max Unexpected in Configuring groups or various timeouts in Configuring individual users.
  • Next you must set the state after the timeout to an appropriate state in VCC — you may need to create a new custom VCC state for this purpose. For information about configuring the state that an agent is in after their unexpected or fault state times out, see Changing post unexpected and fault state. For information about creating custom states, see Configuring agent states.
  • Finally, map the VCC state to an appropriate presence status in Salesforce — again, you may need to create a new custom Salesforce presence status for this purpose. For information about mapping VCC states to Salesforce presence statuses, see Integrating with Salesforce Omni-Channel presence. For information about creating custom Salesforce presence statuses, see the Create presence statuses section in Configuring Salesforce external routing for Vonage Contact Center.

Connect (dialer) for Service Cloud Voice

Connect (dialer) embedded in Salesforce is a core part of the Vonage Contact Center platform. It enables a supervisor to create lists of contacts that they want agents to call directly from within Salesforce. For more information about Connect, see Connect.

With Service Cloud Voice, when an agent makes a call using Connect, Service Cloud Voice creates a voice call record instead of a task record. That voice call record that can be related with an account, case, contact, lead, or opportunity record. 

Limitations

  • Progressive dialing is not yet supported in Connect for Service Cloud Voice.
  • Service Cloud Voice can only relate voice calls with account, case, contact, lead, or opportunity records. If your dial lists are built from different record types, such as tasks, by default the voice call cannot be related to the popped record using the Related Record field on the voice call. For information about working around this, see Configuring Connect (dialer) with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

For information about configuring and using Connect for Service Cloud Voice, see Configuring Connect (dialer) with Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice and Making calls with Connect (dialer) in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice in Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Download debug information

Service Cloud Voice relies on Salesforce and Vonage communicating successfully. Occasionally there may be an issue with communication due to, for example, network issues. To help with such issues, Salesforce allows Vonage to log messages from our Service Cloud Voice connector. The agent can then download these logged messages as a text file and share as required. For information about downloading debug information, see Downloading debug information in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Voicemail drop

When using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, agents can leave voice messages for customers or prospects. Agents can upload and manage messages they want to leave for customers and then drop the messages during a call.

For information about configuring voicemail drop in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, see Configuring voicemail drop in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.
For information about using voicemail drop in Service Cloud Voice, see Using voicemail drop in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Intended states

The intended state feature in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice allows agents to set the presence status they want to be in when their current call ends. If the feature is enabled for your account, the Omni-Channel agent's presence status selector remains usable during a call.

For information about changing presence status while on a call, see Changing presence status while on a call (setting intended state) in Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice.

Conversation intelligence and next best action

Using Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice, you can benefit from Conversation Intelligence, a Salesforce feature. 

Admin users can create rules that trigger Salesforce actions, such as suggesting the next best action. When an agent or customer speaks a keyword configured in the rule, a Next Best Action is presented to the agent. For information about Conversation Intelligence, see Reduce Agent Handling Time with Conversation Intelligence (Salesforce help).

Limitation

Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice has the following limitations:

  • Call controls: Mute and DTMF digits are only supported for agents using WebRTC.
  • Agents cannot use DTMF to warm transfer interactions to an interaction plan. You must clear the Allow DTMF Transfer check box in interaction plans that agents can transfer interactions to.
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