Flow block: Send message

Description

• Use this flow block to send a message to your customer based on a message you specify.

Use cases for this block

This flow block is designed to be used in the following scenarios:

• Deflect customers to an SMS contact when your voice queue wait time is longer than expected. For example, configuring an IVR prompt with a message like “Our current voice queue wait time is 10 minutes. Instead of waiting, we can text you via SMS instead. Press 1 to initiate an SMS conversation.”, along with the Send message block, can deflect customers from waiting in a voice queue to an immediate SMS conversation.

• Send survey SMS messages as soon as your customer disconnects from a voice or chat contact. For example, using this block you can send a quick survey with a message like, "Thank you for your time today. On a scale of 1 to 5, how did we do?" or send a link to a your survey web page.

• Initiate outbound SMS contacts in response to a case or status update that your customers can reply to and ask for more details.

Contact types

Contact type	Supported?
Voice	Yes
Chat	Yes
Task	Yes

Flow types

You can use this block in the following flow types:

Flow type	Supported?
Inbound flow	Yes
Customer queue flow	Yes
Customer hold flow	Yes
Customer whisper flow	Yes
Outbound whisper flow	Yes
Agent hold flow	Yes
Agent whisper flow	Yes
Transfer to agent flow	Yes
Transfer to queue flow	Yes
Disconnect flow	Yes

Required permissions

To configure this block to send SMS, you need the following permission on your security profile:

• Channels and flows > Phone numbers > View: To view the drop-down menu of phone numbers.

If you don't have this permission, you can still set the property dynamically. If a phone number has been set manually already on the block, and you view the block without the View permission, you'll still be able to see that resource, just not the list of resources in the dropdown menu.

How to configure this block

You can configure the Send message block by using the Amazon Connect admin website or by using the StartOutboundChatContact action in the Amazon Connect Flow language.

Send an SMS (text message)

The following image shows the Send message properties page when it's configured to send an SMS message.

Configure the following properties on the page to send an SMS message:

• From: The phone number that the message is to be sent from. The dropdown menu shows a list of phone numbers that are claimed for your Amazon Connect instance.

  • Set manually: Use the dropdown menu to search for a phone number that has been claimed to your Amazon Connect instance.

    You must have the required permission in your security profile to view the dropdown list of templates.

  • Set dynamically: Accepts an attribute based on a Namespace and Key that points to an ARN of a phone number that has been claimed by your Amazon Connect instance.

• To: The phone number that the message is to be sent to.

  • Set manually: Enter the customer's phone number. This is where the SMS message will be sent. You can enter only one phone number. This is useful for testing the block.

  • Set dynamically: Accepts an attribute based on a Namespace and Key that is a phone number string the SMS is sent to. This must be in E.164 format.

• Message: The message that will be sent to the customer.

  • An SMS template is a complete SMS message structure that contains only plain text. It provides the entire response or notification to the customer.

    You must have the required permission in your security profile to view the dropdown list of templates.

  • Use text: Send a plain text message either Set manually by typing one in or Set dynamically by adding an attribute based on a Namespace and Key.

    Note

    Message accepts plain text (including links and emojis), up to 1024 characters, including spaces.

• Flow: The Amazon Connect flow that will handle the outbound contact created. This flow can be used to assign the outbound contact to an agent to respond to the customer.

  • Set manually: Use the drop-down menu to choose from a list of published flows.

  • Set dynamically: Accepts an attribute based on a Namespace and Key that points to a flow ARN.

• Link to contact: This property gives you the option to link the outbound contact that is created to the inbound contact that initiated the flow. In some situations, you may not want to link the outbound contact that is created to avoid repetitive contact associations.

  • This property gives you the option to link the outbound SMS contact to the inbound contact that initiated the flow.

    In some situations, you may not want to link the contact to avoid sending repetitive outbound SMS messages. For example, if the flow is configured to send the customer the message Thank you for your message! We will get back to you within 24 hours. every time you receive a contact.