How do I use the Store customer input and Get customer input flow blocks in Amazon Connect?

Resolution

To get the most out of the Amazon Connect Store customer input and Get customer input flow blocks, follow these best practices.

Route double-digit DTMF input

The Get customer input flow block allows only single-digit DTMF input. If you need to route double-digit DTMF, then use the Store customer input flow block.

Example:

"If you would like to speak to an agent, press 11 followed by the # key"

In the preceding example, to check the stored customer input, use the Check contact attribute flow block. Then, use the available contact attributes and their JSONPath references to route the call.

Configure the Store customer input block in your flow

For your flow, don't use a play prompt block directly before a Store customer input block. Amazon Connect can't capture the DTMF input that the caller provides during the play prompt block.

Use a Store customer input value in "play prompt" as digits

You can use a Store customer input prompt to store a customer's input value. When you use a play prompt to repeat the value to the customer, Amazon Connect repeats the input value as a single numerical value. To configure Amazon Connect to repeat the value as single digits, configure the prompt to use the say-as SSML tag to spell out each digit:

<say-as interpret-as="value">\[text to be interpreted\]</say-as>

For example, if you store the text in the DealerID field as a contact attribute, then use the following syntax:

<say-as interpret-as="digits">$.Attributes.DealerID</say-as>

For more information, see SSML tags supported by Amazon Connect.

Don't use termination characters

The Get customer input block accepts a single-digit input before Amazon Connect continues to the next block. The input block finishes when the dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) input is received. To avoid issues with your flow configuration, don't include a termination character.

Note: You can't use Amazon Lex or DTMF input to record or capture contact input in the same Get customer input block. You must use an additional input block.

Limit your Get customer input block text

Your Get customer input blocks have a maximum limit of 3,000 billed characters or 6,000 total characters for text input. If you include additional characters, then you receive an error.

To resolve this issue, configure a prompt to play for your customer. For more information, see How to create prompts.

Capture the customer's voice input in your contact flow

Amazon Connect doesn't have a contact flow block that can capture the customer's voice input. Instead, use the Get customer input block with Amazon Lex integration to capture and transcribe the customer's voice input. For more information, see Configure the Amazon Lex bot.

Note: You can only capture the customer's voice input in Amazon Connect with agent interaction.

Change your bot alias for Amazon Lex

Use a different bot alias for Amazon Lex instead of the default alias $LATEST. The $LATEST alias supports only a limited number of concurrent calls to an Amazon Lex bot. For more information on bot limitations, see Quotas.

Note: If you use an Amazon Lex V2 bot, then your Amazon Connect language attribute must match the language model you use to build your bot. To specify the Amazon Connect language model, use a Set voice block or a Set contact attributes block.

Capture contact information in contact flow logs

Enable Amazon Connect flow logs to capture contact information from your customers. Or, invoke an AWS Lambda function flow block. Then, store the input as a parameter and use the parameter for your flows.

Troubleshoot timeout behavior

For Store customer input blocks, if the block doesn't receive the digit within the time value that you configure, then the block timeouts. To reduce timeouts for Store customer input blocks, add a Check contact attribute block to your flow. After the customer starts to enter digits, the block waits 5 seconds for each digit. This additional time reduces timeouts.

Note: The Check contact attribute has a default value of 5 seconds. You can't change this value.

For Get customer input blocks, the block waits for the first digit to arrive. If the block doesn't receive the digit within the time value that you configure, then the block timeouts. To reduce timeouts, configure Amazon Connect to use a Loop prompt to route the Get customer input block back to itself. Or, route the timeout to a Disconnect block.