17.3.1. Switch Item App

Summary

Used for: Gives a different option on the switchboard
Container: Switchboard
Call Policy: ✔
Data Analytics Policy: ✖

Configuration Details

Each Switch Item app gives the caller a single option within the switchboard. All calls that pass through the Switchboard container are played the phrase configured into the first Switch Item, followed by the phrase in the next Switch Item in the container, each one being played in turn - as such, it is normal for numerous Switch Item apps to be placed in succession. The digit that is input in turn is then recognised by the appropriate Switch Item app and the call is routed accordingly.

Policy Type

Location

The Switch Item app is found in the Switchboard container:

Configuration

The options for this app consist of Name this item and Configure this Item:

Configure This Item

The configuration section is used to inform the caller what this particular Switch Item app is and which button should be pressed to select it.

Speech Markup can be used in this app.

Result

The apps in this container are slightly different to other apps in Routing Policies. The phrase from each app in the container is played consecutively until either all the options have been played and the call passes back to the container (as a functional container, it should have special instructions in place ion this eventuality), or until one of the apps recognises an input, which triggers it. After a call has triggered and passed through a Switch Item app, it links to a new container linked from it and the remaining Switchboard apps are not heard.

Example(s):

Use case

A switchboard container with a switch item app can be used to ask a caller questions, these can form a post call survey. This could also be used for a NPS.

How to do it

1. Start by adding a switchboard container. Add a switch item per each answer. For example, if you want to give the option to rate a caller from 1 to 5, you will need 5 switch item apps.
2. Click on the top of the switchboard (the red part), add the question in the 'Configure this item' box
   
   
3. In each switch item, configure the answers. You can customise how you want. Here are the 2 main ways of doing it:
   1. "Question: how helpful was our team at answering your questions? Please rate it between 1 and 5, 1 being the worst, 5 being the best." Each switch item is a number.
   2. "Question: how helpful was our team at answering your questions? Press 1 for very good, press 2 for good, press 3 for average, press 4 for poor and press 5 for very poor. Each switch item represents a word/phrase but the caller still needs to press a number for each option. 
4. After each switchboard, you need to record the value that the caller presses. This can be done by using a manage properties app. For each question that you ask, you will need a custom field on the call reporting object (for more info on how to do this, see our guide on reporting gates).
   1. First, create a new custom field on the call reporting object, you can name it what you want, for example: 'Survey Question 1' or 'How helpful was our team?" or "Helpfulness Score". 
   2. Now, keep the field label which is the api name minus '__c', for example 'Survey Question 1' has api name 'Survey_Question_1__c' so the field label is 'Survey_Question_1'.
   3. In the routing policy, drag out from the first switch item and add an action container with a manage properties app. 
   4. Go to the custom properties tab, add the Property as the field label, for example 'Survey_Question_1'. 
   5. Add the Value as whatever you would like to see in the reporting or on the call reporting record. For example, Value = '1' or 'Very Good'
      If you record the value as a number, you can do calculations/averages or track trends to see if agents or teams are improving. 
   6. You will need to have a manage properties app after each switch item. Use the same field but record different values against each switch item.
5. Connect all the manage properties back into the next switchboard.
6. You will need a switchboard container per question you want to ask (and also a new custom field per question).
7. When you have asked all your  
   
   
   

Top tips

• If you start with an extension, agents can either transfer to the survey (you can create a contact for it in salesforce so it's searchable) or you can have it 'Transfer After Connect' which is set from the call queue/hunt group/connect a call app.
• You need a custom (text) field on the call reporting object per question asked.
• You need to add the results to that field using a Manage Property app and a custom property. The property needs to equal the field name which is the api name without the '__c'.
• On the end of the survey you might want to add a thank you message or even a thank you text.
• All of this is customisable so change it to fit your business needs.
• You might want to query the contact/account so you can see who completed the post call survey