Kicksaw's Approach to Salesforce's Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect

This post was written by Kicksaw Principal Solution Architect Andy Szymas. 

Let’s talk telephony integration. Specifically, Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect (SCV/AC). At Kicksaw, we love to flex our Salesforce consultancy muscles to pair clients with solutions and tools that fit their needs (and that they like to use), and our SCV/AC user base has been steadily growing in recent months. 

This blog will give information about why telephony integration with your Salesforce CRM is important — as well as details about what SCV/AC is, its challenges, and some of the ways we’ve approached setting it up for clients — with examples of how it can be used to address common use cases and pain points.

Telephony Integration and Solutions like SCV/AC: Why They’re Important 

Any time you have disconnected systems you’re missing out on vital information, introducing more opportunities for human error and data discrepancies, and creating additional steps for process completion (i.e., swivel chair processes). These inefficiencies add up when managers and users are toggling between your organization’s:

• Call center solution 
• Call tracking software
• CRM
• Spreadsheets used for tracking 

Telephony integration and solutions like SCV/AC are important because they help avoid these issues, and build a better understanding of your business and processes. It also unlocks use cases associated with strategic value drivers. For example, Service Cloud Voice and telephony integration capabilities like recorded transcripts, smart workflows, and centralized case management impact KPIs that are linked to drivers like:

• Improved reporting
• Optimized employee productivity
• Maximized customer growth potential

Who should prioritize this type of integration? It’s particularly useful for organizations with contact centers — becoming exponentially more so depending on the size, maturity, and nature of your operations. This includes organizations that:

• Receive inbound calls with revenue impact or potential
• Offer urgent response services
• Handle a large volume of inbound calls
• Want to contextualize information associated with this channel of communication
• Want to understand interactions to improve and expedite routing for faster workflows
• Are experiencing rapid growth 

Telephony integration is also a key factor when it comes to successful digital engagement and should be considered when planning any omni-channel, digital engagement strategy. 

What is Salesforce Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect?

SCV/AC is one of the more unique Salesforce products in the ecosystem. A telephony model inside of Service Cloud, SCV/AC is an incredibly useful solution, as it allows you to create a contact center and take/make phone calls within Salesforce. 

• For reps, this means being able to make a call directly from a record in Salesforce. 
• For managers, it ensures that calls are always reportable and trackable

SCV/AC is a native Salesforce product, meaning it’s able to utilize Salesforce’s omni-channel functionality to connect to and integrate with the Amazon Connect telephony platform. While there are several options when it comes to telephony, SCV/AC is a popular option for folks across a variety of industries because it ticks the boxes for any organization needing a reliable phone call service that interacts directly with Salesforce. 

SCV/AC is well suited for organizations that are:

• Using or transitioning to using Salesforce as their CRM
• Looking to move to a more robust solution and improve contact center capabilities
• Standardizing their telephony solutions across several contact centers

This solution certainly has its challenges, though. Both Amazon Connect and Service Cloud are incredibly customizable, which is, of course, a huge part of why both platforms are so useful, but some of that flexibility is lost in this managed partnership. There are plenty of Github repositories that explain cool things you can do with Amazon Connect, but unfortunately, those cool things don’t always translate nicely into Service Cloud Voice. 

Kicksaw’s Approach to Salesforce Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect

So, how do you get the most from this pairing and avoid any challenges? Our goal when implementing SCV/AC (or any solution) is always to deliver products that empower Admins to make effective changes without leaving Salesforce. This frequently requires some creativity, as every business has its own unique set of processes and requirements,  but that’s all part of the fun, if you ask us — and definitely possible with SCV/AC.

For example, some of the unique solutions we’ve built for SCV/AC include:

• Holiday Schedule: Out of the box, Amazon Connect has no holiday management. We’ve designed a solution that uses Salesforce Holiday records to play a customized close message for any business holidays (whether that’s Thanksgiving or the annual company Jet Ski retreat).
• Phone Cleaner: Phone numbers can come into Salesforce in a variety of formats. Consider these two numbers: +15551234567 and (555) 123 - 4567. Those are the same number to the human eye, but they aren’t when searching the database. And let’s not even get started on folks who try to make 555.123.4567 a thing. To solve for this, we built out a small, invocable Apex action that runs in a flow and returns all the matches of the number. This enables you to match a voice call record to a contact regardless of how their number is formatted.‍
• Round Robin: One of the trickier elements of any telephony solution is routing — who gets the next phone call? The answer to that question is incredibly important and requires close attention. Amazon Connect offers routing based on who’s been online the longest, and Salesforce also offers omni-based routing. These both have their advantages, of course, but another option that is frequently overlooked (and not natively offered) is round-robin routing.
  

• With this method, the next call is routed to the agent who has been the longest without a call. Kicksaw created a round-robin that leverages automation in both AC and Salesforce to get the call to the correct agent. We feel it’s the best of both worlds. (On a very related note, have you read our guide on how to build a round robin in Salesforce? Check that out when you’re finished with this post.) 

Getting Connected

This is only a quick summary of some of the interesting tools and features that we’ve built for SCV/AC here at Kicksaw (and one example of the telephony solutions we have experience with). We’re always expanding our knowledge and have a growing library of resources that we’re eager to share. 

If you’re interested in SCV/AC or any type of telephony integration give us a shout — we can deliver real value to your business, and we’d love to connect with you.