To establish messaging parity across your channels, gain a comprehensive understanding by following these resources in order:
- Overview: This article provides a high-level introduction to Connect to Messaging.
- Developer Guide: For developers, this resource offers in-depth information on the Connect to Messaging API.
- Deployment Guide (Optional): If you're aiming to deflect calls to messaging channels, consult this guide for deployment strategies.
Description
LivePerson Connect to Messaging (C2M) is an interactive voice response (IVR) deflection solution that lets brands move voice calls to message through the Conversational Cloud platform. Once consumers opt to deflect a messaging conversation, they will receive an outbound message over SMS, WhatsApp, Google RCS, Apple Messages for Business, or App Messaging, which will allow them to respond and start messaging with the brand.
The consumer responses are routed into Conversational Cloud’s Agent Workspace, where conversations can be handled by human agents, automation, or a mix of both. This service enables a richer and more personalized consumer experience while utilizing all Conversational Cloud capabilities. SMS, WhatsApp, and App Messaging are the supported messaging channels, with more messaging options coming soon.
Consumer benefits of using C2M
- Eliminate call waiting: People on average end up spending 10-45 minutes tied up on calls during business hours. Messaging is much quicker and allows consumers to talk when it’s convenient for them.
- Continuous conversation history: With voice calls, the consumer needs to remember previous calls, take down all the notes and repeat to call back again. Messaging allows them to view previous conversations.
- Easy to reach different services: Consumers can call one customer service number to route voice calls to various agent skills for a better consumer experience.
Brand benefits of using C2M
- Reach consumers through popular channels: Brands can offer multiple deflection messaging channels to their consumers, allowing them to interact through WhatsApp, SMS, and App Messaging.
- Handle conversations in one place: Brands have a single view of the contact center operations with unified messaging operations and analytics for all consumer channels.
- Build an ongoing relationship with consumers: Brands can personalize the first outbound message sent to the consumers, this will improve better response rates and create conversations.
- Improve consumer experience: This service routes the consumer’s message to the right agent skill, removing the need for multiple transfers across agents. This will drive better care and reduce operational costs.
How to set up C2m
Learn how to setup and common tasks to get started with Connect to Messaging (C2M) — an IVR deflection solution within the Conversational Cloud.
Please follow the steps listed below:
- Enable C2M for your account
- Configure C2M in the Web Tool
- Use C2M APIs in your IVR solution to start deflecting voice calls to messages
- Get insights from the reporting dashboard or pull reporting data via Outbound APIs
1. Enable C2M for your account
Brand campaign managers or administrators can request to enable the service by following these steps:
a. Open the Conversational Cloud platform.
b. Click Engage and Connect to Messaging from the dropdown.
c. On the Connect to Messaging welcome page click Activate.
This will send a request to the LivePerson Administrator (LPA) to enable this feature for your account. The LPA will work with you to get the account activated for C2M.
1. Enable C2M for your account
Brand campaign managers or administrators can request to enable the service by following these steps:
a. Open the Conversational Cloud platform.
b. Click on the quick launch button on the bottom left corner of the screen.
c. Click on the “Connect to Messaging” icon.
d. When on the ‘Welcome’ screen — click on the ‘Contact Us’ button. This will open a new tab where the user will provide the information listed in the Onboarding request form.
This will send a request to the LivePerson Administrator (LPA) to enable this feature for your account. The LPA will work with you to get the account activated for C2M.
2. Configure C2M in the Web Tool
Once the account is activated, both the brand administrator and the campaign manager profiles will have access to the C2M web tool.
Settings
The brand’s administrators should define the global settings for C2M.
Channels
Brands can enable the messaging channels and define the priority order of these channels. C2M supports four channels: SMS, WhatsApp, In-App, Apple Messages for Business, and Google RCS.
Device Check
A device check is a check for whether a customer's phone number is a landline or mobile number. Brands can either enable or disable mobile device checks. This value is disabled by default, i.e., it assumes this check is done by the brand.
Routing
Brands select the skills to use for C2M routing. All the skills need to be set up first in the Conversational Cloud Platform for them to be available in the routing section.
Create new API handoffs
Before you can call the C2M APIs, brands will need to first create API handoff(s) in the Web Tool. An API handoff is a logical grouping of a set of configurations, such as different channels, the priority of the channels (if more than one channel is selected), and more.
When calling the C2M 2.0 eligibility endpoint, brands can pass this API handoff ID and the API will leverage these configurations to send the IVR deflection outbound message.
Brands can click on the “New Handoff” button to start creating a new handoff and follow the guided UI flow.
The following are special considerations specific to a select few channels:
WhatsApp: When selecting WhatsApp as the channel, brands first have to create WhatsApp template(s) and submit them to the Facebook team for approval. Brands can create and submit these WhatsApp templates via the “Message Templates” option in the Web Tool.
App Messaging: Refer to this article for more details on the configuration for the App Messaging channel.
3. Use C2M APIs in your IVR solution to start deflecting voice calls to messages
Now that C2M is activated and configured, brands are ready to start using the C2M APIs in their IVR system to deflect the call.
Create C2M 2.0 API keys
Key creation is a prerequisite for accessing the C2M 2.0 API from external systems.
1. Go to the 'Manage Campaigns and Engagement' tab in the left navigation pane and select 'Data sources'.
2. In ‘Data sources’, select the ‘API’ tab and click on ‘Add new’.
3. Check the box for ‘IVR Engagement’ and then hit ‘save’.
4. Edit the newly created API key to get the authentication details.
Once the API keys are set up, brands can refer to the C2M API documentation here and start calling C2M APIs for call deflection.
4. Reporting
In the C2M Web tool, brands can view reporting data on how many deflections were attempted, delivered, and read, how many conversations were started, and how many conversations were closed.Below is an example of this chart for your reference:
Brands can also access more granular data via the outbound reporting APIs.
Ready to move on? Click here to proceed.
