To get started, you need to direct traffic to a routing bot. Your setup is different depending on how you configure your bot. There are three options:
- Use the Conversation Orchestrator Dynamic Routing bot if you are setting up routing for the first time, or if you don’t mind setting up a new routing or concierge bot. This template comes pre-wired with hooks to Dynamic Routing and the Conversation Context Service. The Conversation Orchestrator bot also comes with out-of-the-box intent-based and channel-based routing. This is the easiest way to get started.
- If you already have a functional routing bot in Conversational Cloud, and you don’t want to move that logic to a new bot, you’ll need to manually add the Dynamic Routing interaction. Please note the Conversation Orchestrator Dynamic Routing bot includes additional benefits like automatic support for intent-based routing. If you use your own routing bot, you won’t automatically get this feature.
- You can use Dynamic Routing even if all your automation is configured on an external platform such as Google DialogFlow. In this case, you can create routing policies in Dynamic Routing, but you need to use the Next Actions API from the external system to perform the routing. This is discussed in more detail in the discussion on using Dynamic Routing outside of Conversational Cloud.
The first two options above are further discussed in this topic.
Using the Dynamic Routing bot
This helps you get up and running in a few simple steps. Please familiarize yourself with Conversation Builder to learn about bots.
1. You don’t have to complete this step if your Conversational Cloud account was created after August 20, 2021. If you have an older account, complete this step.In Conversational Cloud, open Bot Accounts. On the Account Details page, enable the settings as shown below. Turn on Conversation Context Service, and select Use Conversational Cloud Site ID.
Next, create the Dynamic Routing bot.
2. Open the menu on the left side of the page, and select Automate > Conversation Builder to open Conversation Builder.
3. Click New Bot in the upper-right corner.
4. From the bot template menu, select the Conversation Orchestrator → Dynamic Routing Bot template. Then click Create Bot.
The template includes the following:
- A simple scenario to ask consumers for their phone number and storing that phone number into the context service for routing.
- A Dynamic Routing interaction that can be moved around to determine where to perform routing.
- Based on a policy action, the bot can then perform the following: transfer to an agent, transfer to a skill, or send a message.
5. Name the bot (optional): Within the bot, click Bot Settings to change the name of the bot.
6. Move the interaction: Dynamic Routing is triggered based on where the interaction is placed. The interaction can be dragged and dropped at different places based on where the routing needs to happen.
7. Create routing policies: Create routing policies by clicking Manage routing policies on the Dynamic Routing interaction. This takes you to the Manage Policies page in Conversation Orchestrator, where you can create your policies.
Once the bot is deployed, routing policies get evaluated at the appropriate step, and a transfer is performed based on a match.
8. Manage fallbacks: If none of the routing policies match or there is a failure, you have the option to handle fallbacks. There are two ways to configure fallback.
- Option 1: Falling back to a skill: Click Settings in the Dynamic Routing interaction, and add a fallback skill ID, fallback skill name (optional), and fallback message. This is the fallback skill to which the conversation is routed in the case of a failure.
- Option 2: Handling fallbacks within the Dynamic Routing bot: In this case, select the appropriate interaction or select Next Interaction (whichever is appropriate) in the dropdown in the Dynamic Routing interaction, as shown below.
9. Deploy the bot: Once you have set this up, connect it to an engagement, and deploy the bot in Conversational Cloud. Ensure an agent connector is assigned to a user, and the user should be connected to a skill that is deployed to an engagement. Ensure all the incoming interactions are routed to this bot.
Using your own routing bot
This section assumes that you already have a functional routing bot within Conversational Cloud, and you want to use Dynamic Routing.
1. Enable the Conversation Context Service for Conversation Builder: Follow Step 1 in the previous section.
2. Choose your bot: Within Conversation Builder, choose an already functional routing bot with which Dynamic Routing needs to be integrated.
3. Add the interaction: On the Dialogs page, using the interaction palette on the right side, add the Dynamic Routing interaction (under Integrations). By default, the interaction is added to the bottom of the page. Select it, and move it to where the routing needs to be performed.
4. Follow steps 5-8 as described in the previous section.
Ready to move on? Click here to proceed.
