Bot Builder for Voice Channels

CXone Mpower Bot Builder allows you to design and build your own bots, also called virtual agents A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent.. You can deploy Bot Builder bots to digital channels A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. through the Bot Builder application. If you want to use your bot with voice channels, you must set it up as an integration in Virtual Agent Hub.

Voice-enabling your bot uses transcription Written form of a voice or digital interaction and text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. services. The contact's audio is transcribed to text and sent to the bot. The bot's responses are converted into synthesized voice audio and played for the contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center.. This process is controlled by a Studio script and repeated for each turn in the conversation.

How a Voice-Enabled Bot Builder Bot Works

To start an interaction, contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. call a phone number and reach your organization. The contact may be connected directly to the bot, or they might need to choose an option in an IVR Automated phone menu that allows callers to interact through voice commands, key inputs, or both, to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both. menu. The script uses the specified speech-to-text Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. service to transcribe the contact's voice audio. It sends the transcript to the bot.

The bot receives a transcript for each turn in the conversation. It analyzes each transcript to understand the purpose or meaning behind what the contact says. This is the intent. The bot sends an appropriate text response to the script. The script synthesizes the text into audio using the specified text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. service.

Requests and responses are sent via Virtual Agent Hub and the script with each turn. This option allows for customization of the bot's behavior from turn to turn. This is an utterance-based method of connection.

At the end of the conversation, the bot sends a signal to the script. It can signal that the conversation is complete, or that the contact needs to speak with a live agent. If the conversation is complete, the interaction ends. If a live agent is needed, the script makes the request. The contact is transferred to an agent when one is available.

When the conversation is complete, the script can perform post-interaction tasks, such as recording information in a CRM Third-party systems that manage such things as contacts, sales information, support details, and case histories..

Custom Scripting Guidelines

Before integrating a virtual agent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish, you need to know: 

• Which script you want to add a virtual agent to.

• The virtual agent Studio action you need to use.

• Where the Studio actions must be placed in your script flow.
• The configuration requirements specific to the virtual agent you're using.
• How to complete the script after adding the virtual agent action. You may need to: 
  • Add initialization snippets as needed to the script using Snippet actions. This is required if you want to customize your virtual agent's behavior.
  • Re-configure the Studio action Performs a process within a Studio script, such as collecting customer data, playing a message or music, or routing a contact to an agent. connectors to ensure proper contact flow and correct any potential errors.
  • Use the OnReturnControlToScript branch to handle hanging up or ending the interaction. If you use the Default branch to handle hanging up or ending an interaction, your script may not work as intended. StandardBot behaviors. You can learn more about handling the end of the interaction in the online help about
  • Complete any additional scripting and test the script.

You may be able to obtain template scripts for use with virtual agent integrations from CXone Mpower Expert Services. If you need assistance with scripting in Studio, contact your Account Representative, see the Technical Reference Guide section in the online help, or visit the CXone Mpower Community site.

Required Information During Setup

To voice-enable a Bot Builder bot, follow the steps on the Set Up a Voice-Enabled Text Virtual Agent page. When completing the setup tasks, you need the information in the remaining sections on this page.

Bot Builder Configuration Page Details

Use the information in the following table when completing the Configuration page. You see this page when adding an app in Virtual Agent Hub

Field	Details
Integration Version	Select the version of Virtual Agent Hub that you want to use. This option allows you to use a previous version of Virtual Agent Hub until you're ready to switch to a newly-released version. The available versions are:  Version 1.0.0: This version is not available for this provider. Version 2.0.0: This version is not available for this provider. Version 3.0.0: This version introduced StandardBot, which standardizes how CXone Mpower communicates with virtual agent providers. The object returns as an array, as . This version is available for all providers.
Bot Name	Select the bot you want to voice-enable.
Authentication Token	Paste the authentication token copied from the Settings page in Bot Builder. Ensure that you copy the token from the same bot you selected in Bot Name.
DTMF Breakout Pattern	Enter the DTMF Signaling tones that are generated when a user presses or taps a key on their telephone keypad. characters that, when pressed during a call, cause the script to take the DTMFBreakout branch of the VOICEBOT EXCHANGE action. This field is optional.
External Provider Timeout	Enter the number of seconds you want the script to wait for a response from  . When the timeout is reached, control returns to the script, which takes the error branch.

Obtain Token from Bot Builder

Each bot has a token that you need when voice-enabling it in Virtual Agent Hub.

1. In CXone Mpower, click the app selector and select Bot Builder.

2. Click the bot you want to work with.
3. Click Preferences in the left icon menu.

4. On the Settings tab, click VAH Integration.

5. Click copy in VAH Authentication Token. The copy icon appears when you hover over this field.

6. Paste the token into the Authentication Token field when adding an app for Bot Builder in Virtual Agent Hub.