SMS

You can set up an SMS (text message) channel in Digital Experience. Text messages can be sent and received through Digital Experience. This is a different route for processing SMS messages in CXone from CXone omnichannel SMS or Personal Connection Proactive SMS.

SMS Registrations

Before you can add an SMS channel to Digital Experience, you must first contact your CXone Account Representative to set up a transport code for you and to assign SMS registrations for the code. You can have either long or short transport codes. The type of code you need depends on your planned usage. Your CXone Account Representative can help you determine the type of transport code you need. You can view the SMS registrations available for your business unit in CXone at ACD > Contact Settings  >  SMS Registrations.

A long transport code is a dedicated 10-digit telephone number that can carry limited traffic. In some cases, long codes carry a maximum of five messages per second. They cost less to provision than short codes and take approximately 5-7 days to set up.

A short transport code is a 5-digit premium dedicated number service that large-scale mobile messaging campaigns or brands often use. Short codes can take 12 or more weeks to provision.

Transport codes can be numeric or alphanumeric. Numeric transport codes only contain numbers. Alphanumeric transport codes contain a mix of letters and numbers.

Add a CXone SMS Channel

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Digital > Points of Contact Digital.

3. Click CXone SMS.
4. Click Create Channel.
5. From the Transport Codes drop-down, select the code you want to use for this channel. If you don't see the code you need, you might need to contact your CXone Account Representative to provision a new transport code.
6. Enter the Channel name. You cannot edit this field later. For organization purposes, prepend the name with the last four digits of the transport code phone number.
7. Toggle Has Outbound Flow if you want this channel to handle outbound SMS messages in addition to inbound messages.
8. Click Create New Channel.

CXone SMS Channel Settings

After creating a CXone SMS channel, you can adjust some of the settings. From the SMS channels list, click Activate or Deactivate in the Outbound Flow column, depending if you want the SMS channel to use outbound. If the channel displays Deactivate, that means outbound SMS messages can be sent from that number.

You can also click Edit to change the Channel Name, or Delete to remove the channel.

Add a Textel Channel

Textel is a third-party alternative to the native CXone SMS solution.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.
2. Go to Digital > Points of Contact Digital.
3. Click Textel.
4. Click Create channel.
5. Enter a Channel name.
6. Enter the Transport code. This comes from Textel.
7. Use the drop-downs to select your Transport code region and Transport code type. International regions and codes are supported based on Textel support.
8. Enter the Token for your integration. This comes from Textel.
9. Click Create.

Configure Roles and Permissions

You need to add this channel A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. to each role that will use the channel. When you add a channel to a role, you need to configure permissions. These determine what users assigned to the role can do when interacting with the channel.

You can add this channel to existing roles or create a role in the CXone Admin application specifically for this channel. Digital Experience users can only have one role.

If you create a new role for this channel, be sure to include any necessary permissions from the Digital Engagement list on the Permissions tab in the CXone Admin application. When you save the new role, it appears in the ACD > Digital > Roles list, where you can add channels and permissions, as well as assign the role to digital agents An agent who handles digital interactions, such as those on email, chat, social, messaging, and SMS channels. . Agents using CXone Agent need to have the Digital Engagement attribute enabled and be assigned to a digital skill to handle digital interactions. Agents using MAX can handle digital interactions if they have either the Digital Engagement attribute or a digital skill assigned to them.Agents either need the Digital Engagement attribute enabled or a digital skill assigned to them to handle digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience. interactions. However, if you want agents to be able to use other features like searching posts, cases, or messages, you must enable the corresponding permissions.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Digital > Roles.

3. Click the Edit icon for the role you want to use.
4. In the Channels section, locate the channel you want to configure permissions for and click Edit permissions.

5. Select the checkboxes in the channel's row for each permission you want to add to the selected role.

   View image

   
   Learn more about channel permissions

   Depending on how Digital Experience is configured, some permissions may not be available.

   Permission	Details
   Reply	When selected, users can write replies that are published Posting directly to a social media wall, feed, or account. on behalf of the channel. Users without this permission can write drafts of messages. The drafts must be approved before they can be sent or published.
   Deleting from original platform	When selected, users can delete a message or post A social media thread stems from one original post. A post can result in multiple threads from various contacts. from its original platform (for example, from Facebook or Twitter).
   Hide from original platform	When selected, users can hide a message or post on its original platform (for example, Facebook or Twitter).
   Can approve	When selected, users can approve drafts of replies written by other users.
   Ability to assign/re-assign	When selected, users can assign or re-assign any conversation to themselves or other users.
   Ability to unassign	When selected, users can unassign a conversation from themselves or other users.

6. Click Save. Continue adding permissions for other channels, as needed.

Configure Routing

You need to define how Digital Experience routes messages that come in through this channel A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on.. You can modify the filters for existing routing queues The system uses routing queues to determine which agents to route cases to. Your system administrator creates routing queues so that certain cases are routed to agents with expertise in that type of case. to also route for this channel.  Routing queues in Digital Experience are similar to skills Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge in ACD.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Digital > Routing Queues.

3. In the table, locate the routing queue you want to work on and click Filters.
4. Locate the filter you want to use and click Conditions. You can also add a new filter.
5. Click Add condition.
6. Use the drop-down to select Included channels rule, then click Create condition for selected type.
7. Click Add for each channel you want in the routing queue. Review the Selected Channels section when you're done, then click Back. Changes are saved automatically.
   View image

   

Create a Digital Skill

Required permissions: Skills Create and Skills Edit

Agents using CXone Agent need to have the Digital Engagement attribute enabled and be assigned to a digital skill to handle digital interactions. Agents using MAX can handle digital interactions if they have either the Digital Engagement attribute or a digital skill assigned to them.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.

3. Click Create New > Single Skill.

4. Set the Media Type to Digital. Digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience. skills will always be Inbound unless you are using Personal Connection or BYOC.
5. Enter a Skill Name.
6. Select the Campaign you want the skill to be part of.
7. To use rich content in your outbound message, select a Message Template.
8. To add a sub-skill to this skill, select the checkbox. This only applies if you use digital routing queues for contact skill assignment. This is not the recommended routing method. Using Studio scripts is the recommended method to manage contacts and assign skills.

9. Configure the remaining optional fields in the Skill Information section as needed.

   Learn more about fields in this step

   Field	Details
   Agentless	Don't select for agent dialing. When this is selected, Workforce Intelligence Minimum Agents and Workforce Intelligence Minimum Available Agents are not available.
   Sub-Skill	Allows you to add a sub-skill to a skill. This lets you apply additional filters to match a skill if you use digital routing queues for contact skill assignment. However, using Studio scripts is the recommended method to manage contacts and assign skills. Sub-skill is not compatible with Studio, so it's not recommended to be used.

10. If you want to use screen pops A configurable pop-up window with information about the contact. It appears on an agent's screen after a certain event, usually when the agent connects to a contact. for this skill, use the POPURL action in Studio. This capability is only supported for the CXone Agent suite.

11. If your organization uses dynamic delivery, use the Routing Configuration section to customize the routing experience for this skill. To do so, select an Evaluation Criteria and configure any related settings.

    Content in this section is for a product or feature in controlled release (CR). If you are not part of the CR group and would like more information, contact your CXone Account Representative.

    • Skill Proficiency: This is the default setting. Routing decisions prioritize the agent with the highest configured proficiency level for the skill.

    • Preferred Agent: Routing decisions prioritize the agent who last handled the same case or contact. If you select this option, you must configure these settings: 

      • Focus Metric: Specifies which agent is the preferred agent. Choose between: 

        • Per Case: The agent who most recently handled an interaction linked to the customer case.
        • Per Customer: The agent who most recently worked on the interaction with the contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center..

      • Focus Lock: Specifies what happens when the preferred agent is unavailable. Choose between:

        • When Offline: The interaction waits in queue until the preferred agent becomes available or the Fallback Time is exceeded. When the Fallback Time is exceeded, the interaction routes to another agent based on skill proficiency. The receiving agent becomes the new preferred agent for the case or contact.

        • When Available: An agent may be in an available state, but still not be immediately available. For example, they may have an available status, but be handling ACW State that allows an agent to complete work requirements after finishing an interaction, responding to a message from another contact, or otherwise busy. In this case, you must also configure Fallback Time to determine how long to wait for the preferred agent. When the Fallback Time is exceeded, the interaction routes to another agent based on skill proficiency. The receiving agent becomes the new preferred agent for the case or contact.

      • Fallback Time: The number of seconds to wait for the preferred agent to become available. For example, if you enter 900 seconds, the system will wait 15 minutes before routing the contact to another agent. If you choose to use Preferred Agent to route contacts, you must enter a value between 1 and 5,256,000. If you leave this field blank, you receive an error message.

      Any interaction that enters the queue without an applicable contact or interaction history routes to an available agent based on skill proficiency.

12. If you want to change the default service level settings for this skill, modify the fields in the Service Level section. This only appears if you are configuring an Inbound skill.

    Learn more about fields in this step

    Field	Details
    Service Level Threshold	The number of seconds agents have to respond to meet an SLA Commitment between a service provider and a customer with a defined service level threshold, including quality, availability, and responsibilities. For example, if your SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 20.
    Service Level Goal	The percentage of contacts agents must respond to by the Service Level Threshold to meet the SLA. For example, if the SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 80

13. To require agents to manually accept or reject interactions for this skill, select the Accept / Reject checkbox. If an agent rejects an interaction, it returns to the queue.

14. To enable a countdown timer for agent responses, go to Agent Response section. This capability is only supported in Agent. You can also do this later.

    Learn more about fields in this step

    Field	Details
    Enabled	Check the box to make the timer appear in the agent console. Clear the box to hide it.
    Agent First Response	Enter how long you want to set the timer for. The countdown timer starts when a contact is assigned to the agent. The countdown ends when the agent sends the first message.
    Follow on Response	Enter how long you want to set the timer for. The countdown timer starts again when a customer responds to the agent. It ends when the agent sends a reply.

15. To unassign contacts after a timer expires, go to the Customer Response section. This capability is only supported in Agent. You can also do this later.

    Learn more about fields in this step

    Field	Details
    Enabled	Check the box to unassign contacts when the timer expires. Clear the box to have no idle time limit.
    Customer Idle Time	The countdown timer starts when the agent sends the first message to the customer. The contact will automatically unassign the contact from the agent when the timer expires.
    Time Extension	Check the box to let an agent give the customer more time to respond. This enables a button the agent can click to reset the customer idle timer.

16. Click Create. Complete additional configurations to customize or manage your skills.

Configure Default Skill and Studio Script

You need to select a default Studio script and a default skill for each channel you create. To configure this for existing channels go to ACD> Digital > Points of Contact Digital.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Digital > Points of Contact Digital.

3. Select the channel you would like to configure and click Edit.

4. Select a Studio script from the drop-down.

5. Select a default skill from the drop-down.

6. Click Save.

Configure the Service Level Agreement (SLA)

SLAs help you track how effective your agents are in managing their cases The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation.. Digital Experience lets you configure SLAs globally and per channel. The speed of communication can vary widely from channel to channel, so you might want different SLAs for channels with slower communication speed. For example, a live chat Agents and contacts interact on a real-time basis takes place in real time, but an email or SMS conversation may take days of back-and-forth between the agent and the customer.

SLAs are only calculated during your configured business hours.

Agents can see the current SLAs for a case display when they click in the reply field.

If you want to configure an SLA for this channel, complete this task. Otherwise, you can skip it.

1. Click the app selector and select ACD.

2. Go to Digital > SLA.

3. Locate the channel you want to configure and click Edit.
4. Set the toggle to YES if you want the channel to follow the global SLA or to NO, DIFFERENT to configure a specific SLA for this channel.

5. Use the drop-downs to set the number of days, hours, and minutes to set the First Response Time and Solution Time for this channel.

   Learn more about these metrics

   Field	Details
   First Response Time (FRT)	FRT starts counting the second a contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. creates a request (for example, sends you a message or comments on a post) and runs until an agent replies.
   Solution Time (ST)	ST is the total amount of time it takes to resolve a case. It starts at the same time as FRT, and runs until the case is marked Resolved by an agent. In reports, ST is sometimes referred to as RT Resolution time, sometimes called solution time.

6. Click Save.