Askcaller (Digital Scripts)

Requests information from a contact using any supported digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience. direct or private messaging application, such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, as well as Digital Experience SMS and chat. For example, you can use this action to have the contact provide you an account number, their name, or any other useful information. This action pauses the script until it receives a reply. The script waits for a response from the contact, even if it takes days or weeks. This supports the asynchronous nature of digital communications. This action requires Digital Experience.

Dependencies

• This action requires Digital Experience.
• Before working with digital scripts, learn about the differences between traditional ACD scripts and digital scripts.
• You can use rich media Elements in digital messaging such as buttons, images, menus, and option pickers. in the message to the contact. You have two options: 
  • Create rich message templates on the Points of Contact Digital page in CXone. Use the GETRICHMESSAGEaction in your script and configure it to send a rich media template. Place it before ASKCALLER. Set the MessageFormat property in ASKCALLER to JSON.
  • Build the JSON for the rich media content in a snippet action. In ASKCALLER, set MessageFormat to Prompt Sequence . This option is primarily for use with virtual agents. However, you may need to use it if the rich media you want to use isn't available as a template in CXone.
  • If the message you send includes rich media that the contact will interact with, such as a picker or button, you may you may also need to configure the ResultPostback property. It's recommended that you contact the NICE CXone Expert Services team for assistance in building digital scripts that include rich media.
• Postback is only supported in the Studio script that originated the rich media.

• Support for rich messaging content type varies by channel, as shown in the following drop-down.

  Learn more

  The following table shows the types of rich content Elements in digital messaging such as buttons, images, menus, and option pickers. available for each digital channel. Some rich content uses TORM (truly rich omnichannel messaging) and is configurable under Rich Message Settings. Any rich content not supported by TORM is configurable under chat, email, Apple Messages for Business, and WhatsApp.

  Channels that are not listed do not currently have rich content support. Any rich content sent through other channels is delivered as plain text.

  	Adaptive Cards	HTML & Markdown Text	Rich Link	Quick Replies	List Picker	Time Picker	Form message
  Apple Messages for Business
  Digital Chat
  Email				Uses fallback text
  Facebook Messenger
  WhatsApp
  Google Business Messages

  Supported:

  Not Supported:

  This rich content is available for use by APIs, bots, virtual agents, and live agents. However, not all rich content is supported for use by live human agents. The following table shows what rich content is visible to live agents in the Customer Card section in MAX. Live agents can access rich content not supported by TORM under Message Templates > Choose template. Live agents can access rich content supported by TORM under Rich Messages > Rich message.

  	Adaptive Cards	HTML & Markdown Text	Rich Link	Quick Replies	List Picker	Time Picker	Form message
  Apple Messages for Business
  Digital Chat
  Email
  Facebook Messenger
  WhatsApp
  Google Business Messages

  Supported:

  Not Supported:

Supported Script Types

Digital

The Askcaller action has separate help pages for the other supported script media types: SMS or chat.

Input Properties

These properties define data that the action uses when executing.

Property	Description
Add Caption	Enter a short phrase that uniquely identifies this action in the script. The caption appears on the script canvas under the action icon.
Message	The text that is sent to the selected target when this action executes. You can use variables in this field.  If you're sending rich media as a prompt sequence or via the GETRICHMESSAGE action, this field must be a JSON string.
Message Format	Select the format of the message you're sending. Options are: PromptSequence: Select this option if sending rich media as JSON built in a Snippet. See the Dependencies section for details. Text: Select this option if the message is plain text. This is the default. JSON: Select this option if sending rich media via the GetRichMessageaction. See the Dependencies section for details.
MessageSender	An optional field that identifies CXone suite-level components interacting with this action.
ResultPostback	The name of a variable to hold any returned postback data. This data is sent when the contact interacts with certain rich media types in the message you send. For example, if you include a time picker in the message, the time option the contact selects is returned in this variable.
Timeout Sec	The number of seconds the action waits to execute before timing out. The contact has this amount of time to enter information into their chat window. To send a message without waiting for a response, set this property to 1. To have the action wait indefinitely, set this property to 0.

Output Properties

These properties contain variables that hold data returned from executing the action. They're available for reference and use when the action completes.

Property	Description
ResultVar	The variable name that is created and holds returned information. For example, if the contact enters their account number as 123456, then the variable holds 123456.

Result Branch Conditions

Result branch conditions allow you to create branches in your script to handle different outcomes when an action executes.

Condition	Description
Default	Path taken unless the script meets a condition that requires it to take one of the other branches. It is also taken if the action's other branches are not defined.
Timeout	Path taken if there is no response for the number of seconds specified.
CallerResponded	Path taken if the contact provides a response.
Error	Path taken when the action fails to execute properly. For example, when there is an unexpected problem such as poor connectivity, syntax errors, and so on. The _ERR variable, with a single underscore character, should be populated with a condensed explanation of the problem.

Tips and Tricks

• Include additional Askcaller actions in the loop to provide messages at intervals to prompt a response. For example, if the contact doesn't respond within a certain amount of time, prompt a response with, "Are you still there?" The amount of time you have the action wait depends on the digital channel you're using this action with. For example, the amount of time that's reasonable for a live chat Agents and contacts interact on a real-time basis channel wouldn't be appropriate for an email channel.
• Combine with a virtual agent by including one of the supported virtual agent A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. actions. Create a loop with the Askcaller action and the virtual agent action to allow conversation between the virtual agent and the contact until the contact says they want to talk to a live agent or the interaction ends.
• Using PromptSequence as the MessageFormat, you can send a message to the contact in JSON. This allows you to send multiple text bodies at the same time. You can include menus, buttons, carousels, quick replies, and so on. Not all Digital Experiencechannels A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. support the same functions. The JSON schemas vary from channel to channel. For example, presenting a message that contains a menu requires a different schema in chat messaging Asynchronous chat in which contacts send a chat message anytime and wait for a reply than it does in Apple Messages for Business. You must include the JSON schemas for the rich media you're sending in your script.

Script Example

In the following script, the AskCaller action requests an account number from the contact. If the contact provides an account number, they are passed on to an agent through the Reqagent action. Currently, using Reqagent with Askcaller in digital scripts requires the assistance of NICE CXone Expert Services and must include a Snippet action.

If the contact does not respond, the interaction is looped back to the account number prompt. This occurs up to the number of times specified in the Loop action. Each loop sends a message explaining that the system did not receive a response from the contact. If no response is received after the specified number of loops, a different message is sent to inform the contact that no account number was received, then the interaction ends.

Download this script.