Studio Fundamentals

Scripts are an essential part of how CXone works in your contact center. They define how the people who contact your organization reach the agents who can help them. Scripts specify what happens to data during and after an interaction. This includes displaying data as 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 agents, capturing data from contacts, and storing data in databases.

Your contact center may have many different scripts, or just a few. The exact number and kind of scripts that you need depends on the applications and features your organization uses and the kinds of interactions that are handled. Scripts can range from very simple to quite complex. Simple scripts don't require much knowledge of scripting or coding. Complex scripts can require custom script code.

This page provides an overview of fundamental information and concepts about scripts and how they work. It also describes how scripting fits in with CXone in the big picture of your contact center.

CXone Terminology

The following list defines some CXone terminology that's important to know when scripting: 

• ACD skill: ACD skills are used to automate routing of contacts to the agent most likely to be able to help them. They can be created to use any criteria, such as department, team, specialty, or trained abilities. They can also use other factors such as location, language, and so on. ACD skills are assigned to agents. Studio scripts use ACD skills to carry out automated routing.
• Channel: A channel is a method of communicating with contacts, such as phone, email, SMS or text messages, chat, social media, voicemail, and so on. Every kind of channel has its own script media type in Studio.
• Contact: The people your organization interacts with are known as contacts. Contacts have ID numbers associated with them that are used to track an interaction across the platform. In the Studio online help, contact can also refer to the item within CXone that references data related to the interaction.
• Digital: This term refers to channels, skills, scripts, contacts, and interactions associated with Digital Experience.
• Interaction: This is the complete conversation between contacts and agents. Interactions can be a single phone call, a chat conversation that stretches over several hours, or an email thread that includes several back-and-forth messages. On digital channels, interactions can last for days, weeks, or longer.
• Media type: The media type is the kind of channel a script works with, such as phone, chat, email, and so on. When you create a script, you create it for a specific media type.
• Point of contact: A point of contact (POC) is an entry point to the CXoneplatform. POCs are created CXone to define specific instances of a channel. Each POC is assigned an ACD skill and a Studio script. Scripts assigned to POCs must define the flow of what happens to contacts from the start of an interaction on that channel.

Scripts and CXone

CXone cannot function without scripts. Each communication method your organization uses with CXone, such as phones, email, chat, and so on, requires a script. Scripts define what happens during and after interactions between your organization's agents and the people they talk to.

The following diagram provides an overview of CXone and where it fits into the larger picture of your organization. It also shows how scripts interact with every part of CXone and applications and systems outside of CXone.

There are several things to notice about the diagram:

• It represents two inbound channels, voice and digital chat. There are many other possibilities for inbound channels in CXone, including email and social media. Inbound means the contact begins the interaction with your organization. CXone also supports outbound interactions on some channels, so that agents can begin the interaction. CXone requires separate scripts for inbound and outbound interactions.

• The diagram shows two kinds of scripts:

  • System scripts run in the background. They handle the processes in CXone that cannot be customized. You cannot modify system scripts or see them in Studio, but it's helpful to know they're there.
  • Custom scripts are what you and other scripters in your organization create in Studio. They control what happens to a contact from the time the interaction begins. Custom scripts can also control what data is generated and collected during an interaction, as well as what happens to that data after the interaction ends.
• System scripts identify which POC The entry point that an inbound contact uses to initiate an interaction, such as a phone number or email address. an interaction is using. They assign the POC's assigned default ACD skill and route the contact to the POC's assigned custom script. The ACD skill and custom script are assigned when a POC is created in CXone.

• A custom script can control the flow of a contact through the CXone platform. The script starts with the default ACD skill assigned from the POC. It can include 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. or ASR Allows contacts to respond to recorded voice prompts by speaking, pressing keys on their phone, or a combination of both. menus or other mechanisms to determine a more specific skill to use for each contact.

  For example, a phone script might include an IVR menu of options the contact can choose from. The  menu might say, "For sales, press 1, for support, press 2, or for billing, press 3." The menu options correspond to ACD skills.

  As the scripter, you would set up the script so that when a contact presses 2, an agent with the ACD skill for support is requested. To learn more about how this works, the second part of the Develop a Basic Script tutorial in the Getting Started with Studio section provides detailed steps for configuring a script to use ACD skills for routing.

• Custom scripts can integrate with a variety of third-party applications such as CRMs Third-party systems that manage such things as contacts, sales information, support details, and case histories., databases, virtual agent bots A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent., or other services. For example, you can retrieve customer information from a CRM to display for agents at the start of an interaction. You can save data gathered during an interaction in the contact's record in the CRM after the interaction is complete.

Contacts in CXone and Studio

The term contact represents two important concepts in CXone:

• The people the agents in your organization interacts with. For example, customers, clients, website visitors, and so on.
• The item within the CXoneplatform that references data related to the interaction. Each contact has an ID number associated with it. This ID tracks an interaction across the platform.

When a contact enters the system, an instance of a script runs and the ACD assigns that instance a contact ID. This occurs for inbound and outbound interactions. Information is gathered during the interaction, such as the contact's name, account number, and so on. Other information may generated during the interaction, such as a call transcript and recording. All of this information is associated with the contact ID in the script during the interaction. After the interaction ends, most of the information associated with the contact ID is discarded unless the script is designed to save it. Some information, such as call recordings and contact history, is kept for use in other uses in the platform.

A contact ID identifies one segment of an interaction. A complete interaction may involve several segments. New segments can occur for things such as the call being transferred to another agent or when the script spawns another script. When these events occur, a new contact ID begins. In most cases, both contact IDs remain active during the entire interaction. The new contact ID is sometimes called a child contact.

To keep track of all of the contact IDs associated with a single interaction, a contact is also assigned a master ID. Any contact ID assigned to a contact is grouped under its master ID.

When you want to reference a contact in a script, you need to use the contact ID for appropriate segment of the interaction. Contact and master IDs are stored in the contactId and masterId variables. They're pre-defined variables and you can use them in your scripts. Pre-defined variables are automatically created in your scripts, so you don't need to declare them before you use them.

Scripting for Digital and Traditional ACD Channels

Digital refers to channels, skills, scripts, contacts, and interactions associated with Digital Experience (Digital). Digital entities are different from their ACD counterparts. Some differences are found in where the entities are managed in the CXoneplatform. Other differences are found in how the platform handles digital interactions compared to interactions on traditional ACD channels.

There are channels for email, chat, and SMS in both Digital Experience and traditional ACD. The traditional ACD versions of these channels use the email, chat, and SMS script media types. The digital versions of these channels all use the digital script media type.

Additionally, many of the Studio actions for working with emails, chats, and SMS messages only work with the traditional ACD versions of the channels. You can check the Supported Script types section of online help page for an action to determine if you can use it with a digital channel.

You can learn more about the channels available in Digital Experience, as well as how the digital entities are managed in the Digital Experience online help. If your organization uses digital channels, you can learn more about working with them on the Digital Scripts help page.

Script Components

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Scripts include the following components: 

• Actions: In Studio, scripts are made up of connected blocks called actions. Each action serves a specific purpose in the script. Actions can create a menu of choices, play an audio file, or request the next available agent. Most actions have a set of properties that must be configured to define the specific behavior for each unique instance of an action in your script. Properties include things such as choosing ACD skills Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge, setting variables, and selecting an audio file to play.

  You can learn more about using actions on the Action Basics help page. Online help is available for individual actions in the Studio Actions section of the online help.

• Connectors: The flow of your script is defined by how actions are connected. The connections between actions are shown with lines and arrows.

• Branches: You can create branches in your script to cover situations where an action has more than one possible outcome. For example, this allows you to define what happens when there are errors. You can also use branches to give contacts a choice, such as 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. Multiple branches can stem from a single action. In this case, you would define the conditions that must be met for the script to take each branch. You can also have more than one branch end at the same action.

• Prompts: Prompts are a common component of many scripts. They are messages the script can play to offer the contact a choice or give them information. For example, an IVR menu uses prompts to let contacts know their options for proceeding with the interaction. This could be messages such as "For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2." You can also use prompts to give the contact information, such as your organization's operating hours or the contact's current account balance. Prompts can be prerecorded audio files or text that's read by a text-to-speech (TTS Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content.) service.

• Custom Code: It's sometimes necessary to use custom scripting in Studio scripts. Custom code allows you to expand the range of what your scripts can do. It's required when using certain products, such as virtual agents A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent.. It can be helpful to use even if not required, because it can simplify certain aspects of managing Studio scripts.

  Custom code must be written in Snippet, an in-house scripting language developed by NICE CXone. Reference material for using Snippet is available in the Technical Guide section of the online help.

Script Media Types

Scripts have a property called media type. The media type is the kind of channel A way for contacts to interact with agents or bots. A channel can be voice, email, chat, social media, and so on. the contact and agent use to communicate. A script's media type must match the type of channel it's assigned to work with.

When you create a script, you're prompted to select the media type. You can change this setting later, if necessary. Currently, this option is not available in CXone Studio so you must use the Desktop Studioapplication.

The media types in Studio are shown in the following table:

Media type can influence what actions are available to use in a script. Most actions work with any type, but some actions only work with certain media types. For example, ASR Allows contacts to respond to recorded voice prompts by speaking, pressing keys on their phone, or a combination of both. actions only work with phone scripts. If you are working on an email script, ASR actions aren't visible in the Actions palette of that script.

Suppression Scripts

A suppression script is a custom subscript that's used with outbound phone ACD skills to determine if the request for the call should continue or to perform custom logic before a call is placed. Suppression scripts can run on calls placed by agents or by the dialer.

When an outbound call is requested, the system script that makes the call checks to see if a suppression script is assigned to the ACD skill being used to request the call. If there is a suppression script, the requeset is routed to it. When the logic in the suppression script is complete, the call request must be returned to the system script.

Suppression scripts must end with either the PERMITCALLaction or the SUPPRESSCALL action. Use PERMITCALL if the call can continue or SUPPRESSCALL if the call should not be placed. Both actions return the call request to the originating system script.  The system script then completes the request appropriately.

You can learn more about creating suppression scripts on the Set Up Call Suppression help page.

Script Templates and Examples

//custom payload parameters are optional and
//customizable
DYNAMIC customPayload
customPayload.context.id="123"
customPayload.context.parameters.name="Beowulf"
CustomPayload.context.parameters.age=25
ASSIGN tokenjson = "{customPayload.asjson()}" //converts to JSON