You can use the Start Automation task in Orchestration to enable an Automation flow. Automation flows collect information for queuing and customer routing, interaction attributes, and customer identification information.

Queues

Administrators configure queues in Application Center Administration to allow the contact center to find an appropriate agent to deal with the customer query. Agents can be assigned to groups depending on their knowledge and skills. In Automation, you create a question where the customers must choose one of the options and map the options with the appropriate queues available for your account.

For example, the administrator adds "Billing" and "Payment" queues. In Automation, create a question "What is your request about?" with the following response options: "Billing" and "Payment". Map each option with the appropriate queue. Depending on the given input, this customer is forwarded to the queue assigned to a certain group of agents. When the flow ends, Automation releases control of the interaction treatment.

Interaction attributes

Apart from the queues, you can use interaction attributes that enable further routing of the customers considering the skills of agents.

The administrator configures attributes in Application Center Administration for attribute-based routing. Attribute-based routing enables forwarding interactions to the most suitable agent. In Automation, you can select whether the answer to a question provides a value for an attribute.

For example, the administrator adds the "department" attribute and configures attribute-based routing based on values "Support" or "Sales". In Automation, you can add a question in a flow asking the customer about the required department. For example, press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Support. When the flow ends, Automation releases control of the interaction treatment. To provide Orchestration with the selected department information, configure "department" as the attribute name for the question. Automation sends the answer from the customer as the value for the "department" attribute for Orchestration to forward the interaction to the right agent.

If you configure an attribute for a question, ensure that the suggested answers match the configuration of attribute-based routing on Orchestration. For example, if you type "sales_department" as an answer in Automation but the administrator uses "sales" for attribute-based routing, Orchestration cannot properly process this attribute.

Customer identification

Customer identification contains identification information that Automation can receive from the customer during a flow. Customer Journey can later use this information to match and track customer interactions across multiple channels for a single account. By default, the following types of data are available:

• phoneNumbers for customer phone number

• emailAddresses for customer email

• accountIds for customer account ID

You can select a customer identifier for a specific question of your flow. For example, in the question, you ask the customer to enter a phone number or email. Customer Journey can then use these unique identifiers to match the interaction with an existing customer, and Avaya Workspaces agents can view that customer's entire journey across all channels with common identifiers.

Apart from default customer identifiers, Automation collects customized identifiers. For example, as a customized identifier, you can use the Social Security number of the customer.