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Route Calls with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Let Omni-Channel handle end-to-end routing for all contact center channels. If a single system handles all routing assignments, work can be assigned based on a single source of truth for rep capacity.
This article applies to:
- Salesforce Voice with Amazon Connect
- Salesforce Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect
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In multichannel contact centers, Salesforce Omni-Channel handles the routing and final allocation of most messages and other work. Voice calls, however, have historically been an exception. Reps manage voice calls through the same Service Console interface that they use to manage all of their other work. However, telephony partners such as Amazon Connect have handled the final allocation of that work instead of Omni-Channel.
Omni-Channel integrates closely with telephony and CCaaS partners, but communication between the systems isn’t perfectly instantaneous. With two systems routing work to reps, it’s possible for them to fall out of sync if they both attempt to assign a rep work within the same decisecond. Disparities between the two systems can result in inconsistent workload management.
Unified Routing designates Omni-Channel as the final allocator of all agent work, including voice calls. Omni-Channel then serves as the single source of truth for rep capacity and assigns work accordingly. Because Omni-Channel Unified Routing uses Omni-Channel as the routing engine, manage your reps, queues, routing logic, rep statuses, and Command Center for Service directly in Salesforce. Use Amazon Connect to fulfill certain telephony requirements only.
Map Other Routing Strategies to Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Considering whether Unified Routing is right for you? Check out these example use cases for setting up or migrating to Omni-Channel Unified Routing.
| Use Case | Example of Current Setup | With Omni-Channel Unified Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Skill-based routing | You currently use queue delay and priority logic to handle queue overflow. | Route Voice Calls to a Skill with Omni-Channel Unified Routing |
| Blended channels | Your reps handle both voice calls and messaging sessions in a first-in-first-out model. There is a race condition between Omni-Channel routing and external routing, where messaging sessions consistently take priority over voice calls. | Omni-Channel Unified Routing manages blended routing more gracefully because all routing takes place in one system. This helps avoid a race condition between calls and other work. |
| Blended channels with interruptible capacity | Your reps handle voice calls, chat, email, and cases. If a rep is on a case, they won't be able to take a call if the Respect Rep Capacity feature is on because a call requires the rep’s full capacity. | Prioritize real-time channels such as messaging and chat over asynchronous ones such as cases and email. Control routing capacity accordingly. |
Omni-Channel Unified Routing Limitations and Considerations
Before setting up Omni-Channel Unified Routing for an Amazon contact center, review the feature’s setup considerations and limitations. For information about limitations for other telephony partners, see Limitations of Unified Routing for Partner Telephony.
Feature Setup Considerations
To implement Omni-Channel Unified Routing with Amazon Connect's setRoutingCriteria API, Amazon requires certain configuration items. These items ensure that Amazon Connect can connect a call after Omni-Channel processes routing. As long as you fulfill these requirements, you have flexibility to configure your contact center according to your business needs. Our help content provides specific configuration steps that follow these recommendations.
- You must set a predefined attribute in Amazon Connect. Specifically, add a required
predefined attribute named
Routingand set its value toTrue. - Reps must have auto-accept enabled in Amazon Connect.
- Reps must be associated with a routing profile in Amazon Connect, corresponding to a contact center group in Salesforce. You can have multiple Salesforce contact center groups if you need them, but each contact center user must be associated with a group.
- To make sure that reps can receive calls, grant reps in your contact center access to
the working queue in Amazon Connect. The rep selected by Omni-Channel must have the
working queue in their Amazon Connect routing profile to receive a call from the queue.
- To meet this requirement, regardless of your Omni-Channel routing type, including queue-based routing, skill-based routing or direct-to-rep based routing, we strongly recommend setting up a separate queue in Salesforce that’s mapped to a working queue in Amazon Connect. For simplicity, we’ll call this your holding queue. Don’t add any contact center users to the holding queue in Salesforce because it doesn’t do any actual routing of calls.
- If you’re following the holding queue recommendation, set the holding queue as the Default Outbound Queue for all contact center groups in Salesforce. While this queue isn’t actually used for routing, associating it with all your contact center groups means that all reps’ routing profiles in Amazon have access to this queue to meet the call connection requirement.
- In your Amazon Connect flows:
- To prevent the call from being routed by Amazon, in the Amazon Connect flows, add a Set routing criteria block before the Invoke AWS Lambda function block that invokes the executeOmniFlow method. In it, use the predefined attribute with the expiration set to Never Expires. After Omni-Channel routing is completed, Salesforce updates the routing criteria to connect the call.
- Place a Set working queue block before the Transfer to queue block. This provides a valid queue ARN of the holding queue.
- For existing Voice customers, we recommend using the holding queue approach to simplify setup and future maintenance.
- When you enable Omni-Channel Unified Routing, Omni-Channel uses reps, queues, and routing configurations defined in Salesforce to determine the appropriate rep to route the call to. If you need to maintain your existing queue structure in Amazon Connect, we suggest using Queue Management and Contact Center Groups in Salesforce to mirror that mapping between systems. Meanwhile, your setup must also meet the connection requirements described above.
Other Limitations and Considerations
- For Amazon Contact centers, Contact Center version 18.0 or later is required.
- For Unified Routing configurations using deskphones, the Push Time-Out setting in the routing configuration isn’t respected.
- Salesforce doesn’t support the use of external routing and Omni-Channel Unified Routing in the same contact center. Choose only one routing system for each contact center.
- Amazon Connect Chat and Messaging in Salesforce, configured through Salesforce Contact Center with Amazon Connect, isn’t compatible with Omni-Channel Unified Routing.
- If you use a single contact center group, only one default outbound phone number can be associated with the routing profile. If the contact center has multiple numbers, only one can be used when reps make outbound calls. In setups where reps make outbound calls with their own unique number, an Amazon Connect whisper flow causes the caller ID to show the phone number associated with the rep, even when the system uses the default number for outbound calls.
- With Omni-Channel Unified Routing, if a rep declines a voice call or the call times out, the call is returned to the queue. The call won’t be rerouted to the same rep unless they log out and back in to Omni-Channel. For example, if the rep’s status moves to Busy and then back to Available, the call won’t be reassigned to that rep. Instead, Omni-Channel assigns the call only to another rep.
- Because outbound calls ignore rep capacity calculation, it's possible for Omni-Channel to assign a rep to an inbound call while they are dialing an outbound call.
- When a rep accepts an inbound call, the UserId and SourceType fields on a Voice Call object aren’t populated if Omni-Channel Unified Routing is enabled.
- Transfer limitations and considerations for Omni-Channel Unified Routing:
- Transfer to rep doesn’t include a decline option even if configured in the presence configuration.
- The transfer destination list shows a maximum of 2,000 reps and 2,000 queues.
- Configure Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Configure Omni-Channel Unified Routing for voice calls as part of contact center creation or incorporate it into your preexisting contact center. Omni-Channel Unified Routing uses Salesforce Omni-Channel as the routing engine. This means that you manage reps, queues, routing logic, rep statuses, and Command Center for Service directly in Salesforce. Use Amazon Connect to fulfill certain telephony requirements only. - Route Voice Calls to a Skill with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Using Unified Routing with Omni-Channel, route voice calls with Omni-Channel skills. Make sure that a rep who has the correct skills to solve the problem takes the call. - Route Voice Calls Directly to a Specific Rep with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Route voice calls directly to a preferred rep by using Omni-Channel Unified Routing. For example, you can route sales calls from customers to their account executives. - Transfer Voice Calls with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Transfer voice calls from one rep to a rep, queue, or Omni-Channel flow. Transferring to a flow allows you to use complex business logic and skill-based criteria within the flow to determine the next transfer target. Use Salesforce for last-mile routing with Omni-Channel Unified Routing instead of routing calls with Amazon Connect. - Customize Transfer Destinations for Reps with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Reduce long transfer destination lists when reps need to transfer a call quickly. Choose whether to show all profiles and queues or just show some. This feature is available for contact centers that use Omni-Channel Unified Routing to route voice calls. - Configure Voicemail with Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Configure voicemail support for a contact center that is set up for Omni-Channel Unified Routing. - Configure Callbacks for Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Don’t make your customers wait on hold. Give them an option to request a callback from a rep. Salesforce uses contact requests to store callback information for voice calls that are routed with Omni-Channel Unified Routing. - Disable Omni-Channel Unified Routing
Disable Omni-Channel Unified Routing for voice calls so that your telephony partner routes calls instead. Because Salesforce doesn’t support the use of external routing and Unified Routing with Omni-Channel in the same contact center, there’s no hybrid way to use different routing types in your contact center. - Unified Routing for Partner Telephony
Unified routing for a contact center allows Salesforce to handle the routing of inbound and outbound voice calls, and call transfers to the reps using Omni-Channel flow. By consolidating all the routing within Salesforce, unified routing provides a single source of truth for agent capacity, enabling optimized workload distribution and prioritized handling of voice calls. This consolidated routing ensures reduced wait times, improved agent productivity, and a more seamless Omni-Channel experience. You can use unified routing only if your telephony provider supports it.
