Billing Examples and Use Cases

How Minutes Are Calculated?

AWS determines the rounding rules for both types of minutes. Salesforce deducts Service Cloud Voice minutes based on this rounding, and telephony charges are passed through directly from AWS.

• Service Cloud Voice minutes: The Service Cloud Voice minutes are rounded up to the next 10 second increment. For example, if a call duration is 10 minutes and 3 seconds, it is rounded to 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
• Telephony minutes: The telephony minutes are rounded up to the next minute. For example, if a call duration is 10 minutes and 3 seconds, it is rounded to 11 minutes.
• IVR Utterances: If your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) flow uses speech recognition where a caller provides vocal inputs, each spoken input is called an utterance. There is a separate line item on your invoice specifically for utterance usage. For more information on billing for IVR utterances, see How Does Billing Work?.

Most calls simultaneously consume both types of minutes. However, there are exceptions. For example, if a call is transferred and is no longer handled by Service Cloud Voice, it stops consuming Service Cloud Voice minutes but continues to consume telephony minutes.

Consider these scenarios to understand how Service Cloud Voice minutes and telephony minutes are accrued across different types of call interactions.

Standard Inbound Call with IVR and Queue Time

In this scenario, a customer calls your contact center, interacts with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu, and waits in a queue before reaching a rep.

Duration: 2 minutes in IVR + 3 minutes in queue + 5 minutes talking to a rep = 10 minutes

Minutes consumed for this scenario is:

• Service Cloud Voice minutes: 10 minutes are deducted from your Salesforce prepaid balance.
• Telephony minutes: 10 minutes are charged on your monthly AWS invoice.

Note The billing begins as soon as the call is connected to the Amazon Connect instance, regardless of whether a rep has answered.

Abandoned Calls

This scenario covers calls that do not result in a conversation with a live rep.

Duration: A customer calls after hours, listens to a 1-minute automated message, and ends the call.

Minutes consumed for this scenario is:

• Service Cloud Voice minutes: 1 minute is deducted from your balance.
• Telephony minutes: 1 minute is charged on your AWS invoice.

Note Any time spent interacting with a Contact Flow (IVR) consumes both Service Cloud Voice minutes and telephony minutes.

Internal Transfers and Consultations

When a rep transfers a call or consults with another rep, additional segments of the call are created.

Duration: Rep A speaks to a customer for 5 minutes, then consults with rep B for 5 minutes while the customer is on hold.

Minutes consumed for this scenario is:

• Service Cloud Voice minutes: You are charged for the total duration the Connect instance is active for the session.
• Telephony minutes: You are billed for each active segment of the call. In this case, the inbound call segment from the customer and the outbound call segment to Rep B are both active during the consultation

Call transfers and consultations can result in telephony usage that exceeds the total actual duration of the call because multiple lines are active at once.

Outbound Calls

In this scenario, a rep calls a customer directly from the Omni-Channel utility.

Duration: A 5 minute outbound call to a mobile number.

Minutes consumed for this scenario is:

• Service Cloud Voice minutes: 5 minutes deducted from your Salesforce balance.
• Telephony minutes: 5 minutes billed at the AWS Outbound rate (rates vary by destination country).