Voice Channel

Owned by Hammad Siddiqui
Sept 11, 2023
8 min read

The Voice bot is simply an automated voice response to calls and messages that streamlines the way customers interact with a company. It has been proven to be a vital tool in various businesses.

Use Cases

  1. Customer Service: Voice Bot assists customers by providing automated responses to common questions.

  2. Appointment Scheduling: People can use Voice Bot to easily book any type of appointment.

  3. Billing and Payments: Voice Bot systems handle bill inquiries and payment processing.

  4. Surveys and Feedback: Companies use Voice Bot to collect customer feedback and conduct surveys.

  5. Product Information: Customers obtain product details and pricing.

  6. Voice Bot allows users to access and manage voicemail messages.

Building a Voice Bot

Navigate to the Bot Creation Page

After logging into your UChat account on the left hand side look for the voice bot icon.

Click on the voice icon to open the voice number settings.

  1. After opening the voice settings. A dashboard for addition of numbers for Voice Bot will be visible, to add the numbers UChat provides multiple options from which the user can choose to opt for number usage. Mainly two options of Twilio and SignalWire are used but the user can also choose to enter their own number as well.

  2. To add phone number, click on the button (Add Phone Number)

Here more options to add numbers will be visible to choose from.

Voice Flow

The Interactive Voice Response flows are similar to any text automation bots but only two nodes are changed which is the main distinction between any text automation bot and a Voice Bot bot.

The start of The Voice Bot like any text bot is the same with the start node being the first node in the flow.

The Question Node

The question node in Voice Bot is different from the text bot question nodes. The question node contains mainly five parts, each has different uses.

  • The first one representing speech

  • The second one representing DTMF

  • The third one representing record

  • The fourth one representing transfer

  • Lastly, the Payment option.

Speech Option

Like the name of the button it uses speech format and is used for short questions and answers.

  1. In the question box The user can type in a short question that is to be asked from the customer.

  2. The response from the customer will be saved in the text variable that the user can create on their choice.

  3. An important component of the speech option is the speech confidence score which measures the score of the answer speech quality of the customer according to the question . Ranging from 0.1 till 0.99 is the scale that is used to determine the quality of the answer speech .Which can be used in multiple ways by users by adding a condition node or a function as they like.

  4. Similar to the buttons in question nodes in text bots, the Voice Bot question node also contains answer buttons and users can use them to move to another node or trigger another flow.

Advanced Settings in speech Node

The advanced settings allows users to access more customized settings which can increase the response accuracy of the Voice Bot bot in specific communications.

The Speech model has three options to choose from, the first is numbers and commands and the second is phone calls.

Each option is tailored to respond according to the specified conversation, but If not sure use default settings and experiment with speech models until the desired results are acquired.

  1. The second is the speech recognition language setting and from here the user can decide to choose from a large number of languages and dialects to get more accurate responses .

  2. The speech recognition hints allows the users to input data for the Voice Bot system to understand the specific type of answers that it will face and will determine the customer response more accurately by comparing it from the speech recognition hints.

  3. Lastly, allowing the DTMF input option can be used by the users to enter the number of digits that the user will input such as phone number, ticket number or card details.

DTMF Option

The DTMF option allows users to put in long questions in the question box while giving options to the customers to choose from .The customer can only use the numerical options given by the user.

 

  1. The question box can be used by the user to explain to the customer about the numerical options available to the customers.

  2. The user can set the number of digits that will be inserted by the customer depending on the conversation.

  3. The response can be saved in both numerical and text variables by specifying the chosen variable in the save response to the field.

  4. The answer buttons in the DTMF can be used to jump to another node or flow depending on the answer.

  5. The advanced settings have only the option of a stop gathering button which can be used by the user to stop the process of the Voice Bot or the question node by specifying the number or key to the customer .


Record Option

The record option in the question node allows the user to take in customer response in form of a recording , similarly a message time length can be set by the user to take in desired recorded data .

 

  1. The question box can be used by the user to give information to the customer about the message being recorded or to simply leave a suggestion or a reply .

  2. The recordings will be saved in the UChat platform which can be downloaded but the recordings will be saved in a URL form in text variable.

  3. In advanced settings the User can define a particular key to stop recording or specify the maximum duration of recording and use other options to trim the silence or play a beep sound marking the start of recording for customers.

The Recordings

The recordings are stored in the UChat platform and the users can access the recordings by navigating from the left menu bar and searching for the recordings menu.

From there the users can access all the recordings being made by the bot of the customers it interacted from . The users can use the recordings as they like .

Transfer Option

The transfer option allows the user to transfer the call to another number while also recording the answer of the customer.

 

  1. The message box allows the user to give a message to the customer before the call is transferred to the particular number.

  2. The number to be transferred can be simply put as a normal numerical phone number or in a variable form of phone number.

  3. The status of transfer can be saved into a variable as well in the save transfer status response option.

  4. In case of a transfer fail a next step can be defined by the user by using the transfer fail button.

  5. To increase the accuracy of the conversation call whisper can be used as well .

  6. Using the advanced options of Transfer the user can record the call , end the call by specifying a number or a key and choose to display the caller ID.

Payment Option

The payment option allows the user to get payment instantly on call in Voice Bot from the customer . The Voice Bot bot will ask the customer about the payment card information or a specified option set by the user .

  1. The Edit prompt option allows the user to define their own custom options and texts that will be read to the customer. The prompts can be written in the form of text or any variable .

  2. The prompts will only work when the user Twilio account has PCI mode enabled.

  3. After connecting the desired payment option make sure to get a unique connector name from the selected payment service.

  4. Enter the unique name in the payment connector option in the payment question node and the payment option will start to work.

  5. The amount that will be charged can be written in as a numerical form or a variable can be used to perform the task.

  6. Lastly, The response of the customer will be saved in a JSON variable in the save Response to field.

  7. If the payment fails then the option of Payment fail button can be used to inform the user that the payment transfer has failed and the payment operation can be repeated or any other operations can be performed.

The Message Node

The message node in a Voice Bot bot is very different compared to the text automation bots ,It converts the given text in the message box into speech .

The message node has three different but very simple options.

  1. The first is simply the message option,

  2. The Audio option and lastly

  3. The settings for text after music on hold.

The language to speech can be changed to specific languages using the Text to Speech Language for this node.

 

Text Option

The text option is a simple message box which turns the text or variables into speech form. The user can use multiple variables or even a long text which will be converted into speech .

 

Audio Option

The Audio option allows the user to use a desired recording to increase the accuracy of the conversation.

  1. From Uploading your own file

  2. Choosing from the URL

  3. Using the library recording of UChat

Users can choose any option they desire.

Music On Hold Option

This option allows users to turn a text message into speech after being on hold. The message can either be used in written text form in the text box or set up in a variable.

Comment Node

A new addition in UChat nodes is the comment node. It allows users to put up comments in the flows or on particular nodes to help them understand better what has been done and what changes can be made,Comment nodes can simply be added on top of nodes or in the flow and is not involved in the computation process of nodes.

The comment node contains simply three options that provide adjustability to the users for effective use in their work.

  1. The comment box in the comment node allows the user to enter the desired text in the comment box which will be displayed by the comment node on the flows.

  2. The width option allows the user to adjust the size of the box ranging from the options of small,medium and large boxes .

  3. Similarly, The font size option allows the user to select from the text font size options . The options start from the extra small text option to the extra large text option.The user can decide which option suits them best for their use.

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