Overview: Create Interaction module (Console)

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This article explains the Create Interaction workflow module and how to configure its interior in Console. 

In this article

Overview

The Create Interaction workflow module allows you to customize exactly how and where interactions are created from workflow sessions. 

Use this module when you want more control over the specific settings of the new  interaction, like which queue it’s built in, if it has tag(s) assigned to it, if there’s a custom field updated on it, and more. In short, this workflow module makes it simple to define each data point for a new interaction.

Configure interactions as you need it

The Create Interaction workflow module allows you to configure all the data related to a new interaction created from the workflow session. This means that you can set static values for the interaction so it’s always created with the same data, set dynamic values so the new interaction’s data is based on the data collected within the workflow session itself, or set a combination of both static  and dynamic values. 

When configuring this workflow module, you can configure it to build both voice and messaging interactions the same or differently to better meet the needs of its communication type.

Create Interaction module vs. Transfer module

The Create Interaction module functions similarly to the Transfer module in that they both can create an interaction in a specified queue. 

When opening a Create Interaction module for the first time in the Workflows editor, notice that the module’s data fields are pre-configured with the same default data, similar to the data that the Transfer module automatically manages. The default data points here include: customer phone number, customer name, inbound number name, tag details, and points. You can make modifications to these data fields as well as add or remove any of them. 

However, there are some key feature differences between these workflow modules. The primary difference is that the Create Interaction module allows you to make modifications, additions, or deletions to the data inserted into the interaction when it’s created. 

Additionally, this module, unlike the Transfer workflow module, allows you to decide how the module proceeds if an error occurs. 

In the event that the Create Interaction module experiences an error during the creation process, there’s a single exit port for the module. This allows you to configure how the workflow proceeds with the collected data in the case of an error.

Common use cases for the Create Interaction module

Below are some common use cases for using the Create Interaction module:

How it works

The Create Interaction module is used to customize the interaction creation process. This means that you can add, remove, or modify the standard interaction data fields before it's assigned to a user. 

Here’s an example of how you can implement a Create Interaction module in your workflow process:

Your business offers technical support to your customers by providing a direct phone line to your support department. Customers needing access to your support team have the ability to use this number through either phone call or text message. Each of these communication types are supported in their own queues, a messaging interaction queue and a voice interaction queue.

Your inbound workflow for these inquiries, which processes both phone calls and text messages, is configured to automate the process of asking some standard troubleshooting questions through a series of Say + Gather modules. These modules capture the customer’s responses as a set of variables. Once the customer has answered the standard troubleshooting questions, and the captured variables are recorded, you’re ready to configure the Create Interaction module.

Start by configuring the destination for the interaction by specifying where each interaction type is routed; route voice interactions to your ‘Support - Voice’ queue and route messaging interactions to your ‘Support - Messaging’ queue. Now, in addition to the standard interaction data fields like customer phone number and name, configure the Create Interaction module to take those pieces of custom data and input them into the corresponding, custom, interaction fields for both phone and messaging sessions. 

The module uses a data type of ‘Variable’ with the value of ‘{{yourCustomVariable}}’ to input the collected custom data into the custom object field selected from the Interaction Field menu. This same process repeats for each interaction data field configured with the corresponding data type and value.

Now that you have implemented the use of a Create Interaction module in your workflow process, your support team doesn’t need to repeat the full suite of troubleshooting steps with the customer.

Visual breakdown

Exterior structure

This is the exterior of Create Interaction. All modules share this same structure. Notice this module has one exit port.

Read the Overview: Workflow module structure in Workflows article to take a deeper dive into each of these components.

Interior structure

The interior structure of the Create Interaction module is broken into two sections: 

These two sections are structured the same as one another, but they give you the ability to create interactions differently to better customize how each interaction is created all from the same workflow module. This is especially useful if you prefer for voice interactions to function differently compared to messaging interactions.

Notice that when you open a Create Interaction module that a standard selection of data points is already configured for both Phone and Messaging communication types. 

You can add to the standard selections already made or remove any of the pre-populated items to meet your needs.

Phone

Messaging