Using custom announcements

How do I dynamically select the announcement to play to each caller?

If enabled for your account, you can customize the announcement or announcements that a Data Announcer applet plays to each caller. The Data Announcer uses a value or values in a data source to identify the audio file or files to play.

To configure this feature, perform the following tasks:

1. To use custom audio files, record and save the audio files you need and upload these to Amazon S3. For information about recording suitable audio files, see Recording and preparing audio used in applets. For information about uploading audio files to Amazon S3, see Using the Amazon Simple Storage Service. If you want to use generic or Vonage Contact Center default audio files, you do not need to do this.
2. Ensure that you have a data source that contains the appropriate value or values available to the Data Announcer. The value or values in the data source must match (including the case) the file name or names of the appropriate audio file or files; multiple values must be comma-separated. You can also use relative paths rather than just file names if the audio file is stored within a folder.
   You can use any applet that stores data in a data source to create the data sources. The following applets create data sources:
   • Data Connector applet. For information about the Data Connector applet, see Data Connector applet.
   • IVR Collect Digit applet. For information about the IVR Collect Digit applet, see IVR Collect Digit applet.
   • IVR Collect Digit String applet. For information about the IVR Collect Digit String applet, see IVR Collect Digit String applet.
   • IVR Set Menu Digit applet. For information about the IVR Set Menu Digit applet, see IVR Set Menu Digit applet.
   • IVR Set Menu String applet. For information about the Set Menu String applet, see IVR Set Menu String applet.
   • Set Data Source applet. For information about the Set Data Source applet, see Set Data Source applet.

   You can also use an existing data source; by default, all calls have the following data sources available:

   • Call Guid
   • CLID

   • Dialled Number

     The Dialled Number ($(DialledNumber)) data source contains the ID of the interaction plan rather than its phone number. The ID and the phone number will often be the same, but this is not guaranteed. Therefore you should not use $(DialledNumber) to indicate the number dialed by the caller.

   • Language

   • First Agent ID

     First Agent ID is only populated after Vonage Contact Center has routed the call through an ACD applet to an agent.

   • DisplayName. By default, DisplayName contains the CLID of the inbound caller. For information about using a custom value in the DisplayName data source, see Setting a display name for an inbound call.
   • InteractionOutcome. By default, InteractionOutcome contains the outcome of the interaction. For information about interaction outcomes, see Interaction outcomes.
   • Interaction Start Time. The time, in UTC, that the interaction starts. For callbacks, InteractionStartTime will be the start of the original interaction.

   If you use a post-call named route for post-interaction processing, all data sources configured at the time the interaction finishes (including InteractionOutcome) are available to the target named route.

3. In the same interaction plan as your data source, create a Data Announcer applet.
   In Announcement Type, select Audio File. In Announce From, select the data source that contains the required value or values. For more information about the Data Announcer applet, see Data Announcer applet.

The Data Announcer applet uses the value or values in the specified data source, plus settings configured for the current node, to build the URL or URLs of an audio file or files to play. If the data source contains a comma-separated list of values, the Data Announcer looks for and plays all corresponding audio files in the order in which they appear. If the audio file or any of the audio files do not exist, the Data Announcer plays no audio and routes the call to the applet specified in the Next Applet on Failure field.