Before starting, please make sure:
You've are registered with an Essential, Expert, or Custom plan with CloudTalk
You are an account admin. If you are not an admin, see troubleshooting tips at the bottom of the page for retrieving API Keys needed in step 8 below.
Setting up Automations
You will start by logging into your CloudTalk Dashboard. On the lefthand side of the screen, you will see a list of other tabs under Dashboard. To reach the automations tab, click on Account > Workflow Automations.
Click the blue button to + Add Workflow.
You can give your new Workflow Automation a name to distinguish it from other automated tasks you set up.
Sending a Followup SMS
In this example, we will use Workflow Automation to automate sending a followup SMS text. This one of many ways to automate workflow with CloudTalk.
Example Goal:
Send a text with a link as followup to a number we have tagged as a lead.
Steps:
Start by defining a trigger. In this example, our trigger will be the event of a call ending. Under Object, we will select Call. Under Action, we select Ended.
Adjust your own specifications as necessary.
Now we can choose to set up a condition. The condition will define an additional situation or category that must be met in order for our automated SMS to go out.
You can add multiple conditions, or choose to not use conditions at all by clicking the triple dots in the righthand corner of the box and clicking delete.
In our example, we only care if the call which ended (our trigger) was a sales lead. Therefore, we want to set a condition wherein the system will check if the call was tagged with lead. To populate the field correctly, click into the first box labeled Property, and view the list of available phrases to the right, labeled under Useful data for your Workflow. We will choose the phrase labeled tags.
Important: You must choose from this list of tag words in order for your condition to work correctly. You should see the Property box populate with a value that looks like the structure of the one in the picture (event.properties.tags)
In the second box labeled Operand, we will choose contains from the drop down list. When selecting your own operand, make sure it fits logically into your final statement (e.g., "is greater than or equal to" would best be paired with a number value).
In the third box, we fill in the value which we want tags to contain in order for our action to occur. Refer to the paired Example Values in the Useful data for your Workflow sidebar. In our example, the value is Lead. Click
Confirm and continue.We have just created a condition that will scan the tags of all calls ended, seeing if the tags contain "lead".
In most cases, sending a followup text takes place only in the case of an outgoing sales call. We wouldn't want our automated SMS to be sent when a contact calls into the business to ask a technical question, for example. Therefore, we can define a condition which will recognize the direction of the call—whether it is incoming or outgoing. Only continue if...event.properties.direction (the direction)->is equal to->
outgoing.
To avoid our automation taking place when no talk time has occurred (e.g., a dropped or cancelled call), we may choose to set up another condition, such that the process should Only continue if...event.properties.talking_time (talk time)->is greater than->
10. By making the value 10 seconds instead of zero, we have some buffer time in case of connection lag.
The next step is to choose an action which will happen when our conditions are met. We select the Action type SMS.
Values for api_key_id and api_key_secret can be retrieved manually by an admin from the API Keys tab here. If you are not an admin, consult an associate with Admin status who can help you get these values.
Check over the values in the Sender and Recipient fields. Edit the message and paste in the link you wish to be sent into the box labeled Value next to Key>text. Confirm that the agent's phone populating the Value next to Key>sender is from an agent phone with SMS enabled.
Note: Dynamic notation is represented by curly braces {{}} with an
object reference inside. These represent values which are filled
automatically, with their respective data pulled from the trigger
object. In case you don't want a field to be populated dynamically,
you can enter a fixed or static value.We can choose to Test now to make sure our conditions are working correctly. Be aware that clicking Submit for a Test will send a real SMS to the current number populated in the Recipient value. It's a good idea not to use real client numbers while testing.
Remember to Save or Save and activate to put our SMS Automation in place immediately.
We have now accomplished our goal of setting an automated SMS system which we can later edit and toggle off or on at our choosing.
Common Uses
In addition to sending a followup link via SMS, it is possible to request a rating, or even send information to another API by altering Action settings.
Troubleshooting Tips
❗Warning❗CloudTalk does not support sending SMS messages to short/ short code phone numbers.
Faulty conditions are often the result of unrecognized inputs in the Property box, or inputs in the Value box which will always result in no matches.
After clicking into the Property box, you must click one of the pre-selected keywords within the Useful data for your Workflow section to the right.
You can also refer to the Useful data for your Workflow section to validate whether the Value you entered seems to be a good match for the property you've chosen.
When setting a value for a condition that searches for tags>contains, spelling, case, and word choice matter. If the tag added to calls is written as "lead" but the Value entered contains typos ("leda"), a different case ("Lead"), or a different word altogether ("prospect"), your condition will never find matches.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out to our Support team, we are always happy to help!