Queued Callback and Voicemail (Flex UI 1.x.x)

The Queued Callback and Voicemail for Flex solution helps Flex admins automate handling of agent callback requests from customers instead of having them wait longer in a queue. In this solution, the customer hears the callback menu options as soon as they call the number provisioned on your Flex application. Your contact center agents will receive the details including the requested callback number, and a localized time for the customer's inbound call.

The call is on hold for the period of time that you've configured within queue-menu.protected.js. When the time period expires, it will go on and route according to the workflow configuration.

User leaving a voicemail message or requesting a callback from an agent

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Agent calling the user

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This solution leverages Twilio Studio and Twilio Functions & Assets (Serverless) to give the customer options to register for a callback or leave a voicemail. When the customer decides on:

• Registering for a callback

  • A new Callback task is created in TaskRouter
  • The task is routed to the same workflow that the originating call was on, which means that it follows the same logic of routing calls to agents as the originating call placed by the customer

• Leaving a voicemail message

  • Limitation: 20-30 second audio recording and transcription
  • After the agent gives the customer a callback (3 attempts), they get the option to delete the recording

To deploy this solution, you will need:

• An active Twilio account with Flex provisioned. Refer to the Flex Quickstart to create one.

• npm version 6.0.0 or higher (type npm -v in your terminal to check)

• A Node.js long-term-support (LTS) version installed, 14 recommended (type node -v in your terminal to check)

• Native Dialpad configured on your Flex application

• Twilio CLI along with the Flex CLI Plugin and the Serverless Plugin. Run the following commands to install them:

  Copy code block

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  # Install the Twilio CLI
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  npm install [email protected] -g
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  # Install the Serverless and Flex as Plugins
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  twilio plugins:install @twilio-labs/plugin-serverless
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  twilio plugins:install @twilio-labs/plugin-flex

30-45 minutes

• Flex v1.18.1 - 1.30.1
• macOS / Unix
• Windows 10

In order to use the solution, you need to prepare your Flex Task Assignment workspace.

Navigate to your Flex project in the Twilio Console. Copy your ACCOUNT SID and AUTH TOKEN, and create a new Twilio CLI profile using those credentials:

twilio profiles:create

You will be prompted to enter your Twilio Account SID, Auth Token, and a shorthand identifier for your profile. When choosing a shorthand identifier, pick one that is meaningful and that you can remember. Once your profile has been created, activate it by running:

twilio profiles:use PROFILE_ID

Keep in mind that this account will be used for the rest of the deployment. In order to switch accounts, use the following command:

twilio profiles:use DIFFERENT_PROFILE_ID

Retrieve your Flex Task Assignment workspace ID:

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twilio api:taskrouter:v1:workspaces:list
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Example Workspace SID

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SID                                      Friendly Name               Prioritize Queue Order
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WSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX       Flex Task Assignment        FIFO
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To retrieve your Flex workspace SID from the Twilio Console, navigate to the TaskRouter Dashboard.

In the Twilio Console, select your Flex project and navigate to All Products & Services > TaskRouter > Workspaces > Flex Task Assignment > Task Channels. Create two task channels: one for callback and one for voicemail, so you can route the associated tasks to available agents.

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Create a task queue for callback and voicemail tasks named CallbackandVoicemailQueue. Make sure to pass 1==0 as the queue expression. This effectively "queues" callback and voicemail tasks.

Create workflow filters for each callback attempt. In this guide, we will modify the "Assign To Anyone" workflow and configure three filters. Run the following command in a command shell:

• For each filter, replace the queue fields in the JSON configuration with the SIDs of the "Callback and Voicemail" queue (WQXXX) and the "Everyone" queue (WQYYY).
• Pass the "Assign to Anyone" workflow SID (WWXXX) to the --sid CLI flag.
• Also set the default queue to the SID of the "Everyone" Queue (WQYYY). Replace the --workspace-sid value (WSYYY)in the API request with your Flex Task Assignment workspace.

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CONFIGURATION=$(cat << EOF
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{
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  "task_routing": {
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    "filters": [
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      {
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        "filter_friendly_name": "Attempt 1",
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        "expression": "(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==1",
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        "targets": [
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          {
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            "queue": "WQXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
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            "timeout": 10
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          },
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          {
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            "queue": "WQYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
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          }
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        ]
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      },
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      {
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        "filter_friendly_name": "Attempt 2",
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        "expression": "(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==2",
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        "targets": [
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          {
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            "queue": "WQXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
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            "timeout": 20
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          },
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          {
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            "queue": "WQYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
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          }
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        ]
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      },
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      {
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        "filter_friendly_name": "Attempt 3",
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        "expression": "(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==3",
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        "targets": [
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          {
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            "queue": "WQXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
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            "timeout": 30
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          },
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          {
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            "queue": "WQYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
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          }
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        ]
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      }
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    ],
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    "default_filter": {
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      "queue": "WQYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
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    }
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  }
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}
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EOF
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)
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twilio api:taskrouter:v1:workspaces:workflows:update --sid="WWXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" --workspace-sid="WSYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" --configuration "$CONFIGURATION"

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set QUEUESID1=WQXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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set QUEUESID2=WQYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
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set WORKSPACESID=WSYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
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set WORKFLOWSID=WWXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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twilio api:taskrouter:v1:workspaces:workflows:update --sid=%WORKFLOWSID% --workspace-sid=%WORKSPACESID% --configuration="{ ""task_routing"": { ""filters"": [ { ""filter_friendly_name"": ""Attempt 1"", ""expression"": ""(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==1"", ""targets"": [ { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID1%"", ""timeout"": 10 }, { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID2%"" } ] }, { ""filter_friendly_name"": ""Attempt 2"", ""expression"": ""(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==2"", ""targets"": [ { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID1%"", ""timeout"": 20 }, { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID2%"" } ] }, { ""filter_friendly_name"": ""Attempt 3"", ""expression"": ""(taskType=='callback' OR taskType=='voicemail') AND placeCallRetry==3"", ""targets"": [ { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID1%"", ""timeout"": 30 }, { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID2%"" } ] } ], ""default_filter"": { ""queue"": ""%QUEUESID2%"" } }}"

Example API Response

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SID                                                                 Friendly Name      Document Content Type
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WWXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                  Assign to Anyone   null
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To learn about configuring more complex workflows, see Create a Workflow Resource and Configuring Workflows: Complex Routing Example.

Step 1: In your browser, download the plugin source code and unzip the files in a local directory.

Step 2: From plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail-main, run npm install to install the plugin package dependencies.

We will deploy the functions associated with the Callback and Voicemail Flex plugin to your Flex application. The functions are called from the plugin you will deploy in the next step and integrate with TaskRouter, passing in required attributes to generate the callback and voicemail tasks, depending on the customer selection while listening to the in-queue menu options.

Step 1: From the root directory of your copy of the source code, change into serverless and rename .env.example to .env.

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cd serverless && mv .env.example .env
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C:\Users\xxxxxx\plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail-main> cd serverless && move .env.example .env

1 file(s) moved.

Step 2: Open .env with your text editor and modify TWILIO_WORKSPACE_SID with your Flex Task Assignment SID.

TWILIO_WORKSPACE_SID=WSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Step 3: Run npm install to install your Serverless dependencies.

To deploy your Callback and Voicemail functions and assets, run the following:

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twilio serverless:deploy --assets
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Example Output

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Deploying functions & assets to the Twilio Runtime
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Username ****************************
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Password ****************************
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Service Name plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions
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Environment dev
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Root Directory /Users/name/Downloads/plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail-main/serverless
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Dependencies axios, moment, moment-timezone, twilio-flex-token-validator
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Env Variables TWILIO_WORKSPACE_SID
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Runtime default
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✔ Serverless project successfully deployed
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Deployment Details
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Domain: plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io
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Service:
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plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions (xxxx)
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Environment:
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dev (xxxx)
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Build SID:
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xxxxx
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Runtime:
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node16
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View Live Logs:
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https://www.twilio.com/console/functions/editor/xxxx/environment/xxxx
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Functions:
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[private] https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/helpers
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[private] https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/options
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[protected] https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-callback
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[protected] https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-voicemail
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[protected] https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/queue-menu
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https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/inqueue-utils
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Assets:
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https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/assets/alertTone.mp3
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https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxxx-dev.twil.io/assets/guitar_music.mp3

Copy and save the domain returned when you deploy a function. You will need it in the next step.

If you forget to copy the domain, you can also find it by navigating to Functions > API > Environments in the Twilio Console.

Debugging Tip: Pass the -l or logging flag to review deployment logs. For example, you can pass -l debug to turn on debugging logs.

Step 1: With your Flex project selected, navigate to the Studio Dashboard.

Step 2: Click Create new Flow. Give it a friendly name. For example, "CallbackVoicemailFlow".

Step 3: Select Start from scratch. Click Next.

Step 4: Drag and drop Send to Flex from the Widget Library on the right corner of the screen.

Step 5: Connect it with the Incoming Call trigger.

Step 6: Select the Send to Flex widget. In the Config tab, enter the following details:

• Widget Name: Friendly name for your Send to Flex widget
• Workflow: Assign to Anyone
• Channel: Voice
• Attributes: { "type": "inbound", "name": "{{trigger.call.From}}", "direction": "inbound" }
• URL Method: POST
• Hold Music TwiML URL: https://<deployment-domain-name>/queue-menu?mode=main (Replace with the value you saved from the Functions and Assets deployment step)

Step 7: Click Save and Publish to apply your changes.

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Step 1: Navigate to the Phone Numbers page in the Twilio Console and click on the number associated with your Flex application.

Step 2: In Voice Configuration, update the incoming call trigger with the Studio Flow that you created.

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Step 3: Click Save configuration.

Once you have deployed the function, it is time to deploy the plugin to your Flex application.

Run the following commands in the plugin root directory. We will leverage the Twilio CLI to build and deploy the Plugin. First, rename .env.example to .env.

mv .env.example .env

C:\Users\mbermudez\plugin-queued-callbacks-and-voicemail-main>move .env.example .env

1 file(s) moved.

Open .env with your text editor and modify the REACT_APP_SERVICE_BASE_URL property to the Domain name you copied in the previous step. Make sure to prefix it with "https://".

 # .env REACT_APP_SERVICE_BASE_URL=https://plugin-queued-callbacks-voicemail-functions-xxx-dev.twil.io

When you are ready to deploy the plugin, run the following in a command shell:

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twilio flex:plugins:deploy --major --changelog "Change plugin to use the latest Flex plugin for the Twilio CLI" --description "Queued Callback and Voicemail Plugin"
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The previous step only deploys your plugin. You still need to enable the Plugin on your Flex application. To enable, run the following:

twilio flex:plugins:release --plugin [email protected] --name "Queued Callback and Voicemail" --description "Enabling queued callback and voicemail using Solution Guide"

After running the suggested next step, navigate to the Plugins Dashboard to review your recently deployed plugin and confirm that it's enabled for your contact center.

You are all set to test Queued Callback and Voicemail on your Flex application!

Step 1: Log in as an admin to the Flex instance where you deployed the plugin.

Step 2: Change your status to Available in the upper right corner of the Flex UI. This enables you to receive incoming calls and messages (SMS or chat).

Step 3: Call the number displayed on the landing page of your Flex application.

Step 4: Press "1" to listen to the menu options:

Press "1" again to remain in the queue.

Press "2" to receive a callback. Follow the callback number confirmation prompt.

Press "3" to leave a voicemail for the agent. Follow the prompt and leave your voicemail message. Press * when you're done. Note that your voicemail will be transcribed up to 30 seconds.

Step 5: When choosing the "callback" option, a preview callback task pops up on the Agent Desktop after the configured "timeout" setting in your workflow filter. In this example, we set it to 10 seconds.

• Accept the task. Upon accepting the task, the agent should see an Info panel with all the callback details as shown in the following image:

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• The agent can either place the callback immediately or forward the call to a queue of other agents.
• After wrapping up the call with the customer, the agent should also complete the callback task.

Step 6: When choosing the "voicemail" option, a preview voicemail task pops up on the Agent Desktop after the configured "timeout" setting in your workflow filter. In this example, we set it to 10 seconds.

• Accept the task. On accepting the task, the agent should see an Info panel with all the voicemail audio and text transcription as shown in the following image:

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• Similar to the callback task, the agent can either place the callback immediately or forward the call to a queue of other agents. After the third requeue attempt, you then have the option to delete the recording.
• After wrapping up the call with the customer, the agent should also complete the voicemail task.