Linking IVR apps with CRM

The following article Using Voicent CRM Data shows the way to access and change the CRM fields from an IVR app. In this article we explain in more details.

1. theCustomer

The way to access Voicent CRM data is through a variable. All variables used in an IVR app must be declared in the top node. In the example, it is named as theCustomer, which is just a regular variable and can be named anything you like. It must be first initialized as a CRM variable that binds to a particular database table. In most cases, the table name should be CUSTOMER.

crminit(‘CUSTOMER’)

2. Link to a customer record

The crm variable must be linked to a particular customer record, which is accomplished by the searching a record with a phone number.

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(’16505555555′)

There are system variables that represent the current phone number. For outbound calls, use:

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(__VG__CALLED_NUMBER__)

and for inbound calls, use:

theCustomer.findbyphoneno(__VG__CALLER_ID_NUMBER__)

3. Get and Set CRM fields

Once theCustomer variable is linked to a customer record, then it can be used to manipulate the CRM fields through the dot notation. For example, to use the customer’s first name in a prompt, use

theCustomer.FIRST_NAME

For a custom field, for example, Order_Number, use

theCustomer.Order_Number = ’12345′