img_blog

Automate, Track, and Manage Tasks for Amazon Connect Contact Center Agents

Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon Connect Tasks and how it improves agent productivity while enhancing the customer experience

Key Takeaways:

  • Contact center agents often track and follow up on items manually, which can be time-intensive and prone to errors. 
  • Amazon Connect Tasks empowers businesses to prioritize, assign, and track agent tasks in Connect to improve agent productivity and efficiency. 
  • With Tasks, agents can create and complete tasks without having to switch between multiple applications.   
  • Multiple options are available to set up tasks in Connect, and each one makes it simple for agents to keep track of everyday tasks and the responsibilities associated with them. 

Contact center agents can track and follow-up items manually. Yet, doing so can be time-consuming. It can also be prone to errors that hamper agent productivity and disrupt the customer experience. 

The Amazon Connect contact center platform lets you empower agents like never before. In fact, you can use Amazon Connect Tasks to prioritize, assign, and track agent tasks to boost productivity and customer satisfaction.

An in-depth look at Amazon Connect Tasks

Contact center agents can use Amazon Connect Tasks as a single interface to create and complete tasks and take calls and chats, even across applications. 

For example, an agent can receive a task in Connect with a description and link to the application he or she will need to complete it. They won’t need to switch between multiple applications to update a customer profile in Salesforce, open a case ticket, or perform other responsibilities associated with the task. The agent can instead complete all those task responsibilities within Amazon Connect, which minimizes the risk of errors and enhances the customer experience. 

Managers can take advantage of Amazon Connect Tasks to increase productivity and efficiency. Workflows allow you to automate tasks that require no agent interaction. You can also prioritize and assign tasks to agents depending on who is available and their expertise. Managers can even leverage built-in connectors from Salesforce, Zendesk, or other third-party tasks to create tasks across platforms. 

What is a task in Amazon Connect Tasks? 

A task is defined as any unit of work that an Amazon Connect contact center agent must complete. It is prioritized, assigned, and tracked in the same way as voice and chat in Connect.

Tasks can include work that comes from an external application, these integrations are accessible via the agent’s Contact Control Panel (CCP). 

You can add tasks to an agent’s profile in Amazon Connect. With Connect Tasks, you can specify that up to 10 tasks be assigned to an agent at once. 

When an agent is assigned a task, he or she will be notified accordingly. They receive a notification that describes the task, information associated with it, and links to related apps. That way, the agent has everything he or she needs to complete the task in one location. 

How to create tasks in Amazon Connect

Amazon Connect offers multiple options to create contact center agent tasks. Each option has its pros and cons and should be evaluated closely. 

Pre-built connectors for most customer relationship management (CRM) applications are available for Amazon Connect Tasks. These connectors let you create tasks automatically based on predefined conditions. They don’t require any custom development, either. 

Once you set up an external app to automatically generate tasks, you’ll need to add rules that tell Amazon Connect when to create those tasks and how to route them. To do so, log in to Connect and select Rules from the navigation menu. Next, choose Create a rule from the dropdown list, followed by External application. You’ll arrive at the Trigger and conditions page where you can assign a name to the rule. You’ll also need to choose an event that will generate the task, along with an instance of the external app where the event will occur. After you select these criteria, choose Next, and go to the Action page. Determine the task that will be generated once the rule is met and choose Save to finalize your rule. 

Following the creation of a task rule, test it by going to the external app associated with the rule and creating an event that initiates the action. Then, choose Metrics and quality, Contact search. Click on Channel, select Task, and choose Search. At this point, you can confirm that the task was created. If the task was not created, review your rule configuration and adjust as needed. 

You can also create quick connects that allow agents to create and manage tasks via their CCP. Quick connects allow these tasks to be created and managed for the agents themselves, other agents, or shared queues. 

If you leverage homegrown or business-specific applications, you can use them to create tasks using Amazon Connect APIs

How to track tasks in Amazon Connect

Real-time and historical metrics reports can be used to track tasks in Amazon Connect. These reports let you monitor average interaction, hold time, and other relevant metrics.  

Tasks can extend up to seven days. They are closed if an agent completes the task and all responsibilities associated with it or the seven-day limit is reached. A task can also be closed if a contact flow runs a Disconnect or hang up block or the StopContact API is used to stop it.

Get started with Amazon Connect Tasks

Amazon Connect Tasks is offered in AWS regions where Amazon Connect is available. It requires no upfront payments, long-term commitments, or minimum monthly fees. Instead, you pay for tasks as you create them. 

Ultimately, Amazon Connect Tasks can help you get the most value out of your contact center. Of course, if you want extra help with Connect, CloudHesive can also provide assistance. We offer Customer Connect, a tool that makes it easy to integrate Connect into any enterprise environment. Contact us today to learn more.