Migration Guide from Classic IVR to Studio

Talkdesk Classic IVR

An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is a telephone menu system that aims to identify and segment contact persons and route them to the most suitable agent.

In a legacy IVR system, contact persons usually listen to pre-recorded greetings, messages, and prompts that lead them to make choices by pressing specific buttons on their phone's keypad. For example, the contact person may hear a message like "For customer support, press 1. For sales, press 2.". The IVR system then responds to the contact person’s selection by playing another pre-recorded message or by connecting the contact person to the appropriate agent or team.

Talkdesk Classic Inbound Routing includes the IVR itself, the overall routing settings, greetings, and business hours configuration, as well as more specific features like Dedicated Lines and Agent IVR/Voicemail.
Effective June 21, 2021, Talkdesk Classic Inbound Routing will no longer be available to sell to new customers. New customer accounts will only be able to configure inbound routing behavior through Studio.

Studio

Studio is an interactive visual designer that offers Talkdesk Admins a new way to create, modify, and improve contact center workflows. It relies on a powerful library of components, which are blocks of business logic that allow implementing advanced IVRs, performing data dips, or using speech recognition capabilities, which can be linked to each other to define more customized and differentiated customer journeys.

Studio Components mapping Classic IVR behavior
As mentioned above, Talkdesk Studio offers a series of Studio Components that can be used to define customer journeys. The following ones are the basis to customize and enrich workflows while migrating from Classic IVR to Studio.

Assignment and Dial
Calendar Based Rules
Forward to External
Request Callback from Queue
Send to Voicemail
Standard IVR
Time Based Rules

How to Migrate from Classic IVR to Studio?

To start leveraging Studio to orchestrate incoming calls, please refer to the following Classic IVR scenarios and the related Studio alternative:

Classic IVR Scenario	Classic IVR Scenario Description	What is the alternative in Studio?
Multi-Level IVR	Talkdesk’s multi-level IVR allows the creation of IVRs with multiple branches. For example, callers can press 1 for “Support”, which will route them to another IVR that allows them to select 2 for “Feature Support”.	Multilevel IVR By tidying up sequential Standard IVR steps it is possible to create an advanced IVR setup with multiple levels. A system like this allows us to better understand the topic of an interaction and decide on the next steps of the customer journey, either by providing the information contact persons need or by connecting them to the best possible agent or group of agents.
Chained Ring Groups	A chained ring group consists of sets of ring groups that are dialed sequentially, and where all agents of each ring group are also dialed sequentially. If no agent from the first ring group answers the call, then the next ring group is dialed.	Chained Routing Chained Routing can be implemented in Studio by using multiple Assignment and Dial steps connected to each other, leveraging different assignment strategies and agent statuses. If a voice interaction is not answered, it can be redirected to a different agent or set of agents with different skills and/or proficiencies. Interactions can also be forwarded to an external number or a voicemail. Note: Chained ring groups are being deprecated. Learn more about migrating to Chained Routing in these videos: - Migrating from Classic IVR to Studio - Setting up Ring Groups
Extensions	It is possible to enable extensions at the "Agent" and the "Phone number" level. The contact person should be given the option to dial the agent's extension before being connected. This can be achieved by playing a welcome greeting or an IVR welcome message, asking the contact person to introduce the desired extension.	Extensions With Studio, it is possible to gather extensions directly from the IVR using an "Input IVR" component. The contact person should be asked to input the agent's extension. The extension value inputted is gathered as the "digits" step variable. It can then be mapped to a flow variable and used in the next steps of the flow to look up that agent's email in the Customer's CRM or other external service and to route the call accordingly.
Holiday Hours	Holiday hours behave like regular business hours and modify the hours of operation for the entire day of the closing day or different/reduced hours for that day. As part of the holiday configuration, it is possible to include an optional holiday greeting that plays outside business hours on the day of the holiday. Schedule a holiday for the entire account and apply the holiday only to certain numbers.	Hours of Operation Calendar Based Rules component can be used in a Studio Flow to mimic this scenario by selecting specific dates (days or ranges) and defining related exits that will determine the routing logic for each day or range. Please refer to this article for information on how holidays defined at the account level can impact Studio.
Callback	The Queue Callback feature frees up the contact persons' time by allowing them to press a digit to reserve a place in the queue without having to wait in line. Contact persons can then hang up the phone knowing their position in the queue is retained and automatically delivered to the first available agent.	Request Callback from Queue Requesting a callback from the queue allows the incoming call to be disconnected and for the contact person to be contacted later, maintaining its place in the waiting queue. Callbacks can be performed to the source phone number, from where the voice interaction was placed, or to a different phone number, followed or not by an extension to be provided by the contact person. This is possible through our Studio Request Callback from Queue component. Additionally, it is also possible to offer a callback while on a queue by adding a Request Callback from Queue component as the next step of an (optional) alternative exit in the Assignment and Dial component. For more information on this setup, please refer to the Configuring a Waiting Message article.
Voicemail	Whenever the call is sent to voicemail, contact persons hear the following default message: "Please leave a message after the beep". Afterward, a message with a maximum duration of 10 minutes can be recorded.	Voicemail With the Studio Voicemail component, contact persons can drop a specific message to an agent/set of agents in scenarios where the contact center is closed or if, for other reasons, it is not possible to connect to a preferred agent. The message can be transcribed into English. Currently, no context is provided before the beep signal; therefore, we suggest a Play Audio component is used before the workflow reaches the Voicemail step to announce the voicemail offer.
Intelligent Reconnect	Intelligent Reconnect helps prioritize contact persons whose calls drop while speaking to an agent, saving them from having to wait in the queue again. This feature allows contact persons to be routed to their previous agent (or the previous queue, if the agent is unavailable) if they call back within 5 minutes of being disconnected.	Assigning a Call to the Same Agent Studio provides the ability to route an interaction to an agent, based on information stored in a third-party system. Assuming the external system contains information about the activities from the Contact Center, it is possible to fetch the activity/case/ticket owner, using a Salesforce data dip or an Execute action component, and, then, configure the assignment rules to route the interaction to that agent, through the Assignment and dial component.
IVR Reporting	When setting up a Talkdesk Legacy IVR and adding a new IVR prompt, it is necessary to define the number to be pressed for a specific rule that is defined (for example, when the contact person presses “1” then route to “agents” ring group). The information on these IVR options selected during the call, along with other relevant information on calls, call metadata, and call recordings for voice interactions occurring in Talkdesk®, are presented in Explore Calls Report.	IVR Reporting Each time a Studio flow is executed, the exit name that was followed is displayed in the Studio Flow Execution Report, in the line that corresponds to the execution of its related step. Additionally, when setting up a Studio Flow, in the Standard IVR step, we need to define the key to be pressed by the contact person, the related exit, and its next step. Under the “Preferences” tab of this step, the “Selection” variable can be mapped to populate the key pressed by the contact person. This information can then be exposed and displayed to agents in the Conversations App. Besides the “Selection” variable, the “exit_name” can also be mapped in the Standard IVR step - its value will retrieve the name of the exit assigned to the selected keypress. This information is also available to be exposed and displayed in Conversations.