The Inbound voice feature is used to receive incoming voice calls and route them to the most appropriate agent within an organization. The inbound call routing ensures efficient and effective handling of incoming calls, improves customer service, and streamlines the communication processes.

Phone numbers are associated with inbound services for routing purposes. Inbound services route incoming calls based on the configured messaging and contact flow, in addition to the specified routing settings. Through the use of routing settings such as Service Groups, Agent Teams, and Agent skills, you can direct calls to specific agents logged into the LiveVox platform. 

LiveVox can procure phone numbers for you, or you can have numbers call forwarded to LiveVox, or you can go through the RespOrg process to be associated with your inbound services. When a customer calls any of your inbound phone numbers, the call is routed by the configured message and contact flow and either handled by the self-service IVR, sent to voicemail, or connected to an agent based on the routing configuration.

To initiate the RespOrg process, contact the Customer Care Team.

The following steps describe the Inbound Voice process:

  1. Procure an inbound phone number
    To configure an inbound service, you need phone numbers procured and configured by the LiveVox Customer Care Team. Contact LiveVox to provide you with phone numbers, as per your requirement.  

    For the LiveVox Customer Care Team to effectively process inbound number requests, you must include the following requirements:  

    • Specify the number of inbound phone numbers you require. 
    • Specify if you require a toll-free, local DID number, or a Caller ID package.
    • Provide the area code or city and state from which the local number should originate.
    • Specify the service with which the number(s) must be associated.

    You can create extensions when adding or updating agents (Configure > Agents > Agents).

    On the Configure > Services > Phone Numbers tab, you can view the assigned phone numbers (Inbound numbers, Agent Direct Lines, Caller ID packages, and Agent Dial-In numbers).
    For more information, see     the Phone Numbers in the Voice section. 
  2. Create an inbound service
    LiveVox sets up the services you intend to use when your client portal is created. Contact the Customer Care Team to create a new inbound service. The other option is to copy the existing inbound service to create an inbound service and make changes to its parameters. 
    For more information on copying a service, see Copying Services.
  3. Associate an inbound phone number to services
    Inbound or Blended services must have phone numbers associated with them for inbound voice traffic to be handled by the platform. These inbound Toll Free, Direct Dial, or Caller ID package phone numbers can also be configured for outbound Caller ID and Callback purposes. Callbacks to any phone numbers associated with an Inbound or Blended Service will be handled and routed based on the Contact Flow and Message also assigned to the Inbound or Blended service.
    For more information about associating an inbound service to a phone number, see Associate/Disassociate Services.
  4. Create and deploy a contact flow
    You can use the LiveVox Contact Flow editor to define the flow of any communication (Voice, Chat, Email, SMS, or WhatsApp) between your organization and customers. A contact flow primarily consists of modules (such as lookups, operator transfer, external transfer, check agent, check call center, and so on) and event connectors (for linking modules, setting the flow, or assigning system result codes). A module defines the behavior for the contact flow and specifies the default messages (phrases) to be displayed to customers. The high-level process is as follows:
    1. Create a contact flow.

    2. Assign the new contact flow to an existing message or create a new message.

      A message is a pre-recorded voice message (audio phrase) that is played when a customer dials an inbound number. A service is assigned a single message, but a message can be assigned to multiple services. For example, a message’s phrase may be “Hello, your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes”.

    3. Assign the contact flow to a service to ensure that the contact flow behaves as expected. You can assign the message to the service in the Phone Numbers tab of the Services editor.

    For more information about Contact Flows, see Working with Contact Flows.

  5. Associate messages to a contact flow
    Need a brief intro about why we associate messages to a contact flow and then refer to the Create messages section.
  6. Associate Services to a message
    After you create a message, you must then associate that message to an inbound service. To associate the message to the service, navigate to the Configure > Services > Phone Numbers tab and select the required Inbound message from the drop-down.

    You can view the associated services for a message in the Configure > Messaging > Messages editor.

  7. Specify operating hours for an inbound service: To specify operating hours for an inbound service, navigate to the Configure > Services> Inbound tab and configure the following:
    • Use the Configure Hours button to configure the hours of operation for the selected service.
    • Use the Inbound Hours option to define different call flow actions during operating hours and non-operating hours.
      For more information about how to specify operating hours, see the Inbound Tab of the Services editor. 
  8. Specify the preferred routing method for an inbound service: On the Configure > Services> Routing tab, the Preferred Routing option provides the following routing methods:
    • If you select Services, calls are routed to the agents assigned directly to the service. You can further route the call to subsets of agents for specific purposes.
    • If you select Service Group, calls are routed to the agents assigned to the services associated with a service group. The degree to which a service group uses the agent skill is defined by the type of service group. The following types are available for service group routing:
      • LONGEST_AVAILABLE_AGENT: If no agents with the required agent skill set are available, the call is transferred to the agent who has been available for the longest period of time in the same service group regardless of skill. Once the configured Service Max Wait Time is reached, the call is routed to the exit or failure path.
      • STRICT_CLASSIFICATION - If no agents with the required agent skill set are available, the call is routed to the exit or failure path. Also, once the configured Service Max Wait Time is reached, the call is routed to the exit or failure path.
      • Service Group STRICT_OVERFLOW - If agents with the proper skill are not available to take the call, it is placed on hold until the maximum hold time is reached. You can configure the ACD Max Wait Time Proficiency (1-10) in the message template. This parameter controls how long a call remains on hold while waiting for an agent with the corresponding skill set to become available. After the required waiting time, the system expands the target selection to include all agents in the service group, regardless of skill set and the call is bridged to the agent who has been available for the longest period of time. The search for an available agent continues until the service's Max Wait time is exceeded.
    • If you select Agent Teams, calls are routed to the agents within the Agent Teams.
      For more information, see the Routing Tab of the Services editor. 
  9. Prioritize Calls: LiveVox can set the prioritized routing traffic from a certain service (inbound or outbound) or a certain Interactive Voice Response (IVR) exit point.  The prioritization system decides call ordering based on a call's numerical priority value, assigned in the Messaging, compared to that of other call traffic's priority within the service group (SG).  Calls are only prioritized within their SG.

    The priority value, used for determining a delivery rank within the SG, is assigned to a service's message.  Priority values can range from 1-100.  A call with priority 1 will route before a call with priority 2.  A call without a defined priority will have the default value of 100, and will route after any other higher priority calls.  

    Set the priority value in the service's Message using the Message editor.

    • A LiveVox-generated Message will have the property named "priority."  There is only one IVR exit point.
    • A Message from the Contact Flow might have multiple IVR exit points.  Each IVR exit point will have its own priority property starting with the name of the agent transfer module.  This allows you to preferentially route certain exit points over others (and other traffic).  See image below for an example.

    If you would like to assign priority to a service's message but there is no priority property, contact the Customer Care Team to discuss options. 


    To have certain traffic prioritized, all inbound and outbound sources of traffic to be considered for prioritization must be in the "Inbound Mapping By Service" section of a single service group.  All calls in the SG will subsequently be ordered according to their Priority relative to each other, regardless of where the call came from.  In other words, to prioritize routing of inbound traffic overall outbound calls in a call center group, have the inbound and all outbound services in the "Inbound Mapping By Service" section and all outbound services in the "Outbound Mapping By Service" section. See the Mapping Services Groups for detailed instructions on assigning services in a service group. 

    It is important to note that services in the Outbound side of the SG can receive calls from any services in the Inbound side of the SG, including other outbound services.  In the following example, QC service 1 can receive outbound calls from QC service 1, outbound calls from RPC service 2, and inbound calls from Inbound service 3.

    • Inbound Mapping By service = QC service 1, RPC service 2, Inbound service 3
    • Outbound Mapping By service = QC service 1, RPC service 2

    Calls are prioritized only within their respective service group. If an outbound service is in more than one queue because it is in the Outbound SG mapping for multiple SGs, LiveVox does not guarantee inter-SG prioritization. In an example where the next call in SG A has priority 100, and the next call in SG B has priority 1, an outbound service shared by both SGs may receive either call next.



The following topics describe the Inbound Voice process: