Failure paths in Architect

As a recommended practice when planning and creating flows, Architect flow authors should consider the potential for failure and plan accordingly. Properly designed failure handling provides a sequence of actions when a specific action fails.

Architect offers two ways to set up failure and error handling:

Default error handling under Settings > Event Handling for user error, such as an invalid entry made by a caller.
Action-specific failure path configuration in Call Data action and Collect Input data actions, and in Transfer actions.

Default error handlingClick to expand

Error handling for call and voicemail flowsClick to expand

Name	Description and use
Pre-handling audio	Select an existing audio prompt or create an audio sequence that alerts the caller to an error and the action to follow.
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. Choose from the following actions: Disconnect the call Transfer the call to a queue Jump to a menu Jump to a reusable task Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select the menu, task, or queue in which to transfer the call.
Menu	Select which default menu that the flow falls back to when an error occurs.

Name

Description and use

Pre-handling audio

Select an existing audio prompt or create an audio sequence that alerts the caller to an error and the action to follow.

Handling

Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. Choose from the following actions:

Disconnect the call
Transfer the call to a queue
Jump to a menu
Jump to a reusable task

Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select the menu, task, or queue in which to transfer the call.

Select which default menu that the flow falls back to when an error occurs.

Error handling for email, chat, and message flowsClick to expand

Name	Description and use
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select the following actions: Disconnect the flow Transfer the email, message, or chat to a queue Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select which queue in which to transfer the interaction.

Name

Description and use

Handling

Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select the following actions:

Disconnect the flow
Transfer the email, message, or chat to a queue

Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select which queue in which to transfer the interaction.

Error handling for voice and digital bot flowsClick to expand

Error event

Name	Description
Handover	Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence that alerts the caller of an error and the action that follows.
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select the following actions: Exit the bot flow Disconnect the interaction

Name

Description

Handover

Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence that alerts the caller of an error and the action that follows.

Handling

Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select the following actions:

Exit the bot flow
Disconnect the interaction

Recognition failure event

Note: If the flow reaches the maximum number of retries for a second time; for example, in another part of the bot flow or in another task, the flow automatically enters error event handling.

Name	Description
Handover	Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence that alerts the caller of an error and the action that follows.
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select one of the following actions: Exit the bot flow Disconnect the interaction Jump to a reusable task Note: If you select Jump to Reusable Task, this section changes from Handling to Task. Perform one of these steps: To choose an existing task, click the list and select the appropriate task. To view or edit the task that you select, click Go to Task . To create a new reusable task, click Create New Task and configure the task according to your specifications. Under Subsequent Recognition Failures, select one of the following options: Exit the Flow (default): The bot exits the flow if the recognition failure event occurs for the second time. The reusable task is executed only once. Execute Task: The bot continues to execute the reusable task for all subsequent recognition failure events.

Name

Description

Handover

Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence that alerts the caller of an error and the action that follows.

Handling

Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select one of the following actions:

Exit the bot flow
Disconnect the interaction
Jump to a reusable task

Note: If you select Jump to Reusable Task, this section changes from Handling to Task. Perform one of these steps:

To choose an existing task, click the list and select the appropriate task.
To view or edit the task that you select, click Go to Task .
To create a new reusable task, click Create New Task and configure the task according to your specifications.
Under Subsequent Recognition Failures, select one of the following options:
- Exit the Flow (default): The bot exits the flow if the recognition failure event occurs for the second time. The reusable task is executed only once.
- Execute Task: The bot continues to execute the reusable task for all subsequent recognition failure events.

Agent escalation

Agent escalation automatically detects a customer's preference to speak to an agent without a specific intent to capture this behavior. For more information, see Agent escalation in bot flows.

Note: If the flow reaches the maximum number of retries for a second time; for example, in another part of the bot flow or in another task, the flow automatically exits the bot flow with the AgentRequestedByUser reason.

Name	Description
Enable Agent Escalation	Allow or prevent the bot flow from listening when a customer requests to speak to a human agent.
Confirmation	Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence the bot sends to confirm that it understands the customer's intent. Note: To configure the bot to bypass the confirmation request and instead directly escalate the user to a human agent, leave this field NOT_SET or empty.
Handover (bot flows only)	Select an existing audio prompt or text or create a communication sequence that alerts the caller of an error and the action that follows. The bot uses this response when the participant requests to speak to an agent and replies affirmatively to the confirmation prompt. After the handover prompt plays, the bot exits and returns to the calling flow that started this bot flow.
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. You can select one of the following actions: Exit the bot flow Disconnect the interaction Jump to a reusable task Note: If you select Jump to Reusable Task, this section changes from Handling to Task. Perform one of these steps: To choose an existing task, click the list and select the appropriate task. To view or edit the task that you select, click Go to Task . To create a new reusable task, click Create New Task and configure the task according to your specifications.

Error handling for in-queue call, email, and message flowsClick to expand

In-queue call flow error events

Name	Description
Pre-handling audio	Select an existing audio prompt or create an audio sequence that alerts the caller to an error and the action to follow.
Handling	Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. Choose from the following actions: Disconnect the call Transfer the call to a queue Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select the menu, task, or queue in which to transfer the call.

Name

Description

Pre-handling audio

Select an existing audio prompt or create an audio sequence that alerts the caller to an error and the action to follow.

Handling

Select the action that you want Architect to take when an error occurs. Choose from the following actions:

Disconnect the call
Transfer the call to a queue

Note: Depending on the handling action you select, you can select the menu, task, or queue in which to transfer the call.

In-queue email and in-queue message flow error events

Name	Description
Handling	Select one of the following actions that you want the flow to take when an error occurs To end the current state in the in-queue flow, select End State. The flow continues to run so that subsequent invocations of the Periodic State occur. To end the current in-queue flow, flow, select End Flow.

Name

Description

Handling

Select one of the following actions that you want the flow to take when an error occurs

To end the current state in the in-queue flow, select End State. The flow continues to run so that subsequent invocations of the Periodic State occur.
To end the current in-queue flow, flow, select End Flow.

Action-specific failure pathsClick to expand

Define success, failure, and output paths

Name	Description
Success	This path indicates that the action successfully communicated with its external endpoint and received a result. Drag the appropriate action below the Success path to follow the route you want the interaction to take. For example, a screen pop action with contact information, an audio prompt, a transfer to the appropriate representative, or a combination of actions that follow your company's call or bot flow design. Note: An executed Success path indicates that no errors were encountered during the process. It is not a measure of whether the data received was the intended result or functionality.
Failure	This path indicates that there was an error executing the action or there was a problem processing the results from a data action. Drag the appropriate action below the Failure path to direct the route you want the interaction to take. For example, a play audio action to indicate that the action wasn't successful, a transfer action to send the caller to an agent or representative for assistance. Note: If the network experiences connectivity issues, the action automatically takes this failure path.
Timeout	This path indicates that the action has exceeded the specified amount of time to execute the action. Drag the appropriate action below the Timeout path, such as a transfer action to send the interaction to the main or previous menu, play audio and loop actions to give a caller the opportunity to try again, or a disconnect action to end the interaction. Note: Actions use either the default timeout or the flow author's specified timeout. If the action times out, the flow follows the route specified below the Timeout path. This feature ensures that the customer does not wait too long for the path to continue. As recommended practice, set the timeout length to not longer than 30 seconds.

Name

Description

Success

This path indicates that the action successfully communicated with its external endpoint and received a result.

Drag the appropriate action below the Success path to follow the route you want the interaction to take. For example, a screen pop action with contact information, an audio prompt, a transfer to the appropriate representative, or a combination of actions that follow your company's call or bot flow design.

Note: An executed Success path indicates that no errors were encountered during the process. It is not a measure of whether the data received was the intended result or functionality.

Failure

This path indicates that there was an error executing the action or there was a problem processing the results from a data action.

Drag the appropriate action below the Failure path to direct the route you want the interaction to take. For example, a play audio action to indicate that the action wasn't successful, a transfer action to send the caller to an agent or representative for assistance.

Note: If the network experiences connectivity issues, the action automatically takes this failure path.

Timeout

This path indicates that the action has exceeded the specified amount of time to execute the action.

Drag the appropriate action below the Timeout path, such as a transfer action to send the interaction to the main or previous menu, play audio and loop actions to give a caller the opportunity to try again, or a disconnect action to end the interaction.

Note: Actions use either the default timeout or the flow author's specified timeout. If the action times out, the flow follows the route specified below the Timeout path. This feature ensures that the customer does not wait too long for the path to continue. As recommended practice, set the timeout length to not longer than 30 seconds.

[NEXT] Was this article helpful?

Get user feedback about articles.