question

Richard Hill avatar image
Richard Hill asked Phong Vu commented

Voicemail - Call-Out Notification (w/ Escalation)

Hi, we are looking for a solution to replace the call-out (via escalation list) feature from Avaya Voicemail Pro. Is anyone aware of a plug-in app or development for RC which provides this functionality?

Example:

1. Voicemail received

2. Mailbox calls out to other numbers, via an escalation list, notifying them of a new message.

3. If the first person doesn't answer and read the VM, the system waits 30 seconds then calls the next person in escalation, and so on.

4. Loop ends when the message is marked as read.


voicemailnotifications
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Phong Vu avatar image
Phong Vu answered

First of all, I don't think that there is any plug-in out there to do such a task. And for development, I could say that this is doable with the RingCentral API platform. Are you a developer yourself or does your company have a development team to work on this?

Nevertheless, can you clarify the step 2? Who will make the call out to whom?

Please read virtual voicemail assistant blog to get familiar with voicemail notification.


Let me know.

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Richard Hill avatar image
Richard Hill answered Phong Vu commented

Hi Phong, thanks for your response. I am not a developer, we do have developers on our team but nobody with RC development experience specifically. Your article looks very helpful, thank you.

To clarify, we use this feature to notify employees on call of a new message. We typically have three employees on call overnight - #1 is the primary, #2 is the backup, and #3 is the supervisor. These employees will change week-to-week and we update the VM Pro application with the new on-call numbers on a weekly basis. We have Avaya VM Pro configured to call out with a notification to our on-call list whenever a new message is received in a specific mailbox, as we have found SMS and Emails notifications don't work well when trying to get through to an employee overnight.

When a new message is left in the after-hours mailbox, this is the flow we have today with Avaya VM Pro:

1. Mailbox dials out to employee #1 - they receive a message "You have a voicemail, press #1 to listen"

If message remains unread, system waits 30s then redials. If unread again, moves to step 2

2. Mailbox dials out to employee #2 - they receive the same message "You have a voicemail, press #1 to listen"

If message remains unread, wait 30s then redial....etc

This repeats for all three employees on the list, then goes back to the top again. This will repeat until the message is marked as read.

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Phong Vu avatar image Phong Vu ♦♦ commented ·

Thanks Richard for the clarification!

There is an API named /call-out to programmatically dial a number, but once the call is connected, it does not play back prerecorded audio. So that API cannot be used in this use case.

There is a possibility to implement your own SIP phone, which can dial out to the employees, play a prerecorded audio, and accept DTMF response.

My colleague wrote these articles describing steps and methods of how to implement those features using the open source PJSIP library.

PJSIP and RingCentral — Part 1: Get Started

PJSIP and RingCentral — Part 2: Handle Audio Medias

PJSIP and RingCentral — Part 3: DTMF

Please read the articles and check the demo codes to learn more about it. For accessing the voicemail binary content (for playing back) and mark the voicemail status as read/unread, refer to the other article I shared earlier.

Hope this helps.

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Trent Renta avatar image
Trent Renta answered

This is a must have for our organization. For the same reason as you...we have physicians on call overnight and need a "nag feature" coupled with escalation options to other providers should the first person be unresponsive to the voicemail.

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Developer sandbox tools

Using the RingCentral Phone for Desktop, you can dial or receive test calls, send and receive test SMS or Fax messages in your sandbox environment.

Download RingCentral Phone for Desktop:

Tip: switch to the "sandbox mode" before logging in the app:

  • On MacOS: press "fn + command + f2" keys
  • On Windows: press "Ctrl + F2" keys