LAB 1: - Proactive Journeys

About this lab

At Cisco, our customer experience (CX) strategy is centered around achieving the specific outcomes our customers value the most. The CX Business Unit has crafted a strategy that showcases Cisco’s unique capability to meet these outcomes through three primary pillars: Proactive Journeys, AI Agents, and Human Agents. Understanding how each pillar supports our overarching CX strategy is critical for delivering our solutions with confidence, credibility, and a consultative approach.

Our goal is to equip you with comprehensive expertise in this growth sector for Cisco and the market at large. While we will explore each pillar separately in the corresponding Labs, the bootcamp is designed to build a strong foundation that applies broadly across various technologies and solutions, reinforcing Cisco’s position as a differentiated partner for businesses seeking to enhance their customer experience.

In this lab, the focus is on the first pillar: Proactive Journeys. This session will cover a broader spectrum of technical features and concepts essential for developing effective proactive strategies. These strategies can significantly enhance efficiency and helps to reduce the cost to serve for the business significantly.

Our three key CX software workloads work together to reimagine customer experience:

• Proactive Journeys – Anticipate customer needs and proactively address issues before they arise.

• AI Agents – Automate and resolve common queries efficiently, reducing wait times and improving satisfaction.

• Human-AI Collaboration – Equip human agents, supervisors, and analysts with AI-driven insights and assistance, enhancing empathy and service quality.

Lab Objective

This lab introduces you to the following concepts: -

1. Design and build Webex Connect workflows that satisfy for the following journey requirements:

   • System triggered flows

   • User initiated flows

   • One-way transactional flows

   • Two-way automated flows

   • Channel fallback logic

   • Consent management

   • Social hours

   • Custom variables

2. Leverage messaging templates to streamline business user priorities without risking the technical components of a journey.

3. Leverage flow-driven REST API’s to personalize the customer experience as well as push and pull key response and tracking data to augment the value of and maintain client-side systems.

4. Leverage Journey Data Services to support a contextualized history of interactions and touchpoints with any given end-user.

Background

The proactive journey pillar of our CX portfolio is powered by WxConnect and it’s powerful low code no code flow builder and its relationship with external integrations, one-way and two-way SMS scenarios, internal CX-focused cross architecture such as JDS, and the flow builder’s out-of-the-box functions that allow platform users to perform otherwise complex development tasks in a configuration-based approach. These features combined offer brands an enormous advantage to rapidly develop, execute, and iterate on CX communications journeys – whether they’re proactive in nature, end-user initiated, or self-service oriented (also referred to as structured two-way engagements).

Lab 1 focuses on creating a structured flow that is a streamlined, systematic method to automate communications. It involves:

• Clear Objectives: Defined goals for each communication campaign.

• Sequential Steps: Ordered actions based on customer or system interactions.

• Decision Points: Branching paths depending on customer or system responses.

• Standardization: Reusable templates for consistent messaging.

• Documentation: Visual tools to map out and manage flows (ie., the flow builder canvas).

• Control Mechanisms: Analytics to monitor and optimize performance.

The structured flows offer a more guided experience for the customer.

When this lab is completed, we will have built our first workflow, that handles a two-way structured self-help delivery use-case for the Cisco Store. The persona chosen for this lab is an existing customer and the use-case represented is an online purchase of a Core Trio QI Charger (shown in the picture below) for delivery to an address already on file with the store’s source system that is referred to as CRM in this lab guide.

The lab will follow these steps in chronological order: -

1. Let us assume that you are the customer that just purchased the above charger from Cisco Store. The system will trigger a notification which will trigger a workflow responsible for proactively notifying the customer, that their purchase was successful and is being processed, and it indicates the details surrounding the order in a highly personalized manner.

2. Then the workflow will build on the previous step and inform the customer about the processed order and informs that the order is about to be shipped, offering the customer the ability to either confirm their delivery details are correct or tweak the delivery experience.

   • Throughout this workflow, you will be asked to request data from source system (CRM) to personalize the messaging and associated logic steps involved. You will also be asked to update the CRM based on the selections made by your end-user.

   • Throughout this workflow, key milestones in the customer’s journey are logged to capture contextual bread crumb trail so that the customer’s interactions with respect to this journey can be harnessed for improved awareness on the brand-side that will benefit both the brand’s operational efficiency and the customer’s overall experience.

3. The last workflow will be a SMS triggered workflow to allow the customer’s to initiate contact with the brand in a self-help capacity at any given time to check on their order status.

Due to the time constraints, we will not build the entire flow from scratch, instead we will copy a pre-built flow and modify the variables to match the Pod assigned to you.

Best Practices to consider

When designing workflows, there are typically a few considerations that are rules of thumb. Outside of these, it is up to the brand to structure the flow to get a customer from point A to B.

• The flows should minimize system overhead; this will reduce points of failure and time to complete the transaction.

• Example: - In proactive journeys, ensuring we have customer’s consent to message them is not only important – it is the law! To ensure we’re able to respect this business condition, Webex Connect has a built-in Contact Policy module. This is completely redundant if the customer already has a source of truth such as a CRM that they prefer to use instead. That said, the Contact Policy is a valuable ‘last line of defense’ option if the customer doesn’t trust their data or would simply prefer to use our ‘out of the box’ feature.

• Reporting and metrics are important to consider up front – make sure that whatever you’re building, and its corresponding flow-design, is architected in a manner that allows you to accurately and efficiently collect whatever key data points are valuable towards the use-case and the measurement of the solution.

• NOTE: For the purposes of this lab, we will be leveraging Journey Data Service as our repository for key insights regarding the customer’s progression.

• A single flow does not need to incorporate every single decision branch, API call, or interaction with an end user. Flows can trigger other flows at any step, meaning you can break up your use-case into more manageable pieces or even incorporate “Catch All” flows that triage any inbound message or keyword and funnels it down to the appropriate corresponding sub flow(s).

• Consider cost – By leveraging proactive journey’s, brands can serve their customers with the lowest cost per interaction compared to talking to a human agent.-->

Cisco Store Use-Case

First, let us understand the use-case or customer journey that is part of the workflow.

1. The first leg of the use case is triggered when the customer completes the purchase of the Core Trio Qi charger.

   

   • The business is going to send a transactional notification indicating their purchase is confirmed and being processed for shipment.

   • As soon as the customer completes the purchase, the CRM is updated with the customer information, and it triggers a notification request to be sent to the customer confirming the purchase.

2. The second leg of the use case is triggered when the customer order is shipped.

   

   • The notification is triggered when the order is shipped with the delivery date and the address. This notification includes the option to manage the order that includes changing the delivery date and safe zone designation to deliver the package.

Goal 1: - CRM Setup

1. To begin the lab, scan the QR code that is provided to you by the proctor

2. After you have answered the questions, you will receive the “POD” assignments with all the credentials that is required for this lab.

3. Open a web browser and navigate to http://crm.cxocoe.us and login with the “CRM Login and Password” that was provided to you in step #2

   

4. The first step is to create the customer record in the CRM. For this session, we are going to use a “API” end point as our CRM. To add your customer record, open a web browser and go to http://crm.cxocoe.us. The webpage displayed is as shown below.

   

5. Click on “Post CRM Data” at the top navigation bar or click on “Go” button displayed within Post CRM Data contact card.

   

6. Add the data to the following fields: -

   

   • First Name: - Enter your First name or a fake first name

   • Last Name: - Enter your Last name or a fake last name

   • Phone Number: - Enter your mobile number including the country code (For ex:- if you are in US and your phone number is +14088881111, please enter 14088881111), this should be a number that can receive SMS messages

   • SMS Consent: - Yes (for this lab, we will pretend to have obtained customer consent)

   • Order ID: - This will be automatically set to your phone number

   • Product Name: - Core Trio QI Charger

   • Delivery Address: - Any fake address

   • Delivery ETA: - any date in future

   • Delivery Status: - for the first part of the lab, set this to “Not Shipped”

   • Safe Location: - Set to either “Front Door”, “Back Door” or “Garage”

   • Time Zone: - America/Chicago

   • Alternate Date 1: - Set it to any date after DeliveryETA date

   • Alternate Date 1: - Set it to any date after DeliveryETA date that is different than Alternate Date 2

7. After entering the data, click “submit order data” button to create the CRM record.

   

   

8. If the data entry is successful, http response will show the status code “200 ok” as shown below.

   

9. To view the data, click on “Get CRM Data” in the top menu

   

10. In the “Get CRM data” screen, enter the phone number that was used to create the record in step #3 and click on “Get Data” button. Observe the result and verify the data that was entered. We will use this data as our CRM record for all parts of our lab.

    

11. In case you need to make any changes to the CRM data or record, click on “Update CRM Data” in the top menu.

    

12. To update any field, enter the phone number for the order Id. Click the drop down “Field to Update” to select field that needs to be updated and enter the updated information in the “New Value”. For Ex: - In the below image, we are going to update the “Alternate Date 1” from 4/01/2025 to 4/21/2025. In case, there is a need to update multiple fields, you can update one field at a time.

    

    

13. Now try step #10 – Get CRM data and validate the changes are updated.

Goal 2: - Get Started with the flow

Due to time constraints, for this goal you are going to copy an existing flow and modify it. Lab 2 will be focused on you building it so please don’t worry about not getting to put together the building blocks for the customer journey in this lab.

By now, you should have the “POD” assignments and the credentials for the pod. We are going to use the admin account for this part of the lab. The admin account is of the format admin\<pod#>@ciscolivelab.wbx.ai, where pod# is the pod number assigned to you. Ex: - Pod 22, the admin account will be admin22@ciscolivelab.wbx.ai

Let us get started!

1. Open a web browser and go to https://admin.webex.com and login with the assigned admin credentials for your pod.

2. On successful login, you should be on the Contact Center Overview landing page as shown below.

   Note: There will be an error message on the bottom right which can be ignored. It is an error message to let us know that the user was not added to few groups and can be ignored.

   

3. Click on “Webex Connect” under quick links. It will cross launch a new tab and display “Services”.

   Note: There will be an error message on the bottom right which can be ignored. It is an error message to let us know that the user was not added to few groups and can be ignored.

   

4. Click on “Search Services” and type in Pod \<your pod number> and press “Enter”. In my example below, my Pod # is 60

   

5. Click on Pod 60 and you will see the “Dashboard” as shown below.

   

6. Click on “Flows”.

   

7. There should be a starter flow called “Lab1 Starter Flow”. We will create a flow by copying the starter flow. Click on “Create Flow”.

   

8. The next screen presented is to “Create Flow”.

   

9. Add the following details: -

   • Flow Name: - Enter the name with Pod# Lab1 Proactive Journey. In my example below, the pod assigned is 60 and my flow name is “Pod60 Lab1 Proactive Journey”.

   • Method: click the drop-down selection and select “Copy from existing flow”.

   • Select Flow: click the drop-down selection and select “Lab1 Starter Flow”.

   • Click “Create”.

   

10. The proactive journey gets triggered when the CRM triggers the notification to a webhook. The next screen presented is to “Configure Webhook”.

    

11. Under “Configure webhook settings to trigger this flow”, select “Create new event” and add the following details.

    • Name: Pod# Lab1 Trigger. In the below example, the pod assigned is 60 and the name is set to “Pod60 Lab1 Trigger”.

    • Example Data: Copy and paste the following JSON code.

    • Note: - JSON is case sensitive so please make sure to pay attention to the JSON and maintain the same format.

    {
    "orderId" : ""
    }
    

    

12. Click on Parse button. This will create “orderId” as a variable that can be used throughout the flow.

    

    After the “Parse” button is clicked, observe the variable created under the “Parsed Variables(0)”. This method can be used to pass any number of custom variables from CRM or external data sources when triggering a flow. The variables created can also be accessed by clicking on “Output Variables”.

    

    

13. We will rename the “Configure Webhook” to “Trigger Proactive Journey” by clicking on the pencil icon as shown below. Enter the name and click the check mark to save the edits.

    

    

14. Click “Save” to save the node configuration.

15. Click “Save” at the top menu to save the flow. When the flow is saved, the “Errors & Warnings” message will pop up and we will work towards fixing the errors in the upcoming steps, but we will ignore the warnings. It is strongly recommended that warnings are addressed in a production environment for optimal experience.

    

    

Goal 3 – Configuring the flow

Orient yourself with the canvas/UI in Webex Connect and some key tools/functions (if you find yourself struggling, try our documentation page too @ help.webexconnect.io):

1. The first step is to identify the “SMS” nodes and modify them. The SMS node enables the brand to send outbound SMS message to their customers. The SMS node is indicated in the flow as below

   

2. The flow consists of 10 SMS nodes and each of the SMS node must be modified to include the SMS number. The power of WxConnect is its ability to create dynamic variables that makes the flow reusable. We will leverage a dynamic variable that stores the SMS number and assign this variable to the SMS nodes.

   

3. Open SMS node #1 as shown in step #2 by double clicking on the SMS node to open the configuration settings of this node.

   

4. Observe the image from the above step and note that “From Number” is blank. This is one of the errors reported when you save the flow. As mentioned earlier in the guide, we will be using a variable called “yourAssignedSMSNumber” to dynamically store the number. This variable is already created for you. To add this variable, click on “From Number” to select the field and then expand the “Custom Variables” on the right of the node as shown below and then click on “yourAssignedSMSNumber” variable to add it to the “From Number” field. Click save to save the node config.

   

   

5. Repeat the above steps for all the other 9 SMS nodes.

6. Click save on the top right after completing step #5.

7. Let us now open the configuration of SMS node #3 to understand the “Template” concept.

   

8. In this node configuration, observe that we are not configuring the SMS message to be sent directly in the node, instead we are utilizing messaging templates.

   

   Typically, you can proceed in one of two ways – you can simply populate the message in the body of the SMS node, or you can leverage templates. For the purposes of this lab, we’ll be going down the template path so that you not only understand how they work but also because it is often the case that customers don’t use the same teams to devise messaging content and technical integrations / wiring up of a solution. Thus, templates allow business users or marketeers to still control and own a piece of the build process (that they can iterate on later) without impacting IT and creating backlog for simple copy changes.

9. To check out the templates, please save your work and navigate out of the flow canvas by clicking the carrot (or chevron, if you prefer) that navigates you back into your service – top left of the page:

   

   Then click on the wrench in the menu panel to the left and select ‘Templates’.

   

   Click on any pre-configured template to view the template configuration.

   

   

10. Now that we have seen the templates and the purpose of templates, let us get back to modifying the flow by clicking on the tile window on the left.

    

    Search the Pod and click on the Pod # that is assigned to you.

    

    

    There will be two flows in your service, click on the flow “Pod# Lab1 Proactive Journey”.

11. As next step we must modify the “receive” nodes in the flow to add the sms numbers. Open each receieve node explicitly and click save, to save the configuration.Receive nodes facilitate the brands to receive message or message replies from their customers. Receive nodes in the flow can be identified by the below image.

    

12. There are 5 receive nodes in the flow as identified below.

    

13. Open “Receive” node #1 identified in step #12 by double clicking on the node to verify the configuration and click save.

    

14. Open all other “Receive” nodes to make sure the variable is set for the “Number” field and click save on each node.

15. If any of the “receive” node is not populated with the variable as shown below

    

    Click on the Number field and select “—Dynamic--” as shown below.

    

    Now expand the “Custom variables” located on the right hand side of the node and select “yourAssignedSMSNumber” as shown below.

    

    Now click on Keyword and select “*”. The “*“ keyword allows to accept any message. Click “save” to save the configuration.

16. Click “Save” on the top right corner to save the entire flow and observe the errors and warnings. There should be no errors reported, however there will be warnings that we will ignore for this lab.

    

17. We are all set to put the flow into production. Click on “Make Live”.

    

18. Make live configuration is presented, where we will assign the actual SMS number to the dynamic variable. Click on “Numbers” and select the SMS number that you received in the text by scanning the QR code along with your credentials. In the example below, the assigned SMS number to Pod60 is 14087862126.

    

    Click on “Numbers” field and select the number that was assigned to your pod.

    Note: - Please check the box against your assigned number only.

    

    

    Type your number in the format 1+\<phonenumber> as shown in the image below

    

19. Click “Make Live” to put the flow in production. Please note, the flow will take approximately 1 to 2 mins to be live. The status initially will show “Publishing” and will change to “Live” to indicate it is live and in production.

    

Goal 4 – Testing the Proactive Journey

It is now time to test the flow that we put in production. As mentioned previously in the lab guide, the flow that we built is triggered by certain notifications from the CRM or system of record updates. We will simulate this by creating this notification and keep your mobile phones ready, let us begin testing.

1. Open the flow that we put into production and double click on the first node “Trigger Proactive Journey”.

   

   In the configuration window, locate the field named “Webhook URL” and the url is of the format https://hooks.us.webexconnect.io/events/XXXXXXXXX. Copy the last part of the URL “XXXXXXXXXX” to test.

   

2. Open a web browser and login to http://crm.cxocoe.us with the credentials provided.

   

3. Click on “Kick off Proactive Flow”.

   

   • Phone Number: Enter your mobile number with country code. Ex: - 14081111111

   • Webhook Id: Enter the copied text from step #1

   Then click on “Start Flow” to trigger the proactive journey.

   

4. The flows provide debug capability to identify any issues with the configuration. The debug can be accessed by clicking on bug icon that is located on the right of the flow.

   

   The debug window contains list of transaction id’s that the flow has executed. Click on the appropriate transaction id to debug.

   

   The debug output is encrypted by default. Click “Decrypt Logs” to view the logs in plain text.

   

5. You should have received a proactive notification on your mobile phone notifying you the purchase of a Core Trio Qi charger!

   

6. Let us now create the shipped notification. Open web browser and login to http://crm.cxocoe.us with the provided credentials.

7. Click on “Update CRM Data”

   

   The field to update is Delivery Status and the value is “shipped”. Then click “Update Record”.

   

8. Now let us test again by repeating Step #3

   

9. Verify the messages that you received on your mobile phone

   

10. The test can be repeated for changing the date if desired.

Goal 5 – The Open Door Policy (OPTIONAL GOAL)

• Although this lab focuses on 'proactive' engagement – where the brand uses its insights to initiate contact at, or even before, a customer's moment of need – it's also crucial that customers can respond to these communications. Just as you might reply to a personal update with questions, customers should be able to engage in a dialogue with the brand following any initiated contact.

• When a brand sends a notification, you should have the capability to respond to it, asking any questions that fall within the scope of your relationship with the brand, regardless of the notification's original intent.

• Although there are different ways for solving this; structured flows vs scripted AI vs autonomous AI vs directing the query to a human on the brand-side, Cisco maintains a strong advantage in its ability to facilitate this ‘open door policy’ for any of our customers.

• Our final objective within this lab is precisely this, albeit through the lens of structure flows.

• As you will have likely noticed, in the final confirmation message we defined for the end-user, there was a call to action where we stated, “If at any time you would like to check on your order status, you can text STATUS to this number.” This now means that we need a way of capturing that keyword and acting on it.

  • NOTE: Keywords are not the only way of capturing user-initiated contact. We could instead go the route of a CatchAll flow that is literally open to any input from anyone and then filters input accordingly and funnels them down appropriate paths based on the governing business rules at play. We’re taking the keyword approach here to honor the ‘structured’ experience but please note this is not the only way, nor is it necessarily the recommended way depending on the use-case or breadth of technology at play within the solution.

• This one is relatively simple – here is what it should look like when you’re done:

  

Let us build this simple flow:

1. From the dashboard of your service, click on “Create Flow”.

   

2. In the “Create Flow” shown below, add the details.

   

   • Flow Name: Pod# Reactive Status Catch All

   • Method: New Flow

   • Click “Create”.

   

3. In “Select Trigger Category”, select “SMS” as the channel.

   

4. Once you’ve selected SMS, the “Configure SMS Event” window appears. Here you can define the keyword and/or conditions for the inbound message (known in industry terms as an MO – mobile Originated message).

   

5. Select your assigned SMS number from the “INCOMING NUMBER”.

   • Select * as the KEYWORD and then click to “VERIFY”. The verify button checks if there are other flows that utilize the same keyword and if it does, there will be an error displayed. You’ll see that instead of an actual keyword value in the ‘keyword’ field, we’ve placed an asterisk * which indicates to the corresponding flow and session that anything on the SMS channel addressed to the respective SMS number should be captured by this flow. Effectively, a ‘CatchAll’ at this point, however, as indicated in the screenshot to follow, we’ve put some boundaries up around this – indicating that the governing logic for the flow should only allow it to trigger on behalf of an entry if those conditions are met and if there are no other live sessions (meaning that if an end-user is in a separate flow’s session that corresponds to the same number, and they enter valid conditional keywords defined here, such as ‘status’ or ‘order’, this flow will NOT execute).

   • NOTE: The secondary conditions defined as ‘equalsignorecase’ are important to further enforce the rules governing if/when this flow gets triggered

   • To add conditions, check conditions and this will bring up the conditions box. Select “sms.message” under “Choose Field” and “equalsignorecase” under “Choose Condition”. For input value, type “status”.

   • Click “OR” button to add “OR” operator. Then select “sms message” and “equalsignorecase” as field and condition respectively. Type in “order” for the value. This ensures that the inbound message to the SMS number will trigger a flow if it matches either “status” or “order” in the keyword.

   • Click “Save”.

   

6. When we receive an inbound message from the customer asking for their order status, we need to look up the order information in the CRM or in the system of record. In the node palette, displayed to the left, click on integrations and find a node named “Custom CRM”. This can also be searched for using the search button.

   

7. Drag the “Custom CRM” node to the flow canvas next to the SMS node.

   

8. To wire the two nodes, click on the “green” dot of the SMS node and drag it until it snaps on to the “Custom CRM” node.

   

   

9. Now double click on the “Custom CRM” node to add details.

   

10. Click on “Select Method Name” and select “Fetch CRM Data”. This should enable the Phone Number field and to fill this, expand on “Start” listed under “Input Variables” that can be found on the right side of the panel as shown below.

    

    Click on “sms.senderNumber” variable found in the list.

    

    Click “Save” to save the configuration.

11. Next, you will simply add an SMS node to the flow and then select the template called Final Confirmation and populate the corresponding variables with the relevant parameters that is extracted via the Custom CRM node. From the node palette, under channels, select “SMS” and drag it to the canvas next to the “CRM” node. Now wire the CRM node to SMS node by clicking on the green dot and snapping it to the SMS node.

    

    

    

12. Click on the SMS node to configure.

    

    

    Observe the Message body and this is the power of templates, which allows the substitution of variables. All the variables for this section is derived from “Custom CRM”. To add the variables, click on the value field under each variable and then expand the “Custom CRM” on the right panel to choose the appropriate variables as shown below.

    

    

    Click “Save” to save the node configuration.

13. Let us capture the customer journey in Journey Data Service (JDS). JDS is a free form API that can be used across any system to capture the moments that matter for the customer journey. Find the JDS node from the node palette, under integrations, find JDS node and drag it to the canvas. Wire the connection by connecting the green dot from the previous SMS node to snap on to the JDS node.

    

14. Double click the JDS node to configure it. Click on Method Name and select “Create Events”. Fill the following details

    • Transaction Id: click on the field and select the variable “sms.transId” from the start node on the right of the panel.

    • What Type of Interaction: Order check

    • What is the Source of this Transaction: Website

    • Enter the Identity to Tag This Transaction: Click on the field and select “Custom CRM” on the right panel and in the variables click on orderId.

    • What Identity Type is This? From the drop down, select temporaryId

    • Enter the Subtitle Information: Enter text Order status request.

    • What Icon Type Do you want to use? Enter text email-happy

    • What is the title for this transaction: Enter text Order status request

    • What is the Product Name? Click on the field and select “Custom CRM” on the right panel and in the variables click on productName.

    • What is the Website Information: Enter text [cisco](www.cisco.com)

    • What was the last Action: Enter Text Order status update request.

    • What was the channel used for this transaction: Enter text SMS.

    • What is the Order Id: Click on the field and select “Custom CRM” on the right panel and in the variables click on orderId.

    • What is the delivery status: Click on the field and select “Custom CRM” on the right panel and in the variables click on deliveryStatus.

    

    

    

    Click “Save” to save the node configuration.

15. Click the green dot from the JDS node and drag to open canvas to open the “End” configuration.

    

    Click the drop down on “Node Event” and select “success” and select “101 – Successfully completed flow [Success] under “Flow Result”.

    

16. Click “Save” and Click “Make live” to put the flow into production.

17. Now let us test the catch all flow. The last step from the previous goal was to test and the message delivered looks like the below example.

    

18. The last message suggests the customer to send a text “STATUS” to that number.

19. From your mobile phone reply to the above text with “STATUS” message.

    

    Congratulations! You have successfully completed Lab 1.