Amazon Connect — Setting Caller ID and Name for Outbound dial by Agents

Amazon Connect Caller ID Name and Number basics!

First, the only caller ID you can send, is that of a phone number that actually appears on your Amazon Connect instance. You can not set the caller ID for any number that you do not own or have configured on your instance. Each outbound call is controlled by several factors: First each queue has a setting that enables you to select an existing number for Caller ID. It also enables you to display a Name. The name however, must be set in a National database and to do this, you will need to open a technical support request with AWS. They will manage the database update but you will need to provide the following details:

1) It is important to note that the calling name has the restrictions: no special characters, and will appear in all capital letters. Given that, please provide: a) Up to 15-Character desired Calling Name to be displayed (limit on wireline is 15) b) Up to 25-Character desired Calling Name to be displayed (limit on wireless is 25)

2) Name of business, city and state (if city and state are left blank, there are circumstances when the NPANXX of the dialing number will appear instead)

3) Type of business (technology, government, utility, etc.)

4) Type of usage for the phone number (survey, customer service, etc.)

Support will alert you when the CNAME has been associated with your selected number/

Routing Profile impact on Caller ID

Each Routing Profile associates a User or Agent, with the Queues that they should be a part of. A Routing profile may contain one or more Queues which can also be used to determine the priority in which calls should be answered by an Agent. Assume that an Agent is a member of a routing profile that contains both Technical Support and Customer Service Queues. Given two inbound calls, one for each Queue, which call should be presented to the Agent? This is determined by routing profiles priorities! Also note that the Routing Profile indicates which Queue — read Caller ID — should be used when an Agent who is a member of that routing profiles makes an outbound call.

Dynamic Caller ID Strategy #1

It is possible to set the Caller ID by editing the ‘Default Outbound” contact flow that is called for each outbound call that is dialed. This Contact Flow determines what the recording status is, names a possible disconnect flow and it also indicates the caller ID to be used for this call. This is set by the Call Phone Number step in the contact flow. You can hard code a number here and it will over ride the settings established in the Queue and Routing Profile configurations.

Dynamic Call ID Strategy #2

How can we set the caller ID on a call by call basis? Is there a way for an Agent to set the Caller ID each time they make an outbound call? The simple answer is yes. You will need to create a Custom CCP, a Lambda function and a Dynamodb table. AWS publishes an API for dynamically setting the caller ID that will help create the configuration, but you will still need to create a modified soft phone or CCP.

The following video shows how this might work in a real world application. The Agent is presented with a drop down list of all the numbers that are attached to the Amazon Connect Contact Center. The Agent selects the desired number and places the outbound call. Give us a call or email DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com if you need some help getting this designed and deployed!