Workflows

Dialpad’s Workflows are powerful automation systems designed to model complex customer journeys. While traditionally used for building advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, they offer the flexibility to create sophisticated routing paths and unique behaviors that work best for your individual business logic.

Workflows don’t require any coding knowledge, and you can create these dynamic experiences quickly.

Let’s dive into the details!

Who can use this
Workflows are available to Dialpad users on all plans and licenses.
You must be a Company or Office Admin to manage and configure Workflows.
Self-enablement is available for all companies.

Benefits of workflows

Workflows let you customize the customer experience by:

Collecting crucial user information (booking numbers, account numbers, etc).
Accessing CRM or other systems through APIs.
Identifying the caller.
Creating unique routing and behavior according to the individual caller’s needs.

This enables more efficient use of agents and, in some cases, even allows the customer to resolve their questions through self-service.

Workflows do not replace the need for a live agent, but they improve customer satisfaction while freeing up agents to handle complex inbound calls. Not only that, they provide a self-service option that can be accessed outside of business hours.

Workflow steps

Dialpad's bespoke workflow steps enable you to guide callers through personalized steps, using your voice and language, ensuring the menu selection aligns with your brand. Add as many workflows as you need, and edit them at any time.

Workflow options are organized into 3 categories:

Prompt	Menu: Plays the menu prompt and collects the caller's menu choice. Collect: Collects DTMF input (great for collecting account numbers, pins, etc.). Play: Plays audio file prompts.
Logic	Go-to: Moves the caller to another Workflow or step inside the current workflow. Assign: Creates or updates variables to store information during the call, allowing for greater personalization. If the variable does not exist, the variable will be created and assigned the given value. Branch: Evaluates a variable (system or workflow specific) for a condition and proceeds down a different path based on the result. Customer Data: Capture and surface key customer context to agents for faster, more personalized service. External API: Connect to external data sources to fetch real-time data and drive dynamic routing. Expert: Performs API calls, logic decisions, variables, and other advanced operations. Note While you can use Expert to perform API calls, it is recommended to use the External API step. Expert flows must be enabled by our Professional Services team. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.
Terminal	Transfer: Transfers the call to another Office, Department, User, or phone number. Hang-up: Ends the current call.

More information
Learn more about each workflow step in this Help Center article.
For details on system variables, see this Help Center article.

Enable Workflows

First things first, Workflows must first be enabled at the Company level.

Note
Self-enablement is available for all companies.

To enable workflows, go to your Dialpad Admin Portal.

Select My Company > Company Settings
Navigate to Workflows(voice)
Slide the toggle to Enabled
Once enabled, you can create a Standard Workflow.

Create a Workflow

To create a workflow, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select Workflows
Select Create Workflow
Name your workflow
Select the + icon
Choose if you'd like to create a workflow from scratch or use a template
Select the desired actions and routing rules
Select Publish > Publish (or Save, if you want to save a draft)

Tip
Click and hold your mouse to move (drag) the workflow diagram across your screen (you can also zoom in and out using the preview on the bottom right).

Assign a workflow

Once an workflow has been published, you need to assign it to an Office, Department, or Contact Center.

To assign an workflow, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select the desired Office, Department, or Contact Center
Select Business Hours and Call Routing
Navigate to Call Routing
Select Edit Call Routing
Choose Open Hours Routing or Closed Hours Routing
Select No operator
Select To a workflow(voice)
Select the desired workflow

Once an is assigned, you'll see the number of Entry Points appear beside each workflow.

Edit a Workflow

To edit a workflow, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings

Select Channels & Workflows > Workflows
Under the Workflows tab, choose the workflow you want to edit and select More > Edit.
Alternatively, you can select the workflow name directly.
Make the desired changes
Select Save to save your changes
Select Publish
Review any changes made to your workflow. If there are errors detected, such as information missing inside a step, a warning message will be displayed
Select Publish to push your edits live to connected numbers

Save vs publish
Save lets you work on a workflow and save the changes without activating them. This is especially useful if you would like a colleague to review the updated flow.
Publish pushes the changes live to all connected numbers.

Note
When you edit a workflow step, you're modifying the settings within that same step type.

If you need to change the step type entirely, you can either:
Delete the existing step and add a new one, or
Disconnect the current step and insert a new step in between.

Copy a Workflow

Copy Workflows to easily make changes without impacting live calls. This is perfect for maintaining version control and ensuring smooth updates for your workflow Developers.

To copy a workflow, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select Channels & Workflows > Workflows
Under the Workflows tab, choose the workflow you want to copy and select More > Copy
Name the new (copied) workflow
Select which Office(s) you want to use the copied workflow, then select Apply
Select Copy

Note
Up to 10 offices can be included in each workflow copy request.

Disconnect a workflow step

Need to add or change a step on your workflow? No problem! You can insert new steps effortlessly by disconnecting, reconnecting or deleting a workflow step.

To disconnect a workflow step, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select Channels & Workflows > Workflows
Under the Workflows tab, choose the workflow you want to edit and select More > Edit
Navigate to the step you want to disconnect
Select Options > Disconnect

Once you remove a step, you can change and update both the workflow steps and the disconnected step at the same time.

To reconnect a step, select the step and drag it to the connector.

Delete a Workflow

To delete a workflow, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

First, you’ll need to remove any connected numbers from the Workflow.

Select the desired Office, Department, or Contact Center that is currently assigned to the Workflow you need to delete
Select Business Hours and Call Routing
Navigate to Call Routing
Select Edit Call Routing
Choose Open Hours Routing or Closed Hours Routing
Change the routing option to something other than workflows.

Next, return to Channels & Workflows > Workflows in your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Under the Workflows tab, choose the workflow you want to delete and select More > Delete
Confirm the deletion

Note
Workflows that have entry points cannot be deleted.
Deleting a workflow cannot be undone.

Fallback options

In the rare event that a step in your workflow becomes unresponsive, use a fallback action to route callers to an alternate line.

To set a fallback action, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select the desired Contact Center, Department, or Office
Select Advanced Settings
Navigate to Workflows(voice) Fallback Action
Note
You'll only see the fallback action option for Contact Centers, Departments, and Offices that already have a workflow configured.

Choose the desired fallback option

Voicemail	Sends the caller to the Contact Center's voicemail.
Operators	Sends the caller to operators.
Contact Center / Department / Offices	Sends the caller to a specific Contact Center, Office, or Department.
Team members	Sends the caller to a specific team member.
Room Phone / External Number	Sends the caller to a specific room phone or number.

Note
Operator Fallback only works if all operators are off-duty; it will not activate if the hold queue is full or if an operator misses a call.

Find interactions with Workflows

Use Dialpad's Session History to easily find calls and interactions where users were guided through your Workflows.

From the Conversation History section of your Dialpad Admin Portal:

Select Conversation type > AI agent / IVR
Select the desired workflow, then select Apply

View Workflows in a call

Want to see the exact steps your callers selected as they navigated through your voice workflow?

Once you've found the interaction from the Conversation history:

Select View summary
Select Show internal messages

That's it! Here, you'll see each workflow step, the media that played and the customer's selection.

Want to learn more?

Check out Dialpad University's free courses covering our products and services, as well as insightful tips and best practices.