myContactCenterManual

Recognition nodes

Recognizing keys, spoken words and values — in calls, chats and emails — and using the result in variables or branches.

Recognition nodes ask the customer something and evaluate the answer. In a call, they play an announcement for this; in a chat, they send a boilerplate. While they are running, the conversation is in DTMF input or Recognition.

Node Types Recognizes
DTMF Character call one key, and branches
DTMF Text call a sequence of keys, for example a customer number
Word Recognition call spoken words, and branches
Speech To Text call freely spoken text
Value Recognition all a value such as a date or a phone number
Digit recognition chat one digit, and branches
Digit sequence recognition chat a sequence of digits

Speech recognition runs via Azure in the language of the conversation and requires the AI key. If the caller speaks during an announcement, the announcement stops. If speech recognition fails, the administrators receive SpeechService failed!, and the flow follows its error behavior. In calls, the flow cannot be saved without a Media case on these nodes.

DTMF Character

Branches on a key — the classic voice menu.

Property Meaning Default
Timeout how long the node waits for a key 10 seconds
Media case the menu announcement No Media Case
Speech recognition The caller can also say the digit. off

The outputs are called Character 0 to Character 9, plus Timeout; hide the ones you do not need with Visible.

  • Only keys whose output is connected count. The node ignores other keys, including * and #, and waits again.
  • The first waiting period begins with the announcement; it lasts as long as the announcement plus Timeout.
  • A key press stops the announcement, and the background music is silent until the node ends.
  • Timeout must be connected.

Typical use: “For orders, press 1; for customer service, press 2.” — Character 1 and Character 2 lead to Set Skill, Timeout back to the announcement or directly to the queue.

DTMF Text

Collects a sequence of keys in a variable.

Property Meaning Default
Timeout how long the node waits for the first and each further key 10 seconds
Media case the announcement No Media Case
Variable the variable with the result: All_DisplayName –
Termination Character the key that ends the input: 0–9, * or # #
Max Length after this many keys, the input ends; a number or a variable 10
Speech recognition The caller can also say the digits. off
Termination Word only with Speech recognition: the word that ends spoken input “Stop”
  • The input ends with the termination character — which is not part of the result — when the Max Length is reached or when the time runs out after the last key.
  • If the caller has pressed at least one key, the flow continues via Recognized, otherwise via Timeout.
  • The digits are in the variable and in %RecognizedValue%.

Typical use: “Please enter your customer number, followed by the hash key.” — followed by Database Read with the variable in the filter.

Word Recognition

Branches on spoken words.

Property Meaning Default
Repetitions how often the announcement is played at most if nothing matching is said 0
Response time how long the node waits after the announcement 10 seconds
Media case the announcement No Media Case

Under Outputs, there are initially Choice 1 and Choice 2; you add more with “+”. The Display text of each output is the search pattern: a regular expression that is not case-sensitive.

  • After each sentence, the node checks the outputs in order; the first connected output whose pattern matches wins. If none matches, the flow continues via Timeout.
  • invoice|billing matches both words. A pattern such as yes also matches “yesterday”; write \byes\b to match only the word.
  • Without the AI key, the node takes Timeout immediately, without an announcement.

Typical use: “Say ‘invoice’ or ‘technical’.” with the outputs invoice|billing and technical|fault.

Speech To Text

Writes freely spoken words into a variable.

Property Meaning Default
Media case the announcement before the input No Media Case
Response time this much silence ends the input 10 seconds
Variable the variable with the text: the display name without spaces –
  • Each recognized sentence is appended to the text so far. After the Response time of silence, the flow continues via Output.
  • If nothing was said, the variable contains the word “Timeout”.
  • Without the AI key, the variable remains empty.

Typical use: “Please briefly describe your request.” — followed by Attach data so that the agent sees the request.

Value Recognition

Recognizes a value of a particular type and stores it in a variable — in a call from what is spoken, in a chat from the reply, in emails and faxes from the message.

Property Types Meaning Default
Value Recognition Type all what is recognized, see below All
Repetitions call, chat how often the question is asked at most 0
Timeout call, chat how long the node waits call 10 seconds, chat 15 minutes
Media case call the announcement No Media Case
Boilerplate chat the question No text module
Include subject, Include body, Include attachments email, fax which parts of the message are searched; at least one must be checked on
Variable all the variable with the result –
Value recognition type Variable Type Recognized by
All All_… text Azure: the first item recognized, for example a name or a number
Choice Choice_… yes/no built-in: agreement or refusal
Person, Organization, Location Person_…, Organization_…, Location_… text Azure
Address Address_… text Azure
Email address, URL, IP address, Phone number EmailAddress_…, URL_…, IPAddress_…, PhoneNumber_… text built-in
Number Number_… whole number Azure and built-in
Quantity Quantity_… decimal number Azure and built-in
Date DateTime_… point in time built-in
Time Time_… time span built-in
Date range, Time range, Single date time range two variables …_Start and …_End points in time built-in

myContactCenter recognizes the “built-in” types itself, in the language of the conversation; the Azure types require the AI key.

Types Outputs Process
Call Recognized, Timeout The announcement plays; after each sentence, the node searches what has been said so far. The value is also in %RecognizedValue%. Without the AI key, the flow continues immediately via Timeout.
Chat Recognized, Timeout The node sends the boilerplate with the heading Enter and the value type and waits for the reply. If the reply contains no value, it asks again as long as time and Repetitions allow.
Email, fax Recognized, Not Recognized The node does not wait. It searches the subject, text and attachments — PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, RTF, ODT, HTML, text, attached emails and ZIP archives, no images — and then replies from the customer that already belong to the conversation. The first match counts.

Typical use: asking for the date of birth in a call; asking a yes/no question with Choice; getting the order number from an email.

Digit recognition

Chat only: the counterpart of DTMF Character.

Property Meaning Default
Timeout how long the node waits for a valid answer 15 minutes
Boilerplate the question, for example a menu No text module
Text recognition Number words such as “three” also count; this requires the AI key. off
  • The node sends the boilerplate with the heading Enter digit. From the reply, the first digit whose output — Character 0 to Character 9 — is connected counts.
  • If nothing matches, it asks for one of the possible digits and sends the boilerplate again — until the time runs out; the flow then continues via Timeout.

Digit sequence recognition

Chat only: the counterpart of DTMF Text.

Property Meaning Default
Timeout how long the node waits 15 minutes
Boilerplate the question No text module
Variable the variable with the result: All_DisplayName –
Max Length how many digits are expected 10
Text recognition Number words also count. off
  • The node sends the boilerplate with the heading Enter digits and takes the digits from the reply up to the Max Length.
  • If there are fewer, it reports that the value is too short and asks again. The Max Length is therefore also the required length.
  • Once there are enough digits, the flow continues via Recognized; when the time runs out, it also does so if at least one digit was received. Otherwise, Timeout follows.

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