Implementing In-Call IVR Survey Experiences with DDTMF Response Capture and Analytics

What This Guide Covers

This guide details the architecture and implementation of post-interaction voice surveys captured directly within the call flow using Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) inputs. You will configure a Genesys Cloud CX flow that captures customer sentiment immediately after agent disconnect, stores that data in an external datastore via API, and surfaces it in real-time analytics dashboards. The result is a low-friction feedback loop that bypasses email/SMS delivery delays and provides immediate, actionable sentiment data tied to specific interaction IDs.

Prerequisites, Roles & Licensing

• Licensing: Genesys Cloud CX 2 or CX 3 (CX 1 does not support Custom Datastore APIs or Advanced Architect features required for this pattern).
• Permissions:
  • Architect > Flow > Read
  • Architect > Flow > Edit
  • Admin > Datastore > Read
  • Admin > Datastore > Edit
  • Admin > API > Read (for OAuth client setup)
• External Dependencies:
  • A configured Custom Datastore (for storing survey results).
  • An OAuth Client with datastore:write scope for the API integration step.
  • Access to Genesys Cloud Analytics (Standard or Advanced) for dashboard creation.
• Technical Assumptions: You understand the basics of Genesys Cloud Architect flows, SIP trunking, and REST API authentication. You are not building a simple IVR menu; you are building a stateful data capture pipeline.

The Implementation Deep-Dive

1. Designing the Survey Logic and Data Structure

Before opening Architect, you must define the schema for the survey data. A common mistake is storing survey responses as flat key-value pairs in the Interaction Data. While easy to implement, this approach fails at scale because Interaction Data is ephemeral for reporting purposes and difficult to join with other business systems. Instead, we will use a Custom Datastore to create a persistent, queryable record of every survey response.

The Datastore Schema

Create a new Custom Datastore named VoiceSurveyResponses. Define the following fields:

• interactionId (String, Indexable): The unique Genesys Cloud Interaction ID. This allows you to join survey data with call recordings and agent performance metrics later.
• surveyScore (Integer): The numeric value captured via DTMF (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10).
• surveyTimestamp (DateTime): The exact time the customer pressed the key.
• agentId (String): The ID of the agent who handled the call.
• queueId (String): The queue the customer was originally served from.
• callDuration (Integer): The duration of the agent-customer interaction in seconds.

The Trap: Do not store the agentEmail or agentName in the datastore. Agent names change, emails change, and PII regulations (GDPR/CCPA) make storing names in custom logs risky. Always store the immutable agentId and queueId. You can resolve names in your reporting layer or BI tool.

Architect Flow Logic

In Genesys Cloud Architect, create a new flow named PostCallSurvey. The logic must handle the transition from Agent Disconnect to Survey Prompt seamlessly.

1. Trigger: Use a Flow Connector or integrate this survey flow as a sub-flow triggered by the main routing flow after the End Interaction node.
2. Wait Node: Configure a Wait node with a duration of 2-3 seconds. This prevents the survey prompt from playing immediately while the SIP teardown is still occurring, which can cause audio clipping or the customer missing the first sentence.
3. Set Variable Node: Capture the interaction.id, interaction.participants[agent].id, and interaction.duration from the interaction context. Store these in local variables for later use.
4. Play Audio Node: Stream the survey audio file (e.g., “Please rate your experience from 1 to 5, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.”).
   • Critical Configuration: Enable DTMF Capture on this node. Set the Max DTMF to 1. Set the Timeout to 10 seconds.
   • The Trap: If you set the DTMF timeout too low (e.g., 3 seconds), elderly or international callers may not react fast enough, resulting in a high “No Response” rate that skews your data negatively. 10-15 seconds is the industry standard for single-key surveys.
5. Decision Node: Check if dtmf is null.
   • Null Path: If the customer did not press a key, log a “No Response” event or skip the data store write. Do not force a default value, as this corrupts your average scores.
   • Valid Path: If a key was pressed, proceed to the API call.

2. Capturing DTMF and Validating Input

DTMF capture in Genesys Cloud is handled at the media server level, but Architect exposes it via the dtmf variable in the context. You must validate the input strictly. Customers often press keys outside the expected range (e.g., pressing 0 or *).

Validation Logic

After the Play Audio node, use a Set Variable node to sanitize the input.

• Expression: if(isNullOrEmpty(dtmf), null, int(dtmf))
• This converts the string DTMF to an integer. If the customer pressed a non-numeric key or nothing, it remains null.

Next, use a Decision node to validate the range.

• Condition: surveyScore >= 1 AND surveyScore <= 5
• True Path: Proceed to data storage.
• False Path: Play an error message (“That is not a valid option”) and loop back to the survey prompt. Limit this loop to 3 attempts to prevent infinite loops.

The Trap: Never assume DTMF is a string. Some carriers or SIP trunks may pass DTMF as RFC 2833 packets, while others use in-band audio. Genesys Cloud normalizes this, but the variable type can be inconsistent depending on the flow version. Always cast to int or string explicitly in your Set Variable nodes to prevent runtime errors in the Decision node.

3. Persisting Data via Custom Datastore API

This is the most critical architectural decision. You are writing data to Genesys Cloud’s backend, not just logging it in the flow. This ensures the data survives flow executions and is available for analytics.

API Configuration

You need to make an HTTP POST request to the Custom Datastore API.

• Endpoint: https://api.mypurecloud.com/api/v2/analytics/datadomains/{dataDomainId}/records
• Method: POST
• Headers:
  • Content-Type: application/json
  • Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

The Trap: Do not use the “Anonymous” OAuth client for production writes. Anonymous clients have rate limits and lack audit trails. Create a dedicated OAuth Client with datastore:write permissions. Store the Client ID and Secret in a Secure Credential in Genesys Cloud, not in plain text in the flow.

The HTTP Request Node

In Architect, add an HTTP Request node.

1. Authentication: Select “OAuth 2.0”. Choose the dedicated OAuth Client.

2. URL: Construct the URL dynamically.

   • Expression: concat("https://api.mypurecloud.com/api/v2/analytics/datadomains/", datastoreId, "/records")
   • Note: You must store your datastoreId in a Secure Credential or a Global Variable to keep the flow portable across environments (Dev/Test/Prod).

3. Body: Construct the JSON payload.

   {
     "type": "VoiceSurveyResponse",
     "data": {
       "interactionId": "{{interaction.id}}",
       "surveyScore": {{surveyScore}},
       "surveyTimestamp": "{{now}}",
       "agentId": "{{agentId}}",
       "queueId": "{{queueId}}",
       "callDuration": {{callDuration}}
     }
   }
   

   • Critical Detail: The type field must match the record type defined in your Custom Datastore. The data object must match the schema keys exactly. Case sensitivity matters.

4. Timeout: Set the HTTP request timeout to 5 seconds. If the API fails, you do not want to hang the caller.

5. Error Handling: Use the On Error output of the HTTP Request node.

   • Log the error to the Interaction Notes or a separate error datastore.
   • Do not retry the API call within the same flow. Retries cause duplicate records and rate-limiting issues. Instead, rely on the flow’s execution log to identify failures and fix them in the next deployment.

The Trap: A common misconfiguration is forgetting to handle the 201 Created response. The HTTP Request node will succeed, but if you do not check the status code, you might assume success even if the payload was malformed. Add a Decision node after the HTTP Request to check response.statusCode == 201. If it is not 201, treat it as a failure.

4. Integrating with Main Routing Flows

You must trigger this survey flow from your main routing flows. Do not hard-code the survey logic into every routing flow. Instead, use Flow Connectors or Sub-flows.

Option A: Flow Connector (Recommended)

1. In your main routing flow, add a Flow Connector node after the End Interaction node.
2. Configure the connector to point to the PostCallSurvey flow.
3. Pass the necessary variables (agentId, queueId, interactionId) as inputs to the connector.

Option B: Sub-Flow

1. Create a Sub-Flow node in the main routing flow.
2. Select the PostCallSurvey flow as the target.
3. Map the input variables.

The Trap: If you use Flow Connectors, ensure the main flow does not terminate before the connector completes. In Genesys Cloud, a Flow Connector is asynchronous by default unless you configure it to wait. For survey capture, you must set the connector to Wait for response. If you do not wait, the main flow ends, the call disconnects, and the survey prompt never plays because the media channel is torn down.

5. Building the Analytics Dashboard

Now that data is flowing into the Custom Datastore, you must visualize it. Genesys Cloud Analytics supports Custom Datastores directly.

Dashboard Setup

1. Navigate to Analytics > Dashboards.
2. Create a new dashboard named “Voice Survey Performance”.
3. Add a Custom Datastore widget.
4. Select the VoiceSurveyResponses datastore.
5. Configure the metrics:
   • Average Score: AVG(surveyScore)
   • Response Rate: COUNT(interactionId) / Total Calls Handled (requires joining with Interaction data, which is complex in native dashboards. Consider exporting to PowerBI/Tableau for this ratio).
   • Trend: Group by surveyTimestamp (Hour/Day/Week).
   • Breakdown: Group by queueId or agentId.

The Trap: Do not try to calculate “Average Score” in the flow. Aggregating data in real-time in Architect is expensive and error-prone. Let the Analytics engine handle the aggregation. The flow’s job is only to capture and store the raw event.

Advanced Analytics: Joining with Interaction Data

To see survey scores alongside call duration and hold time, you need to join the Custom Datastore with Interaction data.

1. In the Analytics widget, add the Interaction data domain.
2. Join on interactionId.
3. This allows you to create a scatter plot of Call Duration vs. Survey Score. You may find that longer calls have lower scores, or vice versa, depending on your business model.

Validation, Edge Cases & Troubleshooting

Edge Case 1: DTMF Silence (The “Ghost” Press)

The Failure Condition: The customer presses a key, but the system records null or no input.
The Root Cause: This is often a carrier-level issue. Some VoIP carriers strip DTMF tones or use incompatible RTP events. Alternatively, the customer may be using a mobile phone with “DTMF Tones” disabled in the dialer settings.
The Solution:

1. Check the Call Detail Record (CDR) for the interaction. Look for dtmf events in the raw JSON.
2. If DTMF is missing in the CDR, the issue is upstream (carrier). Contact your SIP trunk provider to ensure RFC 2833 or SIP INFO is enabled.
3. If DTMF is present in the CDR but not in the flow, check your Play Audio node configuration. Ensure “Capture DTMF” is checked and the timeout is sufficient.
4. For mobile users, add a disclaimer in the audio: “If you are on a mobile phone, ensure DTMF tones are enabled.”

Edge Case 2: API Rate Limiting (429 Too Many Requests)

The Failure Condition: The HTTP Request node returns a 429 status code, and survey data is lost.
The Root Cause: Genesys Cloud Custom Datastore APIs have rate limits (typically 100 requests per second per org). During peak hours, if your call volume exceeds this, writes will fail.
The Solution:

1. Implement Backoff Logic in the flow. On error, wait 5 seconds and retry once. (Use a Loop node with a max iteration of 2).
2. If retries fail, log the data to a Local Variable and then to Interaction Notes. A downstream batch job can scrape Interaction Notes for failed surveys and retry the API call asynchronously.
3. Monitor the API Usage dashboard in Genesys Cloud to track datastore write rates.

Edge Case 3: Survey Skew from Non-Responders

The Failure Condition: Your average score drops significantly after deployment.
The Root Cause: This is not a technical bug but a statistical one. If only unhappy customers press keys (to vent) or only happy customers press keys (to praise), your data is skewed.
The Solution:

1. Track the Response Rate (Surveys Completed / Total Calls). If it is below 5%, your data is not representative.
2. Adjust the audio prompt to be more engaging. Use a friendly tone.
3. Consider offering an incentive (e.g., “Press 1-5 to be entered into a monthly drawing”) if legally permissible in your region.
4. Segment your analytics by Response Rate. Do not compare average scores across queues with different response rates.

Official References

• Genesys Cloud Architect: Play Audio Node
• Genesys Cloud Custom Datastores API
• Genesys Cloud Analytics: Custom Datastore Widgets
• RFC 2833: RTP Payload Type for DTMF Digits