Unlike traditional on-premises phone systems and hosted contact center solutions, cloud contact centers are not tied to physical locations or servers. Instead, all your reps can access the software they need from anywhere via computer, smartphone, or other VoIP-enabled device.
When implemented and managed correctly, APIs improve customer personalization, ensure anytime access to agents, increase agent productivity, and provide real-time data for better analytics. are
Cloud contact center APIs ultimately unify communication channels with other business-critical tools. This allows you to provide better support through custom applications so you can future-proof your contact center at scale.
Overview of API management in cloud contact centers
APIs connect two or more applications, extending the functionality of one or both systems. In many cases, an API transfers data from one program to another or embeds the functionality of one application into another.
In terms of cloud contact centers, APIs extend communication methods to other pieces of software. For example, you can add calling capabilities to Microsoft Teams.
You can also use APIs to enable inbound and outbound texting, chat and calling directly in your CRM. This integration gives agents the ability to communicate without switching back and forth between solutions. It also means agents can see caller information while talking to them.
It can also work the other way — you can pull CRM data into your VoIP solution, allowing agents to see important details about a caller before answering.
APIs are typically used to automate outbound text or email reminders for things like upcoming appointments, outstanding balances, and order status updates through rules-based triggers and custom settings.
Another popular way cloud contact centers use APIs is to centralize social media communications. You integrate different platforms into a single solution so your agents can manage all incoming messages from Facebook, X, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and more without having to visit each platform.
With API access, modern contact centers can truly customize the way agents interact with customers and each other.
See: Learn. How to use APIsdifferent Types of APIsand about all API Security.
Strategy for Cloud Contact Center Platform API Management Cycle
Cloud contact center APIs are not plug-and-play, one-click setups that you can configure once and go. They require ongoing developer support and IT resources for deployment and regular maintenance.
Think about the resources you would need to build and maintain any other type of software, such as a mobile app or web application.
The same applies here as you are essentially building custom software that requires constant attention.
This is especially important for you because disruptions or outages will have immediate consequences for many people on your team, or even your customers. If agents are no longer able to take calls in Salesforce, for example, everything will stop until it’s fixed.
The following Cloud Contact Center Platform API management strategies can help you avoid these issues and ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
Development
Before anything else, you need to define the scope of your project and get a team of developers to help you meet your goals.
Large organizations setting up complex integrations may require multiple developers working together on it. He should be treated like anyone else. Software development projects Run by project manager along with sprint planning and others. Agile Project Management Exercises
Your developers will likely need to use the documentation provided by each software you want to integrate.
They usually provide developer guides that explain exactly what you can do with their APIs and how to do it. They can also provide sample code to get your team started, as well as resources for various programming languages (JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, C#, Ruby, etc.).
The best vendors also provide a complete SDK (software development kit) that contains more than basic instructions. They include a complete set of tools, libraries, and documentation to simplify the development process. SDKs ultimately make it easier for your team to access and use the API you’re looking for.
See: See Best API Management Tools To manage APIs at scale.
Testing
Next, you need to ensure that the API works as intended. To do this, you’ll run various API calls to verify everything. You should also test for more complex scenarios and situations in which the API should fail to verify that it works.
For example, you can have an agent answer a call in your CRM, send a text message, and set up an automated text reminder.
You can also test more complex workflows such as real-time escalation to the manager, call transfer, handling duplicate contacts, screen pops, etc.
In addition to functionality, you’ll also need to test performance. At this stage, you should simulate high call volumes to ensure that your setup can handle high traffic. Many APIs have per-minute, per-hour, or concurrent limits that you must adhere to—this is often overlooked and can have frustrating results.
If something isn’t working properly or your team finds bugs, you should fix them before rolling out a new solution to your entire team.
See: Learn about Common API issues And how to fix them.
Deployment
If everything is good then you can roll it out. Depending on the complexity, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
Even if you think this is going to be a relatively quick deployment, I recommend doing it when most of your team isn’t using any software. If you can’t avoid it, try to pick a timeline that historically has low volume.
You can look back at historical data to determine specific days of the week and times of your lowest usage. This will likely happen in the middle of the night, on the weekend, or on a holiday.
Ideally, the issues should have been resolved during the testing phase. But things don’t always go according to plan. Leave yourself plenty of room to identify and resolve issues that arise before your team starts using them.
Monitoring
API monitoring should be 24/7 whenever possible.
Developers and quality assurance agents can do this by using third-party tools to collect data and analyze performance in real time. These are designed to track various metrics, such as API response time, error rate, availability, downtime, etc.
You can also set up automatic alerts and ask your team or customers to notify you as soon as they see something that isn’t working as intended.
Automated alerts can help you stay ahead of potential problems before they start interfering with communications, so they should be your first line of defense.
Versioning
It’s important to track and manage changes to your cloud contact center APIs over time. There are several benefits to doing this, but the most common is backward compatibility for contact centers.
Cloud-based software can be updated at any time, and these updates can cause major problems with your APIs.
When updates happen, it’s important for your APIs to continue working as best as possible until you resolve any unexpected issues.
Versioning also helps your development team work on new features without affecting the version your agents and customers are actively using. This lets you test and make sure everything is working without affecting anyone else.
Developers can release a beta or V1 so your team has something to work with while they focus on rolling out more features and putting together a more robust solution.
Check out our guide. Versioning Best Practices To learn more