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FAQ about the voice channel in Omnichannel for Customer Service

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Omnichannel for Customer Service offers a suite of capabilities that extend the power of Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers across digital messaging channels. An additional license is required to access Omnichannel for Customer Service. For more information, see the Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing overview and Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing plan pages.

Important

Power Virtual Agents capabilities and features are now part of Microsoft Copilot Studio following significant investments in generative AI and enhanced integrations across Microsoft Copilot.

Some articles and screenshots might refer to Power Virtual Agents while we update documentation and training content.

This article includes frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the voice channel.

General

Why is the agent unable to make an outbound call?

The agent must be a part of the outbound voice queue to make an outbound call. See Set up outbound calling for information.

Are overflow actions like voicemail and direct callback fulfilled for fallback queues?

No, overflow settings aren't applicable to fallback queues. The settings are ignored, and the routed work item is assigned to the queue. More information: How overflow works

Does the voice channel include real-time keyword recognition or sentiment tracking while an agent is on a call?

Yes, features such as sentiment analysis, agent suggestions for similar cases or knowledge articles, are available in the voice channel.

Is it possible to enable voice integrations outside of the Omnichannel for Customer Service app, such as, by adding omnichannel capabilities to a customer's Dynamics 365 app?

No, the voice channel isn't supported in the other apps of Dynamics 365. It's supported in the Customer Service workspace and Omnichannel for Customer Service (deprecated) apps only.

Setup

Is the voice channel PCI DSS compliant?

The voice channel is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) today, but support for credit card data capture over voice isn't yet available. Agents have the ability to pause or resume call recording and transcription to avoid capturing sensitive information. Agents can also pause transcription to avoid dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones being captured in the transcript. All data is stored in Dynamics 365 and can be scrubbed by the customer.

Where does Azure Communication Services provide native PSTN services?

To register as a calling provider is a legally complex and country- or region-specific process. Azure Communication Services has a multiyear road map to provide calling plans in different countries and regions. To see all the countries and regions where PSTN services are available, check the Country/regional availability of telephone numbers and subscription eligibility page.

An alternative to Microsoft calling plans is Azure direct routing that allows you to bring your own phone numbers. More information: Azure direct routing

What about countries or regions where Azure Communication Services doesn't provide native PSTN services?

Azure Communication Services is available worldwide, even if it isn't acting as the calling provider in certain countries or regions. For these countries or regions, Azure Communication Services provides a direct routing for local carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon, to connect to Azure Communication Services. With this mechanism, you'll still be able to deploy and use all the features of the voice channel in Dynamics 365.

What codecs are implemented in the voice channel?

The voice channel supports the G.711 and Opus codecs for PSTN and VoIP services.

Can I bring my own phone number?

Yes, you can bring your existing numbers to Omnichannel for Customer Service in the following ways:

Can my SBC and DNS server be deployed in different regions?

No. We recommend that the DNS server and SBC are deployed in the same region. More information: Bring your own carrier

How can I acquire extra phone numbers from Azure Communication Services?

You can purchase one phone number per tenant for Azure Communication Services through the Azure portal. To acquire phone numbers in bulk or request a specific phone number, follow the instructions to create a special number request order here.

Can I keep my existing contract with my carrier?

Yes, you can.

Can I configure a third-party voice provider in Omnichannel for Customer Service?

Yes, you can use the Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework 2.0 connector to integrate third-party contact centers, such as Genesys Engage, Solgari, and NICE inContact.

Does the voice channel tie in with Azure Communication Services or is it an entirely different technology?

The voice capabilities for Dynamics 365 Customer Service are built on Azure Communication Services.

Do I have to buy phone numbers from Azure Communication Services?

No, you don't have to. You can bring phone numbers from another carrier to use in the voice channel using Azure direct routing. More information: Bring your own carrier

If you've already brought numbers from another carrier into Microsoft Teams via Azure direct routing, then you can reuse your SBC and existing telephony infrastructure to bring those numbers into Azure Communication Services for use in the voice channel.

Note

Currently, you can't bring native Teams phone numbers to use in the voice channel.

Can I recover data and phone numbers from a voice trial organization after it has expired?

No, you can't recover your data and phone numbers after the voice trial organization has expired and been deprovisioned.

Pricing

What are the applicable pricing scenarios for using the voice channel?

To understand the pricing calculation of various call scenarios, see Pricing scenarios for voice calling.

Bots

How can I set up an IVR bot in the voice channel?

See the following articles to set up the interactive voice response (IVR) bot in the voice channel:

Why do my customers sometimes hear "Sorry! We couldn't serve you" when they call the contact center number?

Sometimes, when a Copilot Studio bot isn't added or an agent is unable to answer the call, your customers will hear the message that they couldn't be served. We recommend agents to refresh their presence regularly to ensure their availability to customers. If the problem persists, reconnect your Copilot Studio bot.

Language

Should the language of the bot be the same as the primary language configured in the voice workstream?

Yes, the primary language of the bot must be the same as that of the voice workstream to which the bot is attached, but you can configure different geographic locales for the bot and the voice workstream to which it's attached. Let's consider an example where English is set as the primary language for the bot and its voice workstream. You can set different locales, such as English-UK in the voice workstream and English-US in the bot; the bot will speak in English-UK as the workstream locale setting takes precedence.

You can transfer conversations from one bot to another with different primary languages. For example, you can transfer conversations from an English bot to a Spanish bot. But, if you configure different locales:

  • The bot's accuracy will depend on the similarities between the two locales.
  • The preconfigured entities for the bot such as postal code might not be accurate.
  • A bot-to-bot transfer of the conversation with the same language but two different locales isn't possible. For example, the transfer of a conversation from an English-UK bot to an English-US bot can't happen. As a workaround, you can make the English-UK bot transfer the conversation to another phone number attached to a workstream to which the English-US bot is attached.

Disaster recovery

Is disaster recovery supported for the voice channel?

  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) for production instances of the voice channel are supported on a geographical basis. In certain regions BCDR will be a fast follow. For details on the geographies that are currently supported and the geographies where BCDR is a fast follow, see Local cloud deployments.
  • In supported regions, BCDR policies are based upon business continuity and disaster recovery for Dynamics 365 and SLA for Azure Communication Services. For more information, see Business continuity and disaster recovery and SLA for Azure Communication Services.

Call quality

Do you provide voice quality SLA for the voice channel?

No, we don't publish a voice quality SLA as many factors related to voice quality like network connectivity, speed, and bandwidth, can't be controlled. The SLA published for Azure Communication Services applies to the voice channel as well.

What tools are available to isolate performance and quality of voice channel?

The tools for isolating voice performance and quality are available through Azure Communication Services and can be found at Azure Communication Services media quality metrics. It might take up to two hours for the data to appear in the logs.

More information:

Emergency calling

Does the voice channel support emergency calling?

Yes, the voice channel supports emergency calling; agents can call the emergency number during a crisis. This feature is currently supported in the United States and Puerto Rico where the emergency calling number is 911. More information: How emergency calling works in the voice channel

See also

Introduction to the voice channel
System requirements for Omnichannel for Customer Service
Supported cloud locations, languages, and locale codes