8x8 Contact Center

The 8x8 Contact Center integration routes inbound contact center calls to a Synthflow AI agent from inside your IVR script. Calls reach Synthflow over a SIP trunk rather than the public phone network, using 8x8’s bring-your-own-carrier (BYOC) routing. When the agent ends the call, the caller resumes in the 8x8 IVR, so you can hand them to a queue for agent-assisted service.

How it works

1. A customer calls into 8x8 Contact Center.
2. The IVR script routes the call to the Synthflow agent through a Forward to External IVR node, which dials the agent across the Synthflow SIP trunk.
3. The Synthflow agent handles the conversation.
4. When a handback is needed, the agent ends the call using an end-call reason defined in its prompt.
5. The call resumes in the 8x8 IVR at the node’s Resume exit point, for example a queue.

Prerequisites

Confirm the following before you configure the IVR script.

• Synthflow agent with an 8x8 Contact Center number attached. Import the number as described below, then attach it under Deploy.
• 8x8 Contact Center with admin access to the 8x8 Admin Console.

Import an 8x8 Contact Center number in Synthflow

Open the Synthflow dashboard and go to Phone Numbers. Click Import Phone Number and configure the following fields:

Synthflow generates the required 12-digit, digit-only identifier for SIP routing. No E.164 number is required. Because 8x8 is IP-authenticated, there are no SIP credentials to enter — Synthflow fills in sip.8x8.com automatically.

Click Import, then attach the number to your inbound agent under Deploy. Keep the generated number to hand for the 8x8 routing steps below.

8x8 configuration

Complete the following steps in the 8x8 Admin Console.

Create a phone channel and IVR script

1. Navigate to Contact Center and create a new phone channel.
2. Attach a phone IVR script to the channel.

Add a Forward to External IVR node

In the IVR script editor, add a Forward to External IVR node to your call flow. This node points at the Synthflow SIP trunk instead of a dialable phone number. In the node’s Phone Number field, enter the routing destination for your region, replacing {SynthflowAgentNumber} with the generated number attached to your Synthflow agent:

Use the generated digit-only identifier with no spaces, dashes, or brackets. If Synthflow generated 482917364058 and your contact center is in the EMEA region, enter AdvIvrPSTN-byoc_emea_outbyocsynthflow_482917364058.

Configure the Resume exit point

On the Resume exit of the Forward to External IVR node, add the routing the call should follow after the AI conversation, for example Forward to Queue. This is where callers land when the Synthflow agent hands the call back.

Sample script

A minimal working script has four nodes: a greeting, the forward to Synthflow, a message on the resume exit, and a termination node that hangs up.

In this script, 8x8 answers the call and plays the first Say command, forwards the call to the Synthflow agent, and then plays the second Say command once the agent ends the call and the script resumes. DefaultTermination hangs up. Replace that final node with Forward to Queue when you want the caller to reach a human instead.

Synthflow configuration

Define an end-call reason in the agent’s prompt so it can hand callers back to the contact center. When the agent ends the call, 8x8 resumes it at the Resume exit point. For example:

If the user requests to speak with a human agent, end the call to redirect them to the contact center.

Transfers

A call transfer action on the agent does not work over the 8x8 SIP trunk. Rather than transferring from Synthflow, have the agent end the call and let 8x8 perform the transfer at the Resume exit of the Forward to External IVR node.

1. Define an end-call reason in the agent’s prompt for the case that should reach a person, as shown in Synthflow configuration.
2. On the Resume exit, add the 8x8 routing node that handles the transfer, for example Forward to Queue.

Because the caller is back inside your script, the transfer uses your existing 8x8 queues, skills, and routing rules, and it stays in 8x8 reporting.

Pass variables back to 8x8

The handback at the Resume exit returns the caller, but not the data your agent collected during the conversation. To make that data available inside 8x8 Contact Centre, attach it to the interaction with the 8x8 Contact Center Data Augmentation API. Variables set through this API persist on the interaction, so your IVR script can route on them after the resume and human agents can see them when the interaction is offered.

Call the API while the caller is still with the Synthflow agent, either from a during-the-call custom action or from your own backend. Send a POST request to https://<your cluster>.8x8.com/api/v1/interaction/data/{identifier}, authenticated with HTTP Basic Authentication using your 8x8 tenant ID as the username and your tenant’s action token as the password. The {identifier} path segment identifies the interaction the variables attach to.

8x8 sends the interaction’s call ID to Synthflow in the X-8x8-CID header on the incoming call, so it is available as the variable {X-8x8-CID} in prompts and custom actions, like other SIP X-headers. Use {X-8x8-CID} as the {identifier} in the request URL when your custom action calls the Data Augmentation API.

The request body lists the variables to set, along with attributes that control how 8x8 treats each one:

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{
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  "data": [
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    {
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      "variables": [
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        {
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          "name": "_queueId",
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          "value": "201",
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          "ivr": "true",
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          "display": "true",
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          "displayName": "Queue ID",
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          "dataType": "text"
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        }
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      ]
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    }
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  ]
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}

• ivr makes the variable available to routing logic in your IVR script, for example to branch at the Resume exit based on what the caller told the agent.
• display and displayName control whether and how the variable appears to the human agent when the interaction is offered.
• privacy masks sensitive values before they are stored or displayed.

Variable names must begin with an underscore, contain only alphanumeric characters, and be under 25 characters with no spaces. For the full request and response reference, including how to retrieve interaction context with GET, see the Data Augmentation API documentation.

Troubleshooting

• Calls do not reach the Synthflow agent. Verify the Phone Number field in the Forward to External IVR node exactly matches the format for your region and uses the generated Synthflow number, and confirm the number attached to your Synthflow agent is active.
• Calls do not resume in the 8x8 IVR after the AI conversation. Ensure the Resume exit point of the Forward to External IVR node is connected to a valid routing node, such as Forward to Queue, and confirm the agent’s end-call reason is defined in its prompt.
• The agent never triggers the handback. Review the agent’s prompt and confirm the end-call condition is clearly defined and matches the phrases callers actually use.
• A transfer action on the agent does nothing. Transfer actions do not work over the 8x8 SIP trunk. Hand the call back to 8x8 and transfer in the script, as described in Transfers.

FAQ