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Vonage - Saving Call Recordings to AgencyBloc using Zapier

Overview

This article has written instructions and screenshots for using Zapier to save Vonage call recordings as Activities in AgencyBloc. New to Zapier? See this article first.

To use the Zaps in this article, your Individual records must have phone numbers, and you must have a paid plan in Zapier.

IN THIS ARTICLE

Setup for saving inbound calls
Setup for saving outbound calls
Common questions

If you complete setup for both inbound and outbound calls…

You will have two Zaps with the same trigger. When a call is recorded in Vonage, both Zaps will run, but only one will continue depending on the call direction (inbound or outbound). The Zap that continues will locate an Individual record in AgencyBloc and add an Activity with the recording file.

Setup for saving inbound calls

Once set up and activated, this Zap will trigger when you record a call, if the call was inbound, the Zap will continue and save the recording to AgencyBloc as an Activity.

To get started:

  1. In a separate window, go to www.zapier.com and log in to your Zapier account.
  2. Put this window side-by-side.
    Screenshot showing the Vonage help article open in one window and Zapier open in anotehr window
  3. Read the step-by-step instructions below while you build the Zap.

1. Set up the trigger

In Zapier, select the ‘Create Zap’ button.
Screenshot showing where to start creating a new Zap
In the Zap title, name it “Inbound Call Recordings for Vonage”.
Screenshot showing where to edit the Zap title
In the trigger, search for the ‘Vonage Business Communications’ app
Screenshot showing how to look up the Vonage app for the Zap trigger
In the trigger event, select ‘New Call Recording’.
Screenshot showing the new call recording option for the trigger event
Select ‘Continue’ and choose your Vonage account with all of your recordings.
If you use ‘Company Wide Recordings’, you will want to connect your Zap to a Vonage account with all recording access.
Screenshot showing the trigger field for selecting your Vonage account
In the trigger type, choose ‘Company Wide Recordings’.
Screenshot showing the company wide recordings option in the trigger type field
Test the trigger and continue.
Screenshot showing the trigger test

2. Use ‘Filter by Zapier’ to trigger the Zap for inbound calls only

If it’s an outbound call, the Zap will stop and it will only continue if it’s inbound. This will insure that the Zap will only create Activities for calls from clients and not producers or agents. See this section on how to build a Zap for outbound calls.

In the Zap, add an action directly after the trigger.
Screenshot showing to add an action after the trigger for the filter
In the Built-in tools menu, select ‘Filter’.
Screenshot showing the filter by Zapier option
In the Filter setup & testing section, set the filter to only continue if the ‘Call Direction’ field contains the text ‘Inbound’.
Screenshot showing filter criteria
Continue.

3. Use ‘Formatter by Zapier’ to exclude the country code in phone numbers

Vonage tracks the country code with phone numbers. The country code for the US is +1, so most callers in the US will have a leading 1 in their phone numbers. With the country code, a US phone number has 11 digits.

However, AgencyBloc stores 10-digit phone numbers. You will need to add a formatter step to the Zap to ignore the country code (1) so it can successfully match phone numbers in RingCentral with phone numbers in Individual records in AgencyBloc.

In the Zap, add an action directly after the inbound calls filter by selecting the + sign below.
Screenshot showing to add an action after the filter
In the Built-in tools menu, select ‘Format’.
Screenshot showing to select the formatter by Zapier option
In the Choose apps & event section, set the Event to ‘Numbers’.
Screenshot showing to set the event to numbers
Continue.
Set up the action to transform and ‘Format Phone Number’.
Screenshot showing the option to transform and format phone numbers
In the Input field, select the ‘1. Caller ID’ field.
Screenshot showing the input data for formatting
In the To Format field, select ‘5558001212 (No Symbols, National)’ in the dropdown list.
Screenshot showing how you want to format phone numbers
Continue.
Test and continue.
The result will be a 10-digit phone number.
Screenshot showing the test results

4. Add an action to look up Individuals in AgencyBloc by phone number

When this Zap creates an Activity, it needs to find an existing Individual record in AgencyBloc to associate with the new Activity.

Every Individual record in AgencyBloc has a unique ID number. This action will allow the Zap to look up Individual IDs in AgencyBloc and find existing Individuals.

In the Zap, add an action directly after the exclude country code formatter by selecting the + sign below.
Screenshot showing to add the get individual by phone number and name AgencyBloc action after the formatter
In App event menu, search for and select ‘AgencyBloc’.
Set the Event to ‘Get Individual by Phone Number and Name’.
Screenshot showing event field in the action
Continue.
In the AgencyBloc account field, choose your AgencyBloc account.
You may need to connect your AgencyBloc to Zapier with an API key. Learn how to activate the AgencyBloc Zapier integration.
Screenshot showing the field for selecting your AgencyBloc account
Continue.
In the Set up action section, locate the Phone Number field.
In the Phone Number field, select ‘3. Numbers in Formatter by Zapier’ from the dropdown list, and then choose ‘3. Output’.
Screenshot showing how to map the phone number from the formatter to the action
Continue.
Test and continue.
The result will be an Individual in AgencyBloc with the phone number provided in ‘3. Output’. If no record was found, you can create a new record in AgencyBloc and add the ‘3 .Output’ value to it or you can add the ‘3. Output’ value to an existing record. After adding the phone number to an AgencyBloc individual, you will need to retest the action.
Screenshot showing the test results

5. Add an action to create Activities in AgencyBloc

This step will only cover the required fields that are needed to create an Activity in AgencyBloc.

In the Zap, add an action directly after the get individual by phone number step.
Screenshot showing to add an action to create Activity in AgencyBloc after the get individual action
In App event menu, search for and select ‘AgencyBloc’.
Set the Event to ‘Create Activity’.
Screenshot showing the create Activity event
Continue.
In the AgencyBloc account field, choose your AgencyBloc account.
Screenshot showing the AgencyBloc account field
Continue.
In the Associated With - Record Type field, select ‘Individual’ from the dropdown list.
Screenshot showing the Associated With - Record Tyep field
In the Associated With - Record ID field, select ‘4. Get Individual by Phone Number and Name in AgencyBloc’ from the dropdown list, and then choose ‘4. Data ID’.
Screenshot showing the Associated With - Record ID field
In the Subject field, enter a subject line.
This subject line will be applied to all Activities created by this Zap. For example, you could set the subject line to: Inbound Recorded Call.
Screenshot showing the Subject field
In the Notes field, enter “From:” and map to the ‘1. Dnis’ Vonage field. Add a hard return and enter “To:” and map to the ‘1. Caller ID’ Vonage field.
Screenshot showing the Notes field
In the Activity Status - ID field, select ‘Complete’ from the dropdown list.
If you want follow-up done on these activities, you can select a status other than ‘Complete’. You will need to provide a follow-up date, follow-up all day or follow-up start and end time values. Also, you will need to enter the first and last name of the follow-up user or select a team from the Follow-up Team - ID dropdown.
Screenshot showing the Activity Status - ID field
In the Activity Date field, expand the ‘1. New Call Recordings in Vonage Business Communications’ option, and then select ‘1. Start’ from the dropdown list.
This will allow you to track the date the call occurred.
Screenshot showing the Activity Date field
In the first Attachment Files & URLs field, manually type “Recording.mp3”.
In the second Attachment Files & URLs field, expand the ‘1. New Call Recordings in Vonage Business Communications’ option, and then select ‘1. File’ from the dropdown list.
Screenshot showing the Attachment Files & URLs fields
Continue.
Test and continue.
Keep in mind that this will create a real Activity with a real recording attachment.
Publish Zap.

Setup for saving outbound calls

Once set up and activated, this Zap will trigger when you record a call, if the call was outbound, the Zap will continue and save the recording to AgencyBloc as an Activity.

If you created a Zap for inbound calls, follow these steps for a shortcut to make another one for outbound calls:

  1. Create a duplicate of the inbound calls Zap.
    Screenshot showing where to create a duplicate of the inbound calls Zap for Vonage

  2. Rename the duplicate Zap’s title to “Outbound Recordings for Vonage” so you can tell it apart.

  3. Open the new Zap and edit the steps.
    Screenshot showing the duplicate Zap

In the new Zap, you will only need to edit the following steps:

In the ‘Filter by Zapier’ step…

Select and expand the Filter by Zapier step.
In the Filter setup & testing section, set the filter to only continue if the ‘Call Direction’ field contains the text ‘Outbound’.
Screenshot showing the filter criteria
Continue.

In the ‘Formatter by Zapier’ step…

In the Formatter by Zapier step, select and expand the Choose apps & event section.
Set up the action to transform and ‘Format Phone Number’.
In the Input field, select the ‘1. Dnis’ field.
Screenshot showing the Input field
In the To Format field, select ‘5558001212 (No Symbols, National)’ in the dropdown list.
Screenshot showing the To Format field
Continue.
Test and continue.
The result will be a 10-digit phone number.

In the ‘Create Activity in AgencyBloc’ step…

Review all fields where you typed or manually entered and update them accordingly.

In the Subject field, manually type a subject line.
This subject line will be applied to all Activities created by this Zap. For example, you could set the subject line to: Outbound Recorded Call.
Screenshot showing the Subject field
In the Notes field, enter “From:” and map to the ‘1. Caller ID’ Vonage field. Add a hard return and enter “To:” and map to the ‘1. Dnis’ Vonage field.
Screenshot showing the Notes field
Continue.
Test and continue.
Keep in mind that this will create a real Activity with a real recording attachment.
Publish Zap.

Common questions

Do I need to set up these Zaps for each Vonage user?
If your Vonage account is using 'Company Wide Recordings', you do not need to create the Zap for each user in the account. If your account does not have 'Company Wide Recordings' enabled, each user who can record on demand will need their own inbound and outbound Zap setup.

What happens if more than one record has the phone number?
The Activity with the call recording will be attached to the first record found in Step 4. There is no way to choose which record the activity goes to if more than one record is found. With the appropriate security permissions, you can re-associate Activities to another record.

What happens if a new number calls me that I don’t have saved in AgencyBloc?
The Zap setup (outlined above) for inbound and outbound calls, relies on finding an existing record in AgencyBloc. After the call is recorded, if the phone number is not found on an Individual in your AgencyBloc account, the Zap will fail, resulting in a run status of 'Stopped/Halted'.

Managing unfound phone numbers can be handled in a couple of ways:

  • Replay Failed Zaps (recommended) - You can replay any failed steps from a Zap run. To view failed Zap runs, go to your Zapier account > Zap History page. Open the Zap run to locate the number that was not found. Copy the number and add it to a new or existing record in AgencyBloc. Once added, replay the Zap to rerun the search and create Activity steps.
  • Create a new Individual - If you want to create a new record if one is not found, you will need to consider what first and last name you will provide since Vonage won't always have a caller id value. See the steps below.

Can Zapier add a new Individual if the phone number is not found?
Yes, to do the setup, duplicate the inbound and outbound Zaps. Then, edit each one with the following modifications:

  1. Update the Get Individual by Phone Number & Name step so the last question, "Should this be considered successful if nothing is found?" is set to ‘Yes’.
  2. Add a Filter step set to '3. Data ID' does not exist.
  3. Add an AgencyBloc step to Create an Individual.
    Note: You must pass at least a first and last name then can put the phone number in too.
  4. Create Activity in AgencyBloc.
    This step is mostly the same as the original Zap, except change the '3. Data ID' to pull the '4. Individual ID' from the Create Individual step.

Other ways to connect AgencyBloc and Vonage:

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