Engage with customers using Khoros and SMS text messaging

To get started you’ll need the following:

• A Khoros instance that is connected to a phone number
• A registered bot user within the Khoros instance
• A Flow.ai account and organization

To start sending outbound messages you’ll need to connect Flow.ai with Khoros, configure the Flow.ai REST API and add a flow to trigger.

• Login into your Flow.ai project
• Go to the integrations overview
• Add a new Khoros integration within the customer service section
• Choose a bot name
• Provide the bot username and password (please contact Khoros support to create a bot user for your Khoros instance)
• Add your company key (check the Khoros developer settings to find the name)
• Choose the correct region (ask Khoros support if you do not know the region of your instance)
• Choose SMS as the channel
• Add the phone number connected to Khoros as the external ID
• Add the same phone number in the phone number field
• Add support@flow.ai as the contact email address

Using the REST API you can make a direct broadcast call to Flow.ai using a customer phone number (MSISN) that would trigger a specific flow.

That way you can send text messages to customers through the Khoros SMS integration.

• Go to the organisation settings screen (top right)
• Choose “API Keys”. If you do not see this item, you do not have sufficient permissions for the organisation. Please contact the owner of the Flow.ai organisation.
• Create a new API key (choose the default settings)
• Go back to the project and open up the integrations overview
• Add a new REST API integration
• Choose the API key from the dropdown and press save
• Copy the REST API token and store it for later usage

We have everything ready to trigger a flow that will send an outbound message to a user. The only thing missing is a flow to trigger. Simply add a new flow and make it start with an event. For example name the event: Send SMS.

Below the event, drag and drop a text reply. Add some text like: This is a test message

Save the flow. Now we can test the entire setup!

You can test the broadcast using a CURL command to make a call to the REST API.

The following is an example of a CURL command:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.flow.ai/rest/v1/broadcast/instant' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: sk_ab12abcd9876543210abcdefgh012345' \
--data-raw '{
    "audience": [{
        "name": "John Doe",
        "phoneNumber": "+1234567890"
    }],
    "channel": {
        "channelName": "khoros",
        "externalId": "+0987654321"
    },
    "payload": {
        "type": "event",
        "eventName": "Send SMS"
    }
}
'

Replace the information:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.flow.ai/rest/v1/broadcast/instant' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: API_TOKEN' \
--data-raw '{
    "audience": [{
        "name": "CUSTOMER_NAME",
        "phoneNumber": "CUSTOMER_MSISDN"
    }],
    "channel": {
        "channelName": "khoros",
        "externalId": "KHOROS_EXTERNAL_ID"
    },
    "payload": {
        "type": "event",
        "eventName": "EVENT_NAME"
    }
}
'