How does the Sinch Omnichannel Connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud support two-way conversations?

[Sam_Williams]

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Builder allows you to create communication paths, called journeys, that guide customers through their interaction with your brand. The Omnichannel Connector app, which is available on the Salesforce AppExchange, adds features to your Journey Builder that allow you to automatically send Conversation API template messages (either omni-channel or channel-specific) and incorporate Conversation API callback information into your journey. Full reference documentation for the Sinch Omnichannel Connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a....

You can design your journey to support two-way messaging. The process has two distinct halves:

1. Starting the conversation (The outbound message)
   
   
2. Handling the reply (the inbound mechanism)
   
   

Starting the conversation (the outbound message)

A standard Salesforce Journey is used to send the initial message.

1. You build a journey: In Journey Builder, create a standard journey for your target audience.
   
   

2. You send a message: Use the Omni Channel message activity to send your message (for example, an RCS message with quick reply buttons like "Yes" and "No"). This message is sent via the Sinch platform to the customer (or customers, likely stored in a Salesforce data extension).
   
   Note: You must comply with all rules and regulations corresponding to your region, recipient pool, and communication channel when sending outbound messages.
   
   

This first journey's job is now done. It has successfully started the conversation.

Part 2: Handling the reply (the inbound mechanism)

When the customer replies, a chain of events is triggered that allows Salesforce to process and react to that specific reply.

1. The customer replies: The customer receives the message and responds (for example, tapping a button or typing a response). This reply is sent from their phone back to the Sinch platform.
   
   
2. The Sinch webhook listens: Your Sinch Conversation API app is configured with a webhook. This webhook is a URL that the Sinch platform is constantly listening to. When the reply from the customer arrives, Sinch immediately sends all the information about that reply (who sent it, what they said, etc.) to your configured webhook URL.
   
   
3. The Connector receives the webhook: The webhook URL for the Omnichannel Connector points to a Sinch service. This service receives the inbound message data from the webhook.
   
   
4. The Omni Entry entry source triggers a new journey: This is the most critical link. The Sinch service takes the data it just received and uses the Salesforce API to trigger a special event. In Journey Builder, you have a second journey that is set up with the Omni Entry as its entry source. This event source is specifically designed to "listen" for these inbound triggers from the Connector.
   
   When the event fires, the contact who replied is immediately injected into this second journey.
   
   
5. The journey uses the Omni Flow flow control to "read" the reply: This second journey is your "listening journey." The first step almost always involves the Omni Flow flow control. You configure this flow control to analyze the data from the inbound message and direct the paths of the journey. For example:
   
   
   • Path 1: Follow this path if the postbackData from the reply equals yes_clicked.
     
     
   • Path 2: Follow this path if the postbackData from the reply equals no_clicked.
     
     
6. The Journey Continues the Conversation: Based on the path the contact takes, you can now add another Omni Channel message activity to send the appropriate next message.
   
   
   • Down Path 1: Send a message that says, "Great! Here is the information you requested..."
     
     
   • Down Path 2: Send a message that says, "No problem. Have a great day!"
     
     

This creates a seamless, automated, and interactive conversational loop.

While this article provides a high-level overview, you can visit our developer documentation for the Sinch Omnichannel Connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud for more in-depth information and reference material.