When implementing IVR, if you are coming from a previous provider, there are likely phone numbers owned by your company that you are to retain. Porting those numbers lets you maintain consistency in customer experience and fewer updates to marketing materials like your website, app, and printed materials.
Transferring a phone number to Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform), commonly referred to as porting, generally takes between 2-4 weeks for a US phone number. We've outlined the process in the following steps.
The following steps apply to US numbers only as to be used as a guide as processes can vary. If you are interested in transferring a non-US phone number, contact your CS team member for more information.
Notification of Intent to Port Numbers
If you want to transfer a number from another provider, it's important to open a support case with Google Cloud support as early as possible to ensure your chosen timeline for porting is achieved.
Documentation gathering for US number porting
Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform) needs two pieces of documentation to initiate a port on your behalf.
Letter of Authorization: Google Cloud support will provide you with a letter of authorization form. This form must include the following information:
First name, last name, and business name as shown on your current bill
Phone numbers that you want to port
Physical address as shown on your current billing statement
Signature of the individual in your organization authorized to release the phone numbers
Billing statement: To prove ownership of the numbers you intend to port over to Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform), you must submit the latest billing statement from your provider. The statement should show the following information:
The phone numbers that you intend to transfer
The physical address associated with the account of your current provider. This must match the address in the Letter of Authorization form.
Processing
Once the port request and documents are submitted, our provider will notify your current provider of the request to port the phone number(s).
This is the least predictable part of the process, as your current provider must approve the port request before moving forward with a date. Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform) will have regular updates from our provider and will update you with the progress.
Confirm date of port
Once the port request has been approved by all parties, our provider will set a date and time for the phone number(s) to be "cutover" to Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform). If the date and time set is not favorable, you may have the flexibility to change cutover to a later date, but in most cases the cutover cannot be sooner than the original date offered. If a date change is available and your support center operation is already live on Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform), we suggest choosing a low-volume day and time, as this will be a change to your live production environment.
Once the ported phone numbers have cutover to Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform), these numbers can be configured within the Admin Portal to reach any queues or direct access points.