Step-by-step guides dynamically walk agents through each step of fulfilling a customer request, built with a drag-and-drop designer, removing the guesswork or reliance on past experience that would otherwise determine how consistently a process gets handled. [Source: AWS, Getting started with step-by-step guides for the Amazon Connect agent workspace] They appear natively inside the agent workspace, or can be embedded into a company's own homegrown agent desktop.
The Building Block: Views
At the core of step-by-step guides is the concept of a view — a visual container that functions like a mini user interface, helping agents through one part of a process. Guides are built by composing views together into a sequence, with the drag-and-drop workflow designer used to create and modify them. [Source: AWS, Best practices for Amazon Connect step-by-step guides]
What You Can Build With Guides
- Screen pops that automatically show relevant information the moment a contact connects
- Single-page forms an agent fills out as part of handling the contact
- Detailed, multi-step guidance for handling a specific use case from start to finish
- Custom UI pages that suggest the right action to the agent at a given moment during the interaction
- End-customer self-service forms, not just agent-facing guides
Content was rephrased for compliance with licensing restrictions. [Source: AWS, Step-by-step Guides to set up your Connect Customer agent workspace]
Deciding Which Guide Shows When
Guides aren't one-size-fits-all. In the drag-and-drop designer, you determine which guide appears to an agent under which conditions — for example, surfacing one guide every time a contact comes through a specific queue, or a different guide depending on what the customer selected in the IVR. Configuration is tailored to your specific business needs rather than fixed. [Source: AWS, Amazon Connect Agent Workspace]
A Specific Example: Smart Default Guides for Wrap-Up
One built-in use is standardising what happens after the contact ends. A smart default guide for after-contact work can surface wrap-up tasks — disposition codes, contact summaries, follow-up actions — directly in the agent workspace, without needing manual configuration from scratch. [Source: AWS, Enable smart default guides for after contact work]
Where this earns its value: any process with a "the good agents just know to also do X" step is exactly the kind of inconsistency step-by-step guides are designed to remove — turning tribal knowledge into a visible, enforced workflow every agent sees the same way.
Common Use Cases
| Use case | What the guide does |
|---|---|
| Handling a specific interaction type | Walks the agent through the exact steps for that scenario |
| Request forms | Helps agents quickly fill out structured forms mid-conversation |
| Disposition / wrap-up | Prompts for a disposition code or summary at the end of a contact |
| Customer self-service | Lets end-customers complete a guided form themselves |
[Source: AWS, Exploring use cases for Amazon Connect step-by-step guides]
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Amazon Connect step-by-step guides?
Step-by-step guides are visual, guided workflows in the Amazon Connect agent workspace, built with a drag-and-drop designer, that walk agents through the actions to take for a specific type of customer interaction, removing guesswork and reliance on an individual agent's experience.
How are step-by-step guides built?
Administrators use a drag-and-drop workflow designer to build guides out of predefined views — visual containers that act like simple user-interface screens. A guide can combine several views into a sequence that walks the agent through a process step by step.
Can different guides show for different situations?
Yes. You determine which guide displays under which conditions, for example surfacing a specific guide whenever a contact comes through a particular queue, or showing different guides depending on what the customer selected in the IVR.
What are step-by-step guides commonly used for?
Common uses include walking an agent through a specific customer workflow, helping agents quickly fill out request forms during a conversation, standardising post-contact wrap-up (disposition codes, summaries, follow-up actions), and giving end-customers their own guided self-service forms.
Conclusion
Step-by-step guides turn "the way our best agents handle this" into a visible, drag-and-drop-built workflow that any agent can follow consistently — whether that's a complex multi-step process, a quick form, or standardised wrap-up. Combined with Customer Profiles and agent assist, it's one of the clearer levers for reducing new-agent ramp time without rewriting your whole training programme.