C.O.D. Verification

15 min

Cash on Delivery (COD) has been a major growth driver for the e-commerce industry. However, it also introduces operational risks such as cancellations, fake orders, and failed deliveries. Reducing COD-related losses is therefore a key focus area for most e-commerce businesses.

With Exotel’s automated COD verification, you can confirm the legitimacy of COD orders before dispatch — reducing failed deliveries and optimizing operational costs.

Advantages

Reduce No-shows An automated call is triggered to the customer before delivery to confirm their availability and willingness to receive the order.

Avoid First Attempt Failures On the day of delivery, an automated IVR call checks whether the customer is available. Customers can confirm or reschedule deliveries via keypad input. The input is relayed to your CRM or backend system in real time.

Implementation Steps

1. Automated Call Trigger on COD Order

When a COD order is placed, your system can trigger an automated verification call to confirm the order and customer number.

2. Send Details to Exotel

Your server sends the customer number and call flow details to Exotel via API.

3. Exotel Initiates the Call

Exotel automatically calls the customer with a pre-defined IVR flow to confirm the order.

4. Capture Customer Input

Based on customer input (e.g., Press 1 to confirm, Press 2 to cancel), your CRM can mark the order status as verified, canceled, or pending.

API Implementation

Exotel API to Connect a Call to a Flow

https://<your_api_key>:<your_api_token>@<subdomain>/v1/Accounts/<your_sid>/Calls/connect

This API first calls the From number, and once the recipient answers, connects them to the call flow (applet) you’ve created in the system — for example, a landing app with IVR or greeting logic. An HTTP POST request is made to the above endpoint.

API Credentials

Navigate to API Settings in your Exotel Dashboard and retrieve:

Account SID

API Token

API Key

For details, see: How to find my API Key, API Token, Account SID, and Subdomain?

Mandatory Parameters

Detailed documentation for all parameters is available here: https://developer.exotel.com/api#call-customer

The call flow referenced in the API must be created in your Exotel Dashboard: https://my.exotel.com

Sample Call Flow

Go to App Bazaar → Create Flow → Enter Flow Name

Use the following applets in sequence:

Applets to Use

Gather — captures customer keypad input

Passthru — sends input data to your server via webhook

Hangup — ends the call gracefully

Steps:

Drag and drop the Gather Applet – digits entered will be recorded and stored.

Drag and drop the Passthru Applet – link it to your webhook URL.

Add the Hangup Applet at the end of the flow.

Save the flow.

Assign an Exophone to the newly created flow:

Implementing COD Verification with Google Sheets

To simplify data collection, you can integrate Exotel with Google Sheets using a simple Apps Script.

Steps

Open a new Google Sheet.

In Script Editor, paste the following code.

Deploy the script as a web app and copy the web app URL.

Use this URL as the Passthru webhook in your Exotel flow.

Sample JavaScript Code

// Spreadsheet configuration var ID = "1M2-MShDX8pIvJlwtPwTvDCPnDSTQw_OfNuI6fODIyIk"; // Sheet ID var SHEET_NAME = "Sheet1";// Append data to sheet function doGet(e) { var params = JSON.stringify(e.parameters); var jsonMapping = JSON.parse(params); var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById(ID).getSheetByName(SHEET_NAME); sheet.appendRow([jsonMapping["From"][0], jsonMapping["digits"][0]]); return ContentService.createTextOutput(e.parameters); }

Replace:

ID → the Sheet ID from the Google Sheets URL

SHEET_NAME → the name of the sheet where you want to store data

Deploy the Script

When deploying:

Project Version: Enter a version name

Execute as: Me (your email)

Who has access: Anyone, even anonymous

Click Deploy to get your web app URL

Use this webhook URL in the Passthru Applet in your Exotel call flow.