Best practices: Setting up Answer Bot triggers, views, and workflows

Figuring out the best way to set up Answer Bot triggers, automations, views, and tags can be confusing for a lot of users. In this article, we're offering some recommendations for the following situations:

• Automatic tags
• Basic tagging
• Tagging solved tickets
• Removing the tags from reopened Answer Bot tickets
• Following up with customers who self-solve
• Creating an Answer Bot trigger for follow-up tickets
• Suppressing Customer Satisfaction surveys on Answer Bot tickets

Automatic tags

There are four tags that Answer Bot automatically adds to tickets to simplify setting up of new triggers and automation.  Use the below table to understand what these tags are and when they are added.

Ticket tag name	When is it added?
Ab_suggest_false	Added when Answer Bot is successfully triggered but failed to find any matching articles
ab_suggest_true	Added when Answer Bot successfully made an article suggestion
ab_marked_unhelpful	Added when the end user indicated that the suggestion was unhelpful
ab_resolved	Added when the end user marks the suggestion as helpful.

Please note that if you are using the answer_bot_fired tag, your existing triggers will continue to work as it does today. 

Basic tagging

Basic tagging is important for almost all configurations and best practices for Answer Bot. To allow us to optimise how triggers are fired, set up new triggers to take new actions, or change automations, we have to start with some basic tag manipulation:

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Answer Bot.
2. For every trigger listed in the Answer Bot trigger section, select Edit.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the trigger, to the Actions section and select Add Action.
4. Select Add tags from the drop-down list and then insert the tag answer_bot_fired.
5. Save the trigger.

Now all tickets Answer Bot has fired on will have the answer_bot_fired tag and we can easily create a view to see them:

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > Views.
2. Create a new view - call it Answer Bot Tickets
3. Set the conditions:
   • Ticket Status | Less than | Closed
   • Ticket Tags | Contains at least one of the following |  answer_bot_fired

Tagging solved tickets 

In this step, you'll create a trigger that determines whether an end user has resolved their ticket based on an Answer Bot suggestion, and tags the ticket as solved by Answer Bot. 

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
2. Create a new trigger - call it Answer Bot: Tag as solved
3. Set the following Conditions:
   • Ticket | Is | Updated
   • Requester Role | Is | (end user)
   • Current user | Is | (end user)
   • Ticket Status | Changed to | Solved
   • Ticket Channel | Is | Email
   • Ticket Tags | Contains at least one of the following | ab_resolved
4. Add the following Actions:
   • Select Add tags from the drop-down list and then insert the tag answer_bot_solved.
5. Save the trigger.

Now all tickets Answer Bot has solved will also have the answer_bot_solved tag, and we can easily create a view to see those as well:

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > Views.
2. Create a new view - call it Answer Bot Solved Tickets
3. Set the conditions:
   • Ticket Status | Greater than | On-hold (or Pending, if on-hold status is not available for your account)
   • Ticket Tags | Contains at least one of the following | answer_bot_solved

You should examine your ticketing workflows and make adjustments to the suggested trigger configuration to take into account non-standard ticketing workflows. For instance, if you have agents self-assigning and solving tickets without adding a public comment, the tag answer_bot_solved would be added, even though the ticket was not solved by Answer Bot. Adjusting the workflow, or adding conditions to the trigger to specify a ticket assignee, for example, can help avoid these conflicts.

Removing tags from reopened Answer Bot tickets

You could even take this one step further and add another trigger to remove the answer_bot_solved tag, if a ticket is reopened:

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
2. Create a new trigger - call it Answer Bot: Tag as Reopened
3. Set the conditions:
   • Ticket Status: is less than Solved
   • Agent replies greater than 0
   • Ticket tags: contain answer_bot_solved
4. Add the following Actions:
   • Select Add tags from the drop-down list and then insert the tag answer_bot_reopen.
   • Select Remove tags from the drop-down list and then insert the tag answer_bot_solved - this will remove that tag
5. Save the trigger.

Following up when customers self-solve

Extending on the previous steps, you can also add another action to send the requester a follow-up email to confirm that their request has been marked as solved.

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
2. Create the trigger in the previous step, or edit the Answer Bot: Tag as solved trigger
3. Add a new action:
   • Email > Requester
   • Enter an email subject and body
4. Save the trigger. 

The final trigger should look like this: 

Creating an Answer Bot trigger for follow-up tickets 

In some situations, you may want to check in on a closed ticket. Closed tickets cannot be reopened, so to continue the conversation (rather than starting a new one) you need to create a follow-up ticket.

When you create a follow-up ticket, all of the closed ticket's information, including tags, is carried over into the new ticket. That means that the answer_bot_solved tag is applied to the follow-up ticket, which prevents Answer Bot from firing on the new ticket. This is fine if you do not need Answer Bot to work on the new ticket; however, if you want to include Answer Bot suggestions in the ticket notifications, you'll need to remove the answer_bot_solved tag.

To create a trigger removing the answer_bot_solved tag from a follow-up ticket

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
2. Create a new trigger - call it Answer Bot: Follow_up
3. Set the conditions:
   • Ticket is: Created
   • Channel is: Closed ticket
   • Ticket tags: contain answer_bot_solved
4. Add the following Actions:
   • Remove tags: answer_bot_solved
5. Save the trigger.

Suppressing Customer Satisfaction surveys on Answer Bot tickets

Customer Satisfaction surveys were designed primarily for when human agents have been involved in solving the ticket. Many customers choose to disable satisfaction surveys for Answer Bot tickets. This step assumes that you have tagged tickets solved by Answer Bot with the answer_bot_solved tag.

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Automations.
2. Open the automation that's been set up to send Satisfaction surveys, by default it's calledRequest customer satisfaction rating (System Automation).
3. Add a new condition:
   • Ticket tags: contains none of the following: answer_bot_solved
4. Save the automation.