You can use the bot builder to create answers for your conversation bots, giving your customers the opportunity to self-serve their support issues before connecting with agents. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the bot builder UI and basic functionality. For information about working with the bot builder, see Building a conversation bot using answers.
This article includes the following topics:
The bot builder UI
The bot builder is the tool you use to create answers for your bot, which controls how it behaves in response to customer input.
The bot builder components are listed below. Each plays an important role in building your answer:
- Header, which appears at the top of the screen, above the flow. On the header, you'll find breadcrumbs for the answer's bot as well as the Preview and Done buttons. For more information, see Publishing bot updates.
- Flow, your answer represented in a decision tree format, as a series of connected steps representing the interaction the bot can have with a customer. You can select a step to configure the bot's responses, and add steps to the answer. The navigation controls at the bottom of the flow allow you to zoom in and out of the answer, or pan to areas in the answer, and you can pinch to zoom using a touchpad or touch screen.
- Configuration panel, where you can customize each step in your answer. The appearance of this panel changes based on what type of bot step you're working on.
- Answer builder (shown above), displayed when you initially create an answer, and when you select the top step in the answer. Here, you can configure your answer intent, and work with your question variations.
- Configuration tab, which appears when you select a step to the answer, or add a new step to an answer. Here, you can select the type of step you want to add to your answer, add and edit automated messages, and build lists of options for your customers to choose from. For detailed information on these step types, including usage and configuration rules, visual examples of the steps in the bot builder, and how each appears to your customers in a Web Widget, see Understanding bot step types.
- Preview tab, for previewing the customer experience created by the answer, before releasing it to your customers. Click the Preview tab in the Configuration panel to view.
Publishing bot updates
Any changes made in the bot builder must be published before they appear in your messaging channel.
To publish a bot update
- Create or update your answers in the bot builder, and click Save.
- In the header, click Publish. This makes the changes live in your messaging channels, and updates the publishing information in the header.
For more information about publishing, see Publishing answers.
106 Comments
Upon checking, a colleague is already working with you about this concern. Please reply to the ticket to further investigate the issue.
Thank you.
Hello!
Can you explain please, how far is updating counter of Resolution articles? For test I clicked to the article yesterday and choose option "it was helpful", but in Zendesk Explore today I have 0 value in report of this article for metrics "clicked article" and "resolution article".
Hi!,
Does flow builder works for social messaging?
Best,
Yes, flow builder is specifically designed for Messaging.
Cheers,
Dane
In the bot flow, is it also possible to set tags for the different automated replies? And if not, would it be possible to add tags to these conversations after they are ended? Based on this article it looks possible but I wanted to make sure whether it's also valid for conversations held with the bot, not with an Agent.
The article you have provided is for our Chat channel and not Messaging. It will work only if you are using the normal chat triggers for the automated replies. However, such function is not yet supported in the Flow Builder.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dane
Hi Dane, thank you. So the conversations that happened through the Flow Builder cannot be tagged later after they are ended, is it correct?
Yes, you are correct. As of the moment, Messaging triggers does not have this capability.
Cheers,
Dane
Hi, is there a way to add a "Multi-line" Field to the Fields in The "Transfer to agent" step in the Flow Builder? Or at least be able to send more than 128 characters in the "Text" Field?
We would like for the customer to send us a comment abount their problem or doubt before the ticket is transfered to the agent, so that in one hand, we don't have agents waiting for a customer to send that information after the ticket was created, and also to be able to use that information in a webhook trigger to improve the routing of the tickets.
Do you suggest any alternative?
You can use any available ticket fields on the transfer to agent option. You just have to add the corresponding ticket field to it by selecting configure. Please refer to the screenshot below.
In my case, I prefer to add a text field that the customer will have to explain their actual concern. However, you can also use a dropdown for them to select a pre-defined value.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dane
Hi Dane, I've tried to do what you mention, and multi-line fields don't show up on the Fields in the Configure section, only Text and Drop-down. And if we want our clients to describe give us a full description of their problem before the ticket is created, then an input that is limited to one line isn't a good UX, and less so because there is an arbitrary 128 character limit:
Hi, I remember before I was able to connect the workflow to facebook messenger. Now I noticed when the admin center interface was changed I cannot see that option anymore.
Some things that would be beneficial that have greatly hindered our ability to use this feature include:
Hi team,
I noticed that my bot flow works completely differently than when I contact Zendesk live support.
1. Zendesk allows for multiple conversations.
2. If the Z bot doesn't know the answer, it allows contacting the agent. But my bot in this case asks to rephrase the question and offers to 'Start over'.
3. When the Z bot suggests an article and I click 'No, I still need help', the Z bot also allows me to contact your team, rather than offering to rephrase the question or 'Start over'.
Please tell me how can I do the same with my bot flow?
Such features are very important for my product.
Thank you!
-Artem
Flow builder does not support Messenger. However, you can add a Facebook Messenger channel in Admin Center > Channels > Messaging.
@Morgan
That's definitely a good feature to have. I'll mark it as a product feedback and this will be brought up to the attention of our Product Managers. As Flow builder is fairly new, we appreciate this kind of feedback to continuously improve our product.
@Artem
Our Messaging widget has been developed to cater our customers and make sure that they will be routed to the correct department more efficiently. This was done through rigorous and heavy customization. Hence, this functionality is not yet available for our client facing flow builder. More improvements with flow builder are currently being worked on. This kind of feedback will definitely help our Product Managers on the continuous improvement of our Flow Builder.
We really need to be able to copy Bot and all its steps in a flow for backup and testing purpose.
Thanks for the feedback! The best place for this is our Feedback - Chat and Messaging (Chat) topic since our product team monitors that topic, and using this template will be ensure they get the information they need. Thanks!
@... Moved.... https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4505043303450-Ability-to-copy-and-backup-bot-flows-and-steps-
Thanks Jason Walker-C!
Hey, hoping someone might be able to help.
I have successfully built a flow and we have this working in app, however once the user has opted to speak to a human, I would like to offer them the option to ask another question/ start at the beginning of the flow, as currently it seems this user is locked into the conversation with no option to find the answer to other questions.
Would love any insight on this!
Hey Katie,
We have some updates coming in June where you can build separate flows to address individual customer questions. You can then train the bot to recognise the types of questions to respond with the specific answer flow. You can find more details of this upcoming bot building update here.
Hope this helps.
Is it not possible for users to enter free text in order to search for Help Center articles (instead of us having to configure the specific articles that we want to show)? Thanks!
This is great, I am having difficulty however with the Conversations. Currently, they are flowing through to the Open ticket trays, and can not be replied to in there, I have admin access and we do not use the conversations like a Live Chat, we want it to come through as a ticket to answer.
Can Messaging with flow builder web widget only be used if you transfer to a live agent? Not a normal ticket with a High SLA that will be answered in priority if the articles can not be solved?
Hi everyone,
Is there a way to change the text of the farewell message "Great. Knowledge is power. You..."?
Thanks.
hi i want to know how to set up the multiple language for answer bot?
I try to set up 2 languages, but one channel only can connect one bot.
after I connect the Chinese language to the channel, it will be automatically disconnected from another bot (english)
End-users can always enter free text on any part of the flow builder steps. For example, when you use the step "Show Help Center Articles" to present the most commonly used articles to your end-users, they can freely type in any keyword they prefer for the bot to provide other recommendations.
@Jade,
Yes, you will need to use the "Transfer to Agent" steps for such conversations to be routed to your support.
@Mariano,
The feedback flow is currently not customizable but it is something we are planning to support in the near future where you can customize the text or disable it.
@Kuan Ting,
The article Managing languages in a bot can help out on your concern. Don't hesitate to post on the comment section if you have additional concern.
How I can start my conversation without any answers, the conversation should begin with the customer.
But in my flow builder, it's asking to enter at least one answer.
I want to keep an empty answer(without any answer during the start of my conversation) at first, later depending upon the customer's request need to display the answer.
Should start like, Please guide me to develop in this way.
Hi, Naresh Chevuri
How about we try it this way?
Watch out, it's on the Japanese screen!
I'd be happy to be of help.
Masako K Thanks!
How to build flow for ending up a conversation.
Whereas in my flow I'm receiving these phrases.
For this configuration, you can either utilize Intent or the Message step. This way, your bot will first ask the question and will not immediately provide articles.
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