There are a number of non-configurable bot behaviors that are part of your bot’s functionality. These are triggered by the customer entering a free-text message into the widget or mobile SDK. The bot then assesses the content of the text entry and responds with one of the following behaviors:
These responses remain active in customized bots.
These automated messages appear in your selected bot language. See Managing languages for a bot.
Conversational shortcuts
A conversational shortcut uses AI to assess any free-text message entered into the conversation by a customer and automatically jumps to the beginning of the relevant answer.
Article suggestions
Article suggestions are only available if you have a publicly available help center,. If no help center is available, the article suggestion behavior will not be triggered, and a fallback flow is triggered instead.
Fallback flow
The fallback flow is triggered when none of the abovementioned behaviors help the customer self-solve their support issue. The bot gives them the option to rephrase their question, or offers up to six possible answers for them to choose from.
You can configure the fallback flow. See Building a bot using answers: Fallback response.
31 Comments
I'd like to edit the fallback flow to allow transfer directly to an agent if the customer indicates "no, I still need help". Is this possible?
I would like to edit the language used in fallback and feedback flow. Is there a way, I can change the language to a non supported one.
Am I able to edit the Answer Bot name? I can't seem to find a way to edit that on Messaging.
Thank you for being active in our Help Center.
@Aashley
This is definitely a good feature to have. However, it is by design to have the "Start Over" button in order to give an opportunity for the customer to search for other related resource and for the Answer Bot itself to filter out basic customer concerns. Once the "Start Over" option has been chosen, the option to "Talk to Human" will be available again.
@Erkin
Answer bot can only be used in languages specified in Languages supported in Answer Bot.
Modifying the Answer Bot avatar and name can be done by the use of Zendesk Answer Bot API.
Have a great day guys!
Cheers,
Dane
Zendesk | Customer Advocate
Thanks Dane! I do believe that's only for the classic widget, right?
We're using Messaging, which that endpoint doesn't seem to cover.
Thank you for pointing that one out. Sorry, I missed it. Upon checking, renaming Answer bot is not available. However, we are already working for a similar feature on which the Answer Bot name will adapt the name of your brand. We don't have an actual date yet for its launch. Please always keep an eye for it by checking our Zendesk updates page.
Dane, since this is an intended feature, I'd like to make it clear there is a significant use case for my request, particularly customers who are having trouble navigating answer bot in the chat widget, so please make this a feature request.
Hi Talal Naboulsi
If you visit the bot setting page, there should be an option for you to update the bot name (see attached screenshot).
There isn't the ability to update the bot avatar today, this is something we are considering on our future roadmap.
Hi! Is there a way to duplicate a workflow and copy this into a new bot automation?
Hi Karla McCartney-Brown!
At the moment it's not possible yet to be able to duplicate & copy a flow. A feature request has already been created for it which you can check out: Ability to copy and backup bot flows and steps.
You can up-vote that original post and add your detailed use-case to the conversation. Threads with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Hey,
The feedback flow pops up automatically even though the customer is not feeding any input in the chatbot. I am attaching a screenshot for reference. I want the feedback to pop up only after any article recommendation or any question asked by the customer in the answer bot widget.
Hi Kinshuk Dey
This boils down to how you set up the Flow. Based on the screenshot you provided, you added several "send a message" steps in your Flow. That is why it's sending multiple messages. I also see that the "No I would like to drop my concern here" is a manually typed message and not a selection in your Flow, which explains why the bot clarified what your concern is.
I would suggest refining your current flow to check if they need assistance first before sending another message, and so on. This article would also be helpful in setting that up: Using Flow Builder to create bot flows
What messaging channels can a bot be connected to? Can you use a bot to respond to messages from social channels such as Facebook Messenger or Instagram DMs?
Hello Paul, thank you for your question!
As of now, this is not possible just yet. But we have plans of adding the Bot functionalities to social channels, as you mentioned. In fact, we have an Early Access Program (EAP) that you can be a part of by reviewing this article here: Flow Builder support for social messaging (Early Access Program).
We would love your feedback!
As Aashley Malsbury mentioned, customers have a really hard time navigating the chatbot, we had to disabled it due to an avalanche of complaints and a lot of lost customers frustrated with our new chat experience.
Chat experience is vital for us since it's a crucial sales channel. Is there any place I can make a formal feature request to make possible the following:
We were really excited with messaging and its chatbot and made the effort to migrate from chat SDK to Messaging but we were surprised and disappointed with the poor performance and all the negative consequences it brought.
Best,
Nelson
when a customer manually types a question, Answer bot will suggest articles and should ask if it was helpful. It does not do that anymore. Is that a bug or a setting?
The feedback flow is now configurable.
You can create a new feedback step by adding an "Ask if question resolved" step type.
Anne Ronalter I know this is an option in the flow builder, but I'm talking about the Fallback option.
When that is selected and Answer bot suggests answers, no follow-up is shown.
It says "Here are some suggestions that may be helpful" Follow by articles and then nothing.
I am having the same issue as @Anton Verhelst — after the articles are suggested, there's no way for the user to mark it as unhelpful and ask to connect to agent.
As mentioned by Aashley Malsbury, we also really need to customize the fallback flow, otherwise we just cannot use the bot as it is not user friendly.
I agree with Anton Verhelst and anna.kalinichenko.
A lot of our customers like asking their own questions (free-text entry) which the bot then provides the correct article.
Then it stops (as mentioned by Anton Verhelst). If there was a way we could close this loop not only would it help the customer, it could also assist when we generate reports
Como cambio la anchura del chat box?
We're having the exact same issue as Anton above, our customers hit a dead end and have no additional messages or options. They will not all know that they can type "talk to a human" at any time. with messaging disabled this works fine with answer bot on the classic widget.
We need either:
I would also like to echo those above regarding the "Ask if question resolved". I love the idea of including this in a flow, but free searching the Help Center leaves it open-ended. I tried searching the Help Center via an API request and inserting the top results into a carousel. This would work expect variables cannot be used in carousel items so the end result is pretty ugly. Would appreciate any ideas or workarounds.
I definitely agree with everyone regarding the design of the Article Suggestions. It could be improved by at least having the previous option "Was this helpful?" or anything similar. Our product managers are already aware of this. Rest assured, we are doing our best to cope up with your feedbacks.
Article Suggestions is triggered by free-text being entered by end-users. Hence, if they noticed that there's no relevant information provided on the text they have entered, their primary tendency is to enter other words/phrases again. If no matches are present it will then trigger the Fallback where you can designate what answers will presented to your end-users.
Hello,
I am having trouble understating conversational shortcuts behaviour as mentioned in the documentation. Especially this part:
Is it possible to suggest KB articles while our helpcenter itself is locked to authorized users only?
seems a bit silly that i have to open up our helpcenter to the public internet for this to work...
Hello Dane do you have a deadline for the issue Anton Verhelst addressed?
My Answer Bot in the new Messaging Web Widget is not suggesting articles at all! My Help Center is public, I have left my "Starting answers" from my Standard responses blank, and I have checked "Greeting message" and "Recommend help centre articles".
Do I have to configure something in "Article Recommendations" under Bots and automation?
Hi Shaun Luong,
I see you have contacted us on a separate ticket regarding Answer Bot. Please expect a response from me and let's continue to work together from there. Thanks!
How can I disable the custom response box of zendesk's chatbot widget?
Instead of the customer writing a custom response in the chatbot, we want to induce the customer to select one of the alternatives displayed on the chatbot.
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