Things to know before building your first bot
Understand key concepts like Bots, Bot Flows, triggers, variables, and critical configurations to create effective and personalized automated interactions.
Before you start building your first Bot with Gallabox, here are some important things to know. This guide will break down the basics of chatbots, so you can understand how they work and what it takes to build one.
What is Bot and Flow?
Imagine having a helpful assistant available 24/7 who can answer your questions and assist with different tasks. This assistant is called a bot. It’s a special type of software designed to interact with you through chat or messaging.
Within this bot, there are different "flows"—these are like specific guides or scripts that tell the bot how to handle various situations. Each flow is set up to manage a different type of request or question you might have.
To illustrate:
A Bot might be named "Customer Support Bot".
Within this Bot, you could have several Bot flows like "Order Inquiry", "Returns and Refunds", "Product Information", and "Feedback".
Each Bot flow would contain specific steps, such as asking questions, providing information, or directing the customer to relevant resources.
Now that we have an idea of the Bots and Bot flows, let's explore how Bots are brought to life.
How Bot gets triggered?
Bot alone can't be triggered but the flows inside the Bot are triggered. To understand how flows are triggered, let us look at two key concepts: matching logic and the default bot.
Matching Logic
To initiate a particular flow, a trigger is required. This trigger is defined by keywords associated with the flow. When a user's message contains these keywords, the corresponding flow is activated.
For instance, if a flow is designed to handle order inquiries and has keywords like "order," "purchase," or "status," any message containing these terms will trigger the order inquiry flow.
You can assign either one or multiple keywords to a Bot flow. If multiple flows share the same keyword, the Bot will differentiate between them using information provided in the payload.
Default Bot
A default Bot is the one that interacts with customers whenever they initiate contact with your business. There are two ways to set a default Bot in Gallabox. The first is during Bot publication, where you have the option to designate it as default.
Alternatively, if you already have a default Bot, you can go to Assignments under the WhatsApp Channel and assign new conversations to the desired Bot to make it the default.
Make sure the user conversation is already resolved before a bot interacts with the user.
What are Variables?
In everyday terms, think of variables as empty boxes that you can label with different names. You can put different things into these boxes, like numbers, words, or other types of information.
In Gallabox, you use these variables when setting up WhatsApp Templates and Bots.
Examples:
A WhatsApp Template for order confirmation might use variables like
{{order_id}},{{customer_name}}, and{{total_amount}}to display unique information for each order.If a customer provides their name as a response, you can store it in a variable named customer_name and use it later in the conversation, like "Hello,
{{customer_name}}! How can I help you today?"
In Gallabox, the different data types you can use for variables are:
Text: For storing and displaying strings of characters, such as names or messages.
Number: For handling numerical values, which can be used in calculations or to display quantities.
Date: For representing dates and times, useful for tracking events or deadlines.
Boolean: For values that are either true or false, often used for decision-making or conditional logic.
List: For storing multiple values in a single variable, like a list of items or options.
Object: For complex data structures that can include multiple fields and values, allowing for more detailed and organized information storage.
These data types help you manage and utilize information effectively.
Gallabox System Variables and Formats
Gallabox provides built-in system variables to streamline your workflow, such as:
You can use either the {{intent.text}} or {{intent.payload}} variable under Intent. {{intent.text}} is the detected intent name, or keyword to trigger the flow and {{intent.payload}} is the payload that goes with it.
How to Test and Debug a flow?
Before publishing the bot, you can test it out by clicking on the Test bot button. All you have to do is enter your number and then click on Test. You can adjust the customer's experience based on your testing feedback.
If incase you encounter any issues, you can debug it by looking at the logs. The Cards will have a label- Succeeded, Answered, Unanswered, and Failed.
Succeeded: If the cards have this label, it means the card was viewed by your customer.
Answered: If the cards have this label, it means the customer answered the question posed on that card.
Unanswered: If the cards have this label, it means the customer did not answer the question posed on that card.
Failed: If the cards have this label, it means either of two things - customer didn't reply in the asked format incase of Send & Ask Cards. For utility, Actions, and Connectors if you see any failed cards, connect with the Support Team to understand the cause for this.
Critical Config you should know about
Before publishing the Bot to interact with your customers, be mindful of two key configurations: the Drop-off conditions and the post-flow actions.
Drop-off
In Gallabox, there are two types of drop-off settings you can configure: Bot Drop-Off and Flow Drop-Off.
Bot Drop-Off: This setting is used for the entire bot. When creating your bot, you'll encounter a section that asks, "What if the contact didn't respond to the bot's questions?" Here, you configure how to track and understand why a customer might not respond at various stages. This helps you analyze overall bot performance and make necessary adjustments to improve the overall customer experience.
Flow Drop-Off: For more detailed tracking, you can set up drop-off settings at the flow level. While creating a specific flow within your bot, you can specify:
How long the bot should wait for a reply from the contact.
What the bot should say to the contact if the designated wait time expires.
What actions the bot should take after the wait time ends.
Setting up flow-level drop-off helps you fine-tune individual parts of your bot, improving the interaction quality and ensuring a better experience for your customers.
Flow Completed
Configuring the correct action after a customer's interaction with the Bot is essential when building it. This can be done while creating a flow, under custom configurations. The section with title - What actions should the bot take after the flow completion? If Toggled On, an action or more than 1 action can be added. This will help you to connect your customers with the right support person, or a Team or even resolve the conversation if the resolution has been provided.
How to Share the Bot?
There are multiple ways in which you can share a bot:
From Compose Box: You can activate a Bot when a customer enters your WhatsApp and also assign any Bot to a customer's conversation directly from the Compose Box. A dedicated icon for triggering bots is conveniently located within the compose box for easy access. Simply select the desired flow to trigger, and the conversation will be assigned to the Bot and the flow activated.
Making the Bot default: When a user connects with your business, the default bot will activate and continue the conversation.
WhatsApp Magic Link: After creating a magic link for your business phone number, customers can scan the QR code to initiate a conversation with your WhatsApp Chatbot.
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