Setting Up Quick Answer Templates

The system can set up response templates that agents can choose from in order to respond quickly and consistently to the customer. Using pre-built templates also prevents typing errors.

When selecting a template, you can also launch a bot to perform some operation such as sending a poll or canceling an an appointment, in addition to a message that will be sent to the customer according to the template's Content, if populated.

To set up templates, from the Settings menu select SimpleChat Templates and click New.

For each template, set the following properties:

  1. Classification: Allows grouping templates by topic for quick access

Note: The topics are sorted alphabetically. To control the order, add a number to the beginning of the topic name

  1. Name: The title displayed in the menu to select under the branch of the selected classification
  2. Type: Choose the SimpleChat Template option to build the template in the system or choose External Template to use on templates that are configured on channels and the system only passes parameters to the channel, such as in WhatsApp.

Note: The contents of external templates are set on the external channel and the system only sends the selected template ID to the channel, but the same content must also be configured for the system template so that the agent will see the message as shown to the customer

Note: When selecting an external template, the text field gets locked and it is not possible to change the format of a selected external template before sending it. To cancel the selected template, click the X button that appears in the text box.

  1. External Namespace: Displayed for external templates only. Passed to the channel when selecting the template
  2. External ID: Displayed for external templates only. Passed to the channel when selecting the template
  3. Language Code: Displayed for external templates only. Passed to the channel when selecting the template
  4. Display Order: The internal sorting order between various templates under the same branch
  5. Content: The text that will be inserted in the text field when you select this template. To extract dynamic values from related fields, define a SimpleChat Parameter for the template and specify the parameter number in curly brackets in the string, as detailed below
  6. Bot: A bot that will be activated when the template is selected. If a bot is filled in the Content field will not be mandatory, and if no content is filled in upon template selection the bot will be activated without a message being sent
  7. Parameters: Dynamic values from fields in the conversation or from related records to be filled in the template, as detailed below
  8. Available for the following channels: The channels for which this template is shown to the agent to select in the conversation.

How to extract dynamic values ​​from related fields:

For any dynamic information that you need to fill in a template, click on a New + button in the Parameters list in the form to create a new SimpleChat Parameter record and fill in its details as follows:

  1. Display Name: The display name of the parameter, for example "Customer Name" for a parameter that fills in the customer's name
  2. SimpleChat Template: The template in which the parameter is defined
  3. Parameter Number: Determines the order by which the parameters are passed to the template. The template content should include the number in brackets, such as "Hello {1}"
  4. Dynamic Value: Schema name of the field and optionally the display format, as detailed below
  5. Fallback Value: Value to be used when the dynamic value returns an empty result

How to define dynamic values:

The Dynamic Value field must specify the schema field name, and optionally specify the format for number or date fields.

The system will extract the field value from the field specified in the Dynamic Value field and fill it in the template content if Parameter Number is specified in the template content in curly brackets. If the parameter has no value, the Fallback Value is passed instead.

In the Dynamic Value field, a field name from the conversation record can be set in the following format: field_name. For example, if a parameter for which Parameter Number is set to 1 and Dynamic Value is set to ownerid, and the record owner's name is John Doe, then selecting a template "My name is {1}"  will fill "My name is John Doe" in the text box in the conversation pane.

Note: The field from which the information is drawn must be placed on the form (displayed or hidden). In the event of a failure to calculate the dynamic value the template will be displayed as it is to the agent, with the parameter number inside the curly brackets.

To display a value of a field from a related record use the following format: lookup.field_name. For example, the parameter ownerid.firstname will fill in the owner's first name in the contents of the template that is inserted in text box in the conversation pane.

For numbers you can specify a vertical separator line followed by a number of digits to display after the decimal point, in the following format: field_name|number. For example, if the Amount field contains the value 5 and the dynamic value is set amount|2 the parameter will be displayed in the template as follows: 5.00

For dates, you can specify after vertical separator any format supported by C#, as described in the following article.

 

The dates will be displayed according to the agent's time zone and locale settings as set in the system. Sample format:

createdon|dd/MM/yyyy or createdon|MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm

You can set fields whose data will be extracted from a lookup on the form, in the following format:

ownerid.createdon|dd/MM/yyyy