Auto Answers: Customer self-service

Auto Answers is a self-service support feature that provides customers a way to browse questions and answers before chatting live, deflecting common or repetitive engagement from agents.

When enabled, Auto Answers provides customers a way to browse questions and answers before chatting live, deflecting common or repetitive engagement from agents. The feature is configured per chat window definition, which allows you to differentiate and customize customers' chat experience on your site.

Requirements

  • Only available for layered windows
  • Not available for pop-up windows

How do customers experience Auto Answers?

The typical engagement sequence for customers is as follows.

  1. The customer asks an initial question.
  2. The customer browses and rates the available answers.
  3. The customer initiates live chat if the issue persists
Note: You can run reports on Auto Answers at https://reports.boldchat.com/.

Task One: Populate the answer pool

Auto Answers utilizes canned messages to present the most relevant answers to customers based on various factors, such as frequency of use, popularity, customer rating and key terms.

You can populate the pool of questions and answers using either the admin.Bold360.com or via API calls.

  1. Add Canned Messages in the Web Admin Center
  2. Manage Canned Messages via API

    This method is the preferred way to import large amounts of data, such as an entire knowledge base or FAQ to be used with Auto Answers.

    1. Use Canned Folders CRUD Methods to organize and set up Chat Message folders.
    2. Prepare your content.
      • HTML markup and simple CSS formatting are supported.
      • Images must reside on a location accessible to Bold360 and should be referenced using fully resolved URLs.
      • Individual messages are limited to 65,535 bytes (HTML source). We recommend that you split complex and/or lengthy content into smaller chunks to improve user experience.
    3. Import the corpus using Chat Canned Folders CRUD Methods.

Task Two: Configure the Chat Window

Fine-tune how and when Auto Answers are presented. For example, when do you want to show Auto Answers to customers? Will they be forced to read answers, or can they bypass them before engaging with an agent?

  1. In the Web Admin Center, go to Channels > Chat > Chat Windows.
  2. Select the chat window you want to use with Auto Answers.

    Result: The Edit Chat Window page is displayed.

  3. Along the left side of Edit Chat Window page, select the Auto Answers tab.
  4. On the Auto Answers tab, select Enable Auto Answers.
  5. Set Status options:
    Option Description
    When agents are unavailable: Show Auto Answers When no agents are available, customers are shown Auto Answers.
    When agents are available: Show Auto Answers before chat When agents are available, customers are always shown Auto Answers before reaching an agent.
    When agents are available: Show only if chat queue reaches % of limit While the queue size stays below the defined threshold, Auto Answers is not available and customers can initiate live chat in the usual manner. The maximum queue size must be greater than zero.
    When agents are available: Bypass Auto Answers when the initial question yields no results Customers reach an agent if no Auto Answers match their initial question.
  6. Set Customer options:
    Option Description
    Optional ? Can bypass Auto Answers and chat anytime

    Customers are free to use Auto Answers or engage in live chat with an agent anytime.
    Mandatory ? Must use Auto Answers before chat is allowed

    Customers must ask questions or click responses a certain number of times before they can initiate live chat with an agent (Chat only after required clicks or questions).
    Adaptive ? When queue limit % reached, must use Auto Answers

    Customers are free to use Auto Answers or engage in live chat with an agent while the customer queue size stays below the defined threshold. When the threshold is exceeded, customers must ask questions or click responses a certain number of times before they can initiate live chat with an agent (Chat only after required clicks or questions).
  7. Under Display options, configure how answers are displayed to customers:
    • How answers are displayed: Determines whether customers are shown the Subject only or the Subject and two lines of body (the first two lines of an answer).
    • Number of answers to show: The length of the response list length; maximum number of query results displayed.
    • Allow customers to view answers after agent response for X seconds: Once the agent responds, the amount of time a customer can browse answers before being redirected to live chat.
  8. Under Canned messages for auto answers, select the message folders to be used with your chat window.
  9. Under Answer Rating and Relevance, influence what articles are shown to customers:
    Option Description
    Irrelevant answer filter Leave out results with no Keyword matches, no positive votes, and/or that have received negative votes after the same question.
    Boost by keyword match Promote answers with terms in their Keyword field that match the customer's question. That is, a match on a Keyword carries more significance than a match on words in the body of the answer.
    Boost by positive ratings Promote answers that are rated positively by customers.
    Demote by negative ratings Demote answers that are rated negatively by customers.
    Demote by lack of reading Demote answers that are regularly ignored by customers.
  10. Select the message folders to be used with your chat window under Canned Message Folders for Auto Answers.
  11. Save your changes.
Tip: Use the Data Extraction API to gain insight into how your customers use Auto Answers via the getAutoAnswers method.