documentation/content/applications/websites/livechat/chatbots.md

Chatbots

A Chatbot is a program designed to mimic a conversation with a live human. Chatbots are assigned a script of pre-written steps to follow. The scripts are designed to anticipate a visitor's potential response, and lead them through a series of questions and answers the same way a live team member would.

Chatbots can be customized to fill various roles, from customer support, to creating leads, to collecting contact information. The goal of each chatbot can vary based on several criteria, including the webpage where it is located, and the information it captures.

:align: center
:alt: View of the chat window with a helpdesk ticket created in Odoo Live Chat.

Build a chatbot

Before creating a new chatbot, the Live Chat application must first be installed on the database. This can be done directly from the {menuselection}Apps application, by searching for Live Chat in the {guilabel}Search... bar, and clicking {guilabel}Install.

Once the Live Chat application has been installed on the database, go to {menuselection}Live Chat app --> Configuration --> Chatbots.

:::{note} When the Live Chat app is installed, a sample chatbot is created, named Welcome Bot. This chatbot has a preconfigured script that walks through a few basic steps, including asking for a visitor's email address, and forwarding the conversation to an operator.

Welcome Bot can be used as a starting point. The existing steps can be edited or removed, and new steps can be added to customize the script, as needed.

Welcome Bot can be deleted or archived, if necessary.

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:alt: View of the Welcome Bot script in Odoo Live Chat.

:::

To create a new chatbot, navigate to the {guilabel}Chatbot page ({menuselection}Live Chat app --> Configuration --> Chatbots) and click {guilabel}New. This opens a blank chatbot details page.

On the blank chatbot details page, enter a name in the {guilabel}Chatbot Name field and click on the {guilabel}Edit Image icon in the upper right corner of the form to add a photo.

Chatbot scripts

After the new chatbot has been created and named, the next step is to create a script. Chatbot conversations follow an accompanying script. These scripts are comprised of lines of dialog, each designed to deliver or capture information.

To create a chatbot script, click {guilabel}Add a Line in the {guilabel}Script tab of the chatbot detail page, and a {guilabel}Create Script Steps modal appears.

This form must be filled out for each line of text (dialog) that the chatbot could deliver during the conversation.

First, enter the content of the message in the {guilabel}Message field. Then, select an option from the {guilabel}Step Type and {guilabel}Only If drop-down menus.

Step types

The {guilabel}Step Type selected depends on the intended purpose of the message. The available options in the {guilabel}Step Type drop-down menu are detailed below:

Text

This step is used for messages where no answer is expected or necessary. Text steps can be used for greetings, to offer resources, such as documentation, or provide links to specific web pages.

:::{important} Text step types are only intended to deliver information, and do not allow for any visitor input. As such, they must be followed by additional steps to continue the conversation. :::

Question

This step asks a question and provides a set of answers. The visitor clicks on one answer, which either leads to a new step in the conversation, or can lead to an optional link to a new webpage.

Enter the question in the {guilabel}Message field. Then, under the {guilabel}Answer heading, click {guilabel}Add a Line to create a blank answer line.

Proceed to enter the answer as it should appear to the visitor. To turn the answer into a link that redirects the visitor when selected, add the URL to the answer line under the {guilabel}Optional Link heading.

Repeat these steps for every answer to be included for the question.

Click {guilabel}Save & Close or {guilabel}Save & New.

:::{tip} It is helpful to add a catchall answer to question steps (e.g: Something else). This helps visitors continue the conversation, even if their needs do not exactly fit with any of the other answers. :::

Email

This step prompts visitors to provide their email address, which is stored and can be used by team members later to follow up with additional information.

The only accepted inputs for this step type are email addresses that are in a valid format. If a visitor attempts to enter anything other than a valid email address, the chatbot responds with a message stating it does not recognize the information submitted.

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:alt: View of a chatbot responding to an invalid email.

Phone

Similar to email, this step type prompts the visitor to enter their phone number, which can be used to follow up with additional information, schedule demos, and more.

:::{warning} Due to the vast number of formats used for phone numbers worldwide, responses to this step type are not validated for formatting, and can include both numbers and special characters. :::

Forward to Operator

This step forwards the conversation to an active live chat operator, so they can continue assisting the visitor. As the conversation transcript is passed on to the operator, they can pick up where the chatbot left off. This not only saves time for all parties involved, it can also help qualify conversations before they reach live operators.

:::{note} If no active operator is available on the channel, the chatbot continues the conversation with the visitor. Therefore, additional steps should be added after this one to ensure there is no abrupt end to the conversation. The additional steps can both inform visitors about the lack of available operators (e.g. Uh-oh, it looks like none of our operators are available) and continue the conversation (e.g. Would you like to leave your email address?).

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:alt: View of a chatbot follow up messages when no live chat operator is available.

:::

Free Input/Multi-Line

The free input step allows visitors to respond to questions without providing pre-written responses. Information provided in these responses is stored in the chat transcripts.

Choose between {guilabel}Free Input and {guilabel}Free Input (Multi-Line) depending on the type and amount of information the visitor is asked to provide.

Create Lead

This step creates a lead in the CRM application. Select an option from the {guilabel}Sales Team drop-down field that appears to assign the created lead to a specific team.

:::{note} This step is only available if the CRM application is installed on the database. :::

Create Ticket

This step creates a {doc}ticket <../../services/helpdesk/overview/receiving_tickets> in the Helpdesk application. Select an option from the {guilabel}Helpdesk Team drop-down field that appears to assign the created ticket to a specific team.

:::{note} This step is only available if the Helpdesk application is installed on the database. :::

Only if

Chatbot scripts operate on an if/then basis, which means the next question presented to the visitor is determined by the answer provided to the previous question.

To continue the progression of the conversation, the {guilabel}Create Script Steps form for a new step contains a field labeled {guilabel}Only If. This field is where the progression of questions is defined.

If a step is intended to follow all of the previous messages, this field can be left empty. However, if a message should only be sent conditionally, based on a previous response, or several previous responses, those responses must be added to this field.

:::{important} If any selections are made in the {guilabel}Only If field, they must all be selected during the conversation before this step will be included. Only include selections in this field if they are necessary for this step to be displayed. :::

.. example::
   In the *Welcome Bot* script, a visitor can ask about pricing information. If the visitor selects
   this response, a step is included to forward the conversation to an operator. The chatbot first
   sends a message informing the visitor that it is checking to see if an operator is available to
   chat.

   However, this message should **only** be delivered if the visitor requests pricing information.
   In that situation, the conversation would proceed as below:

   - Welcome Bot: "*What are you looking for?*"
   - Visitor: "**I have a pricing question.**"
   - Welcome Bot: "*Hmmm, let me check if I can find someone that could help you with that...*"

   In the details form for the :guilabel:`Text` step, the *I have a pricing question* response has
   been selected in the :guilabel:`Only If` field. As such, this step is **only** shown in
   conversations where that response has been selected.

   .. image:: chatbots/chatbot-only-if.png
      :align: center
      :alt: View of the new message form emphasizing the Only If field.

Script testing

To ensure all visitors have a satisfactory experience with the chatbot, each message needs to lead to a natural conclusion. Chatbot scripts should be tested to confirm there are no dead-ends, and to understand what the visitor sees when they interact with the chatbot.

:::{important} If the visitor provides an answer, or input, that is not assigned a corresponding follow-up response, the conversation stops (dead-ends). Since the visitor cannot re-engage the chatbot, they must restart the conversation by refreshing the chat window, or their browser. :::

To test the performance of a chatbot, first click on the {guilabel}Test button at the top-left of the chatbot script page. Then, upon being redirected to the testing screen, answer the chatbot prompts the same way a potential site visitor would.

When the script has reached an end-point, the message Conversation ended...Restart appears at the bottom of the chat window. To begin the conversation at the beginning of the script, click on {guilabel}Restart. To return to the script page, click {guilabel}Back to edit mode at the top of the page.

Add chatbot to a channel

After a chatbot has been created and tested, it needs to be added to a live chat channel.

First, open the {menuselection}Live Chat application, find the Kanban card for the appropriate live chat channel, hover over it, and click the {guilabel}⋮ (three dots) icon to open the drop-down menu. Click {guilabel}Configure Channel to open the channel detail form.

:::{note} To create a new live chat channel, open the {menuselection}Live Chat app and click {guilabel}New. See {doc}Live Chat <../livechat> for more information. :::

Click on the {guilabel}Channel Rules tab. Then, open an existing rule, or create a new one by clicking {guilabel}Add a line.

On the {guilabel}Create Rules modal, choose the appropriate chatbot in the {guilabel}Chatbot field.

If the chatbot should only be active if there are no live chat operators available, check the box labeled {guilabel}Enabled only if no operator.

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:alt: View of the channel rules emphasizing the chatbot field.

:::{seealso} {doc}Live chat channel rules </applications/websites/livechat> :::