Build a Chatflow

A chat flow is a sequence of replies that are auto-created based on user message.

By creating chat flows, you can walk the customer through over your business services and products. It is a way of indulging in a conversation with your customer and presenting your offerings in a structured manner. All without any manual involvement. 

A chat flow is best put into use when the business clearly defines the goals a particular chat flow needs to accomplish.

To create chat flow, anticipated responses from the users need to be entered and their replies need to be created in a template, image, video, audio, text, list, etc. The later responses of users can be made into various choices users could choose from. When the user selects a choice, the next selected block of the chat (template, list, etc) can be sent for further interactions. The conclusion of a chat flow should achieve the goal it is meant to accomplish(help customer, give product description, contact directly, etc). When the customer response is known, preparing an answer about it becomes easy.  

Before you start creating a Chatflow, the business should clearly defines the goals that a particular chat flow needs to accomplish.

Path to create a chat flow:

Chatflow can be found on the left hand menu.

Chatflow is divided into 3 major parts

  1. Blocks : A Block can be defined a one complete flow of message exchange between user and bot. This flow is continued until it is either bifurcated or concluded. You can add upto 20 blocks in Nurture plan and 50 blocks in Growth plan
  2. Elements : Elements can be defined as actions you want to perform during execution of the block. You can choose if you want to send text, media, interactive message, assign chat, integrate API, send yourself alert or more…
  3. The third section is where you design the block


The first time you visit the Chatflow page, you will find blocks: Welcome and Failure already created. The Failure block is a system be-default block, that gets executed when the Bot cannot understand the user input message. There is no need to add any user keywords in the failure block.

Steps to create a simple Chatflow

Step 1. Click on Add New Block to create a block. This will open a popup window to enter the block name. The new block will be created and will appear in the bottom of the block list.

Step 2. Add keywords on which you want to execute the Chatflow, you can add upto 10 keywords in a single block. Note: You cannot have same keyword in 2 or more blocks, if you try to add a keyword that is already added, the dashboard will throw an alert message.

Step 3. Add the elements action i.e. text, media, API, etc, that would like to perform. To send series of messages, you can place element one after another in the Block

Elements

Text : should be used to send text message to the user like “Hi {{first_name}}! How can I help you today?”

Image / Video / Audio / Document : can be used to send media files. Note: You cannot upload media file larger 5 MB in size

API : can be used to fetch user information and messages into third party software, more details here

Quick Reply : To send Text & Media with options for user to select, in the form of buttons. You can add upto 3 button options for a user to select.

List : You can use List menu option if you want to send more than 3 options to the user. List allows you to send upto 10 button options. However, unlike Quick reply you cannot send media headers in the list.

Wtemplate : You can send anyway of your approved template message to the user in the chatflow using Wtemplate. This will be helpful in cases where you want to send CTA interactive message to your users

Alert : You can send yourself or any of your team member a real-time alert on WhatsApp number, when this flow is executed. You can choose the phone number to whom you want to sent this alert message to and the template message that you want to send. You need to add the phone number in App Settings > Install > Call Tracking to see the number in the drop down list.

Code : You can perform simple arithmetic operations like Addition, Substraction, Multiplication and Division based on user inputs, for an example if you want to calculate user BMI thru WhatsApp.

Catalog : Thru Catalog module you can sync your facebook product with Nextel and send user single or a list of products when the block is executed. You may find all the steps to connect and send catalog items on Catalog Ordering article

Appointment : Appointment module allows to take user appointments on WhatsApp. You can create a calendar for your service with operational time and appointment duration, share the link with user to book you service. More details on Appointment module

Designing Blocks

User Message (keywords)

The first thing you need to enter while designing your chatflow will be the keyword on which the Block will be executed. You can add words, phrases or sentences in English or in any other languages inside text box. To add keywords you need to type the word and tap enter and then Save the block.

More details on Keywords matching and working here

Block Conditions (Optional)

Next, you will find an option to Add Conditions to execute the block, these conditions allows to run different flows on user attributes, on same user keyword.

Lets suppose you run a Health Club and have customer data with the their membership type (Platinum, Gold and Silver), now you want to send different message to you user based on their membership type then you can create 2 more block for other membership types.

Write an Attribute (Optional)

The functionality allows you save a value in attributes for the user for whom the chatflow is tiggered. For an e.g. you want to change the Funnel attribute value to Prospect when a user clicks Interested on your marketing campaign message, then you can do it using Write and attribute (shown in image below)

You can choose to write values in multiple attributes.

Add User Input

This allows your chatbot to wait for user response before executing the rest of the Chatflow in the Block. This allows the bot to process the user provided information for further execution. There are series of operation that you may perform with user input message, like:

  • Save the response in an attribute like the user name, address, city, etc.
  • Validate the input data, if the user has provided the info that we asked. For e.g. Image, Email, Location, etc.
  • Trigger / Jump to different block based on user response, this allows you to bifurcate your Chatflow based on user message.

Below is an example on how you can create a Chatflow asking for customer name, email, validating email and then bifurcating the Chatflow based on user marital status.


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