🎯Bot Editor - Quick Start
Table of Contents
🔒Included in ALCMEON CARE ESSENTIAL, ALCMEON CARE ENTERPRISE
Dive into the Bot Editor by simply clicking on any scenario from your List of bot scenarios page.
This editor empowers you to craft automated conversational journeys for your customers in order to engage interactions with your brand on private channels like WhatsApp, AlcmeonChat, or Messenger. All this without needing any development skills. Our drag-and-drop functionality makes building scenarios easy!
Every bot scenario follows a decision tree structure: your bot asks a question, and customers respond by clicking buttons or typing a message. At the heart of this process is the "step"—an individual action within these conversations. A "step" can send messages to the customer, perform internal actions invisible to the customer, trigger specific behaviors, such as connecting to an AI. Each step seamlessly connects to the next.
The main objectives of these scenarios are to welcome your customers 24/7, offer a first layer of automated support and a seamless transfer of more complex questions or comments to a human advisor when personalized assistance is needed.
Because the Alcmeon Bot Editor is integrated with the Inbox, the handover from bot to human interaction is designed to be as smooth as possible.
General interface
The main area of the bot editor is gray. This is where you'll build your bot's diagram, consisting of steps connected by arrows.
The entire scenario diagram interface operates with drag-and-drop functionality. You can easily move individual steps, or "grab" the gray background to reposition the entire diagram.
To zoom in or out on the diagram, use your mouse wheel or trackpad. Alternatively, you can use the buttons (located in area F on the screenshot).
Here are the details of the other elements within this interface:
A - Scenario Title
Use the “pencil” icon to edit the title of your bot scenario, then save.
The back button will return you to the List of your bot scenarios page.
B - Publication and Saving
Published is the status of your scenario. Only one scenario can be published per account (e.g., WhatsApp, AlcmeonChat or any other account). After changing the publication status, always click "Save" to apply your changes.
Use the "Export" button to export your scenario in JSON technical format for backup or analysis purposes.
The "Save" button is crucial to click in order to commit any changes made on this page, including the scenario name, published status, and the step diagram itself.
C - Click-through rate
Checking this box will switch your scenario to "statistics" mode. In this mode, you won't be able to modify or move diagram steps, but you'll see the number of times customers have followed each arrow and the corresponding percentage for that step.
D - Link to account
Clicking this link will take you directly to the relevant channel to test your bot. For instance, if it's a Facebook bot, this link will open the conversation on Messenger in a new tab.
This link is available for almost all channels except AlcmeonChat: for AlcmeonChat, you'll need to go to the website or mobile app where you installed that channel.
E - Add a step
This option allows you to add a new step to your diagram.
You can click on the desired step to make it appear nearby in the diagram, or simply drag and drop it from the menu to precisely where you want it to appear in the diagram.
F - Toolbar
The first button will automatically rearrange all the steps in your diagram. Currently, this only works for Messenger scenarios.
The + and - buttons allow you to zoom in or out of your diagram.
Edit a step
Let's consider the "Message with menu" step as an example. This is a classic and widely used step across many channels. It allows you to send a message to the customer that includes interactive buttons. Customers can then click these buttons to continue their journey through the bot's conversation flow.
Step Manipulation menu
At the top right of every step, you'll find a button providing access to three options:
- Duplicate: Creates an exact copy of the current step, including all its configurations.
- Delete: Removes the step from your diagram. Please note, this action is permanent.
- Copy ID: Copies the step's ID. This is useful for technical applications, especially when creating links for websites or email newsletters that allow customers to start the bot directly at this specific step (e.g., on the Messenger channel).
Edit Message
Clicking the pencil icon to the right of the message opens a window to edit its content.
Specifically for a "Message with menu" step on Messenger, you can write your text message (including emojis) as well as add an attachment, such as an image, video, or file.
Edit or Add a Button
To edit an existing button within this "Message with menu" step (on Messenger, in this example), click the pencil icon to its right. To add a new button, click "Add Reply" at the bottom of the step.
In the window that opens, you can enter or modify the button's label.
📄 Note: In this example, various button options are available, such as quick-entry buttons for the customer's email. These options differ depending on the channel, as Alcmeon implements all available functionalities and specificities of various channels to help you deliver the best possible customer experience.
You can choose to check the "forward to an advisor" box. This action will place the message in the "Received" tab of the inbox, making it available for an advisor to process.
The "Delete" button allows you to remove this specific button from the step.
Connecting Steps Together
Each step in your bot diagram has one "input" and one or more "outputs." You can attach as many arrows as you like to a step input, but you can only draw one arrow from any given step output.
To connect an output of to the input of another step, click on the output circle, then drag and release your mouse over the input circle of the destination step. It's that easy!
To delete an arrow, click anywhere on it; a menu will appear, giving you the option to delete it.
🦊 If two connected steps are far apart on your diagram, clicking an arrow will bring up a menu that lets you zoom directly to either the destination or departure step. The diagram will automatically reposition, zoom in on the selected step, and make it flash. This is very handy!
📄 Note: If a step's output is circled in red, it means it's not connected to anything. While some Alcmeon bot scenario experts might intend this behavior, generally, you should always connect your step outputs. If an output remains unconnected, the bot will stop at that point, and any subsequent messages from the customer will be routed directly to the advisors' inbox.
Available Steps
There are several types of steps that depend on your bot's channel: WhatsApp, AlcmeonChat, etc.
- The black steps serve as entry points or triggers for a branch within your scenario. Since entry point handling varies by channel, you'll find below a detailed list of these steps organized channel by channel. channel by channel.
- The blue steps are dedicated to sending messages to your customers. Explore the various message types available to leverage the best features of each channel:
- The AI Connector step allows you to respond to customers using the artificial intelligence you have configured within Alcmeon AI. Learn more about Creating your AI Bot scenario.
- The orange steps represent internal actions within Alcmeon, that are largely invisible to the client and typically don't send messages. They allow you to perform operations such as: message routing, tag qualification, and connecting with your APIs to retrieve customer information from your systems.
- The green steps are the conditions Steps. Similar to internal actions, the condition steps are also invisible to the client. They are crucial for creating separate branches in your scenario's decision tree the decision tree.
- Additionally utility steps are available for purposes such as adding internal notes to document your scenario, or developing more technical and advanced use cases with “subbots”.
For a detailed, channel-by-channel list and explanation of each step type, please click on the links provided above.