Hello, we’re here to help!

Hello, ${extension.contact.firstName}

Engage Digital | Configuring the reply assistant

If the Reply assistant section is not visible under Agent Tools, it has not been enabled.

To enable the reply assistant in the platform, you must activate the Reply assistant extension.

Activating the reply assistant

To activate the reply assistant, take the following steps:

1. Navigate to Settings > Extensions in the left-hand navigation bar

2. Click Add in the top right corner

3. Select Reply assistant

4. Click Add

That’s it, the reply assistant is now enabled for your use in the platform!

Adding a knowledge base entry

To add a knowledge base entry to the reply assistant, take the following steps:

1. Navigate to Agent tools > Reply assistant in the left-hand navigation bar

2. Click Add in the top right corner

3. Provide the Format of the reply as text or HTML

4. Enter a Label to name the entry

5. In the ID field, enter a unique identifier for the entry

6. Select one or more categories from the Categories field

7. Enter a Shortcut that the agent may use to access the entry

8. Enter an Entry group to sort the entry

9. Select one or more Channels from the dropdown menu

10. Add the text to the Body of the entry

11. Click the Attachments icon to add any attachments

12. Click Save

Knowledge base entry settings

Now that we’ve reviewed how to add a knowledge base entry, let’s review some of the settings you’ll find in the Add a knowledge base entry page.

Format: Specifies the format of the reply as text or HTML
Label: Names how the entry will appear when selected by the agent
ID: Specifies a unique identifier for the entry
Categories: Restricts the entry for use in the specified categories
Shortcut: Sets up a keyboard shortcut for the agent. The shortcut will appear in the knowledge base to the right of the entry as a memory aid. The agent can insert a shortcut, by typing ! [shortcut] and then pressing Enter or Space on the keyboard
Entry group: Specifies a reply assistant group that you have configured
Channels: Restricts the entry for use by the specified channels
Body: Specifies a body as text, or HTML text, depending on the Format specified
Attachments: Provides an attachment to be included with the reply

Adding a version

You can create and maintain multiple versions of a knowledge base entry. The number of versions for each knowledge base entry is displayed in the Reply Assistant page. You can edit the existing versions or add new versions. Each new version that you add will be added to the bottom of the list.

When an agent selects an entry, only the entries written in the language of the message will be displayed to the agent. If the agent can’t see some of the entries, check the language that’s been detected for the message, and the language that’s been defined for the entry.

To add a version to a knowledge base entry, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Agent tools > Reply assistant in the left-hand navigation bar

2. Hover your mouse over the desired entry and click the Edit Versions stacked paper icon that appears at far right

3. Provide the format of the reply as text or HTML

4. Provide the language that you want to define for the entry

5. Select one or more channels from the Only for channels field

6. Specify the body text of the version

7. Click the Attachments paperclip icon to add any attachments

8. Click the Create plus icon

Using variables in reply assistant entries

For increased productivity, you can add variables in the reply assistant entries. From the agent interface, when you add an entry, including variables, these are dynamically replaced according to thread data and the client’s identity information (entered in their client sheet).

The following variables can be used in the format {{variable_name}}:

{{channel}}: Represents the channel name
{{title}}: Represents the title of the thread the message is attached to
{{identity}}: Represents the author’s name (for example, ‘John Doe’)
{{identity_firstname}}: Represents the author’s first name (for example, ‘John’)
{{identity_lastname}}: Represents the author's last name (for example, ‘Doe’)
{{identity_company}}: Represents the author's company (for example: ‘Strickland Propane’)
{{identity_email}}: Represents the email address of the message author if several occurrences of email addresses are found, otherwise it represents the author's first email address only (for example, ‘john.doe@example.com’)
{{identity_emails}}: Represents all the author's email addresses (for example, ‘john.doe@example.com, jane.doe@example.com, scie.doe@example.com’)
{{identity_gender}}: Represents the author's gender (for example, 'female')
{{identity_home_phone}}: Represents the author’s home phone. If several occurrences of home phone numbers are found, it is the author’s first home number only (for example, '+32198312232')
{{identity_home_phones}}: Represents all the author’s home phone numbers (for example, '+32198312232, +32241314282')
{{identity_mobile_phone}}: Represents the author’s mobile phone. If several occurrences of mobile phone numbers are found, author’s first mobile phone number only (e.g., '+32711312299')
{{identity_mobile_phones}}: Represents all the author’s mobile phone numbers (for example, '+32711312299, +32700114333')

If you have created custom fields in your account, you can use these fields in the variables. To do so, use the following format and replace <key> with the custom field key: {{identity_custom_field_<key>}}. In the case of multiple custom fields, you can retrieve the first occurrence only by using the following variable format {{identity_custom_field_<key (singular)>}}.

Importing a knowledge base

Your organization may already have a knowledge base that you use to store customer reply data. If not, you may want to construct your own new knowledge base. Whether you use an existing knowledge base or create a new one, you will need to import the knowledge base into the platform.

To import a knowledge base, you will need to create comma-separated values (CSV) or a Microsoft Excel Open XML (XLSX) file. Any existing entries in the knowledge base will be overwritten by the new data. The file must contain your tabular data entries that match the following format:

foreign_id;label;number;body[;language;format;categories;channels;group;shortcuts]

The channels and categories are case-sensitive. You can omit the headers row.

To import a knowledge base, take the following steps:

1. Navigate to Agent tools > Reply assistant via the left-hand navigation bar

2. Click on Import in the top right corner

3. Uncheck the box Import entries without any real update

4. Click Choose File and select a CSV or XLSX file in the proper format

You will receive an error message if your file is not well-formed. Once you have selected the file, the import of the data starts. You will receive an email at the email address configured for your account once the import has been completed. You can continue to revise the knowledge base data by importing it again in the same way.