You are currently in step 1 Build you dialog of the Getting Started checklist. Dialogs form the foundation of your chatbot. They are the building blocks that help you break down large and complex conversation flows into well-organized sections.
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Summary of video
This video explains how to create dialogs, the foundation of your chatbot. Multiple dialogs can be combined and must be properly connected for a smooth experience.
The Default Start Dialog is the main entry point and handles the initial interaction. As your chatbot grows, structuring dialogs becomes more important.
By organizing conversations into dialogs, you can keep your chatbot clear, manageable, and easy to expand. Defining the goal of a dialog in advance helps ensure it is effective.
Key Steps
- Start with the Default Start Dialog.
- Add a bot reply to begin the conversation.
- Create and name new dialogs.
- Link dialogs to guide the conversation flow.
Users can interact via buttons, while the Smart Aigent can handle questions outside predefined options using your sources. Dialogs use turns to structure who speaks when.
Spoken text
In this video, I will show you how to create a dialog. Dialogs form the foundation of your chatbot. A chatbot can consist of multiple dialogs, and it’s important that they are all correctly connected.
There are different types of dialogs, but the first conversation starter for your chatbot is the Default Start Dialog. This dialog can contain all aspects of your chatbot and all the conversations it should be able to handle. As your chatbot grows over time and holds more information, dialogs and dialog starting points become essential.
Dialogs are the building blocks that help you break down large and complex conversation flows into well-organized sections. By combining different types of dialogs, you can create a chatbot that is easy to structure, manage, and maintain.
Before starting, think carefully about the purpose of the dialog and what you want to achieve with it. Planning this in advance helps you create a dialog that is clear, relevant, and effective. Okay. First I show you how to start with the Default Start Dialog to introduce the bot and kick off the conversation.
I click the plus icon to add a reply, then select ‘bot’ for the turn so the chatbot starts the conversation. The next step is create a new dialog to keep things organized as I add more dialogs in the future. I go back to the overview of Dialogs.
I click on Create new dialog and give the dialog a name.
In this example, I choose Start with Dialog as the starting point. This means we are setting up a follow-up dialog based on the Default Dialog, where the user is welcomed. You are taken to the dialog editor. The starting point is not yet linked to another dialog; we will do this at the end.
I want to create a dialog where users can indicate their interests using buttons. If their option is not listed, the Smart AIgent will take over. The Smart AIgent is a bot that answers questions based on the sources you provide, rather than on predefined responses.
With turns, you define, just like in a real conversation, who “speaks” and when. When it’s the user’s turn, the bot is silent, and vice versa. In the flow, the user’s turn is highlighted with a green accent, while the bot’s turn is shown in blue. There are different turn options available; you can learn more about them in the Help Center.
Go into the Build module and click on Dialogs. This is where you can find, create and manage all your dialogs, including the Default Start Dialog.
A chatbot can consist of multiple dialogs. It's important that they are all correctly connected. As your chatbot grows over time and holds more information, dialogs and dialog starting points become essential. By combining different types of dialogs, you can create a chatbot that is easy to structure, manage and maintain.
Step 1. Default Start Dialog
The Default Start Dialog is the first conversation starter for your chatbot. This dialog can contain all aspects of your chatbot and all the conversations it should be able to handle. Therefor, you want the chatbot to kick off the conversation when someone opens the chatbot on the website. You do this by adding a reply.
⏩ Skip if ready
If your account already has a set up Default Start Dialog with a first reply, go through it and see what is all in there. Check what the conversation starter is and if any dialog is already linked to it.
Follow the steps below to add your first reply to the Default Start Dialog.
In the very first starting point of the dialog, click on Add turn. This will create the new step in the conversation.
With this new step, the turn editor opens. Here you have to select a turn type. This essentially determines who's speaking at that stage of the dialog. As we want to create the conversation starter, select Bot, followed by Reply as the type of response. Lastly, add your Reply text. This will be the content that actually shows as the first message. You can also enable the advanced options for more styling options to your reply.
Click on the Save button and the new turn is directly added to the dialog. Your Default Start Dialog is now also automatically saved.
Step 2. Create a new dialog
You will now create a new dialog, to link to the Default Start Dialog from step 1. This will be the follow up to the conversation starter for your chatbot. Go back to the Dialogs overview and click on Create new dialog. After that, follow the steps below to create your own new dialog.
Every new dialog starts with giving it a name for your overview, and to make it easy to link from other dialogs. That is why you'd want to give it a clear name summarizing the dialogs contents.
Next, all dialogs must be triggered by a startpoint and you are given the option to select one of them. In our example, we use the Dialog startpoint. Not sure which one you should choose? Read about it in this article.
You're taken to the Dialog editor where you will create your new dialog. In our example, we want to create a dialog where users can indicate the subject they want more information on, as a button.
- First, click the Plus icon to add a new turn.
- Select Bot as the turn type, as it's your time to speak in this case. Then select Question and enter the text.
- To create the buttons, click on Choices and add your options. In this example: parking permit, building permit and other.
- Click on Save and you'll see a new layer in the dialog, intended for the user to answer.
- Now you want the chatbot to provide more information to these answers, using URL's on these specific topics. So for every answer, add a new turn with a Bot reply and the text including a link.
The Smart Aigent is a chatbot feature which will automatically formulate an answer to your customer's questions based on given input to use as content. You can read more about the feature in this article: Smart Aigent and you can use a predefined dialog for the Smart Aigent in the Marketplace.
In our example, we want to use the Smart Aigent for the other option. This will formulate an answer based on the sources we have provided. As the Smart Aigent is a seperate dialog, use Dialog as the Turn type and select your Smart Aigent's dialog.
The dialog is now fully set up with answers to the buttons provided in the question.
The final step is to link this dialog to another dialog. You can see a note at the top of this conversation stating this. Otherwise, this dialog will never show in a conversation.
To make it work, go back to your Default Start Dialog and add a new turn below the reply you made in Step 1. Here, choose Dialog as the Turn type and select the name of your newly created dialog. Click Save, and now your dialog is linked to the Default Start Dialog and you should have a working chatbot, ready to test.
📚 Need more guidance?
- How to use the turn editor - Detailed explanation of all options in the turn editor
- Understanding - The place where you manage Intents, Entities and Utterances
- Marketplace - More information about the Marketplace module and how it can help with your dialogs
As you've now set up the content of your new dialog, let's test the chatbot to see if everything works properly.
👉2️⃣ Go to Step 2: Test your dialog