Using Custom Actions you can personalize the automated experience in Custom Bots and Resolution Bot. Customers can get information quickly such as checking on their order status. We’ll go through how to use your own Custom Actions in bots to streamline your unique workflows and enable better support for your customers.
Using Custom Actions in a Custom Bot
To build out your Custom Bot using Custom Actions, navigate to Operator > Custom Bots > From a new conversation and click on “New Custom Bot”:
Note: It’s possible to use Custom Actions without Custom Objects. You can store data within an attribute on any of the standard objects in Intercom instead (People, Company, and Conversation).
Choose to start from scratch with a “New Custom Bot”:
Type your suggested reply based on the customer query you’ll support with a Custom Action. In this example, we’ll use “Where’s my order?”:
Now add a new path to collect information from the customer using a Conversation CDA you’ve created.
For example, we’ve created a Conversation CDA to get order information using an Order ID, so we added a new path called “Get Order by ID”:
In that new path, type the bot message to request information from the customer (e.g. “What’s your Order ID?”) and then click on “Add data field”:
Set the attribute to the Conversation CDA you’ve created ("ccda_shopify_order_id" has been used in this example):
Then add a step and select “Custom action (using API)” to call out to the Custom Action you’ve previously set up:
Tip: While the bot fetches the data from the API and returns it to the customer, add a follow up bot message explaining that this action is happening while they wait. For example, you could say “Fetching your order details now, this could take a few seconds…” Or a fun GIF that demonstrates the same thing. This is where your personality and brand can make the bot flow feel more authentic for your customers.
Add a “Success” path which presents the customer with the information returned from the API, using the attributes you mapped in your Custom Action set up:
In case the action couldn’t be completed, you’ll also need to add an error path to handle those situations and tell customers what to do next (e.g. “Sorry, that order was not found. Would you like to speak to a member of the team?”)
Pro Tip: Use conditional branching to ensure that the data field has a value, and a fail path for when customers leave the data field blank.
Finally, finish setting up the Custom Bot Rules, Scheduling and Goal to trigger your bot and then set it live.
Using Custom Actions in Resolution Bot
Custom Actions can also be used in Resolution Bot the same way. Set up the bot flow to call Custom Actions by going to Operator > Resolution Bot > Answers and creating or editing an Answer.
Then call the Custom Action you’ve set up.
Learn how to set up and train resolution bot to answer customer questions.
What’s next?
Use Custom Objects alongside Custom Actions to automatically present customers with external object data they can select from (e.g. multiple orders, IDs, items, etc.).