Getting started with bots
Step 1: Create conversation playbook
Work with your brand’s design experts or LivePerson's conversational design experts to define a bot strategy and map out the use cases and flows you’d like the bot to cover. The bot should reflect your brand image and voice; we recommend spending some time creating a bot persona that matches your brand's personality. Key questions include:
- What are the types of conversations that you have?
- Of those, which types are easily automated?
- Which can be fully automated versus partially automated?
- What are the goals of your bots?
- What should be the content of automatic responses?
| Bot type | Definition | Goal | How to use with LivePerson Conversation Builder* |
| Standard | Collects information with the intention of handing off to an agent. Examples: form fill, FAQs, light data collection, etc. | Automate simple tasks to save agent time | Create the bot flow from scratch. |
| Routing | Collects information and routes to a skill in the platform. This could include up-front, pre-chat survey questions or a welcome message before routing. | Facilitate and automate tasks | The bot serves routing cards (structured content) with buttons. Each button can be assigned with a different action for example "transfer conversation to skill X" or direct consumers to self-serve assets. |
| Post-conversation survey | Collects information after the conversation | Measure consumer satisfaction | Customize the survey including: predefined questions (CSAT, NPS and FCR), custom/free text questions, and logic between the questions. |
| FAQ | Answers consumer questions free-form | Resolve/contain the conversation | Use Conversation Builder's KnowledgeAI interaction. |
| Transactional | An end-to-end, customer service bot (e.g., order status, bill payment, password reset). Likely includes an integration. | Resolve/complete the consumer journey without the need of an agent | Add relevant integrations to enable back-end transactions. |
| Sales | Fulfill orders and complete purchases. | Fulfill orders and complete purchases. | Use the prebuilt bot templates. Shopify & Apple Pay integration included. |
Step 2: Build the bot
You'll need to choose how to create, host, and connect the bot.
A. Leverage Conversation Builder
- Method: Conversation Builder offers a high-value solution to address a wide variety of automation workflows and use cases in multiple industries. LivePerson Conversation Builder bots can carry out a variety of automatic tasks and communicate with consumers to help take the load off agents. Learn more about Conversation Builder.
- Host: Hosting is done automatically by Conversation Builder.
- Connection: Simply connect to LivePerson, and choose which bot to run at any given moment.
B. Connect a third-party bot framework using LivePerson’s bot connectors
- Method: Bot connectors are pre-built connectors to certain bots. You can bring your own bots (BYOB), including custom bots, and integrate any third-party bot technology. This is one of the main benefits of LivePerson as an open, conversational platform: Any chatbot created by you or a third-party can be fully integrated into LivePerson ecosystem and become a component of your customer care team.
- Host: These bots run on your server. Or, depending on the bot framework, occasionally the bot framework handles hosting.
- Connection: Connect the bot to LivePerson using our bot connectors. Follow the guides on specific bot connectors.
Step 3: Connect conversations to your bots
Once your bot is hosted, running, and connected, the next step is to assign conversations to the bot.
How to assign bots to specific skills: Create skills for different uses cases. All conversations routed to a specific bot skill will automatically be assigned to that bot first, and routed to a human after if needed.
Step 4: Monitor and report bot performance
LivePerson includes a comprehensive set of management and reporting capabilities that can be used to manage both LivePerson bots or any third-party bots alongside agents. Managers can manage bots the same as human agents, in a real-time dashboard with flexible and detailed reports that helps evaluate success.
Learn about the Bots Status and Bot Analytics applications.
Missing Something?
Check out our Developer Center for more in-depth documentation. Please share your documentation feedback with us using the feedback button. We'd be happy to hear from you.