This feature is available in Forest Omnichannel


Bot flows are a step by step conversational flow that you want a bot to perform while engaging with your users. You can set up messages to be sent or actions to be performed by the bot while creating bot flows.


Using the Bot Flow builder you can build fully functional chatbots without writing any complex code. You can build custom bots to suit your needs - followup with customers with contextual questions to help them with the next best action like booking an appointment, scheduling a demo, etc. You will be able to see and build a visual map of all the messages, actions, and transitions that will make up your bot. 


The bot flow builder will give you a complete view of all the interactions that will happen in your bot flow and you don’t have to switch between messages or screens to see the same.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Creating a bot flow

Let's take a look at the steps to set up a bot flow:

  • Click on New Answer or edit an existing answer 
  • Click Trigger Bot Flow and Create flow
  • You will be redirected to your bot flow builder page. Give a name to the bot flow in the text box on the top-left corner
  • Give a name to your first step in the flow.



  • Next, enter the actual bot message for the step. You will also get the Bold, Italic, and Underline option in the text editor.
  • When you hover on the grey area, you’ll get a + sign in the bottom left corner of the message box. Click on the + sign, you will get two options - Message and Insert field.
  • Select Message if you want to add another bot message or select Insert Field if you want the customer to respond or make a selection.
  • You can add a Message box and add the bot message. If you want to reorder or delete it, hover on the message box or click inside it. You’ll be able to see the reorder icon in the left, click and drag this to rearrange. Alternatively, click the - icon in the right for deleting the step. 
  • You can select a field from a list of default fields that come with Freshdesk or create custom fields too. In this example, let’s select Email address.



  • Enter the Error message to be displayed if the customer’s response is invalid, i.e, if the customer enters anything else apart from an email ID.
  • Click Done.

Creating custom input fields

Alternatively, if you want to add custom fields, 

  • Click Custom Input.
  • Give a Name to your custominput.
  • Select an input validation field - Email address in our case.
  • Enter the error message to be displayed if the response is invalid.
  • Set user details or create a new one 
  • Click Done.

List of input validation fields

  • Free Text
  • Name
  • Phone
  • Email 
  • Number
  • Alphanumeric
  • Custom Regex

What is Custom Regex?

You can create custom inputs in the bot flow to save special expressions. This value can be mapped to a custom variable in Freshdesk. For example, IMEI number, PNR, Order ID. Or, you can make sure users enter only their business email ID, you can validate this by defining a custom regex variable.



  • Click Link this step to another step option in the bottom left end and click Create New Step. A new step is created.
  • Repeat the above steps again, based on your requirement.
  • You can delete a new step by clicking on the … and selecting Delete. You can go to the previous step, by clicking the up arrow, or go to the next step by clicking the down arrow.  
  • You can disconnect any step from its previous or parent step by clicking on the disconnect option. This does not delete a step, it remains disconnected inside the flow and won’t be triggered. You can connect the step back at any point.

Adding placeholders

It's always nice to give customers the feeling that you remember what they tell you.

Let's say you’ve got the customer’s name. With the ‘name’ placeholder, you can send a personalised thank you to the customer before jumping to the next question in the bot flow. You can add different placeholders based on the responses you get from customers.



Adding bot actions

You can also add bot actions. When you add a bot action, it’ll be considered the end of the flow. To do this,

  • Click Perform Actions in the bottom right end.
  • Select a follow-up action to be performed.

  • Create ticket:  Creates a ticket in Freshdesk
  • Assign the conversation to a team member: Assign the conversation to a team member in Freshchat 
  • Assign the conversation to a group: Assign the conversation to a group in Freshchat
  • Resolve the conversation: Resolve the conversation
  • Make available for assignment: The conversation will be pushed to the new conversations view and based on Assignment Rules or IntelliAssign it will be assigned to a team member or group.
  • Transfer to Answer Bot: For instance, if you have a Custom Bot flow to schedule a demo with a new user, and if the user responds with a ‘No’, you can transfer the conversation to Answer Bot, and the Answer Bot can continue helping the customer.

The Flag icon indicates the end of the bot flow. Once you are done, click Save Draft to save the bot flow.


Overview and Preview Mode

You can see the overall bot flow, fitted into the screen by clicking on the Overview Mode icon in the bottom left corner of the screen. In the overview mode, you can also zoom in or zoom out to scale the view. Click Exit Overview Mode to exit this view.


Click on the arrow icon on the bottom-left corner of the screen to Preview the bot flow. You can interact with the bot to test the flow performance, before publishing it.



Publishing the bot flow

Once you click on Save draft, you can see the bot flow appearing in the dropdown menu when you click on ‘Trigger bot flow’ in an answer. Select the relevant bot flow and Save changes.


Editing a published bot flow

To edit a published bot flow, 

  • Click on the bot flow you want to edit
  • Make necessary changes to the flow
  • Click Save draft