Teach Answers
Teach the AI how to answer your most common customer questions, in your own words. When customers ask those questions, the AI answers right away, your way, instead of passing the chat to your team. Teach answers is a tab of the AI Agent area, next to Auto reply.
How It Works
A customer writes
For example: "Can you build a stock app for my pharmacy?"
The AI recognises it
It matches the message to a question you taught, here "Do you build custom software?", by meaning, even when the customer uses other words.
The AI answers your way
It replies right away with the answer you wrote, instead of passing the chat on.
For questions you haven't taught, the AI uses your Knowledge Hub as usual. Taught answers always come before the Knowledge Hub.
Where to find it
Click AI Agent in the sidebar and open the Teach answers tab. The tab shows how many questions you have taught, with a dot when some of them need a look. The Auto reply tab also has a card that links here and shows how many questions are in use.
Who can use it
Company admins can add, edit, turn off and delete questions. Users with the Viewer role can read them but not change them. For other roles the tab shows a lock and the page explains it is for company admins.
Three Ways to Answer
Each question has one main answer, and you choose how the AI uses it.
AI rephrases
Recommended
Uses only the facts you write and says them naturally to fit the question. The wording may differ a little, but it never adds new facts.
Send word for word
The AI doesn't change a word. The message is sent exactly as written, including punctuation and emoji. Good for opening hours, bank details, return terms.
Always pass to your team
The AI doesn't answer. The customer gets a holding message and your team takes over.
When a question is set to Always pass to your team, the chat is handed to a human whatever the When AI can't answer setting says. The editor shows the holding message the customer receives.
Add a Question
Click Add a question. When you have no questions yet, the page walks you through your first one, which takes about a minute. The editor asks for:
- What does the customer ask? — the question, written the way customers ask. It is also how you find it later
- When should the AI use this answer? — a broad description. The AI reads it to recognise the question, even when customers use other words
- Add ways customers ask (optional) — example messages, up to 20. The closer to real messages, the better the AI recognises them
- Only for the customer's first message — the AI uses this answer only when nobody has replied in the chat yet, never in the middle of a conversation
- How should the AI answer? — pick one of the three ways above and write the text. In "AI rephrases" the AI treats only what is written as true, so leave out anything you are unsure of
The editor's What will the customer see? button shows a preview of the customer's question and the reply. Click Save question when you are done (Save when editing an existing question).
Start from an example
Instead of a blank form you can start from one of these examples and change anything:
- Do you build custom software?
- What's the warranty?
- Opening hours
- Formal quote
Managing Your Questions
In use
The question is on and has an answer turned on.
Needs a look
The question is on but has no answer yet, or its answer is turned off. The AI has nothing to say here and replies as usual.
Turned off
The AI ignores the question and replies as usual.
- Filter the list by All, In use, Need a look or Turned off. Questions that need a look are listed first
- With five or more questions, a search box finds a question by its text, when it applies, the ways customers ask, or any answer
- Use the switch on a question to turn it off without deleting it. A message offers Undo
- Delete removes a question and all its answers and can't be undone. Turn it off instead to pause it
- A question uses one main answer at a time. If you switch to an older answer, the current one is turned off and moved to Older answers; nothing is deleted
Special cases
Some questions have answers that only apply under certain conditions. The AI checks special cases first and uses the main answer if none fits. When each special case applies was set up for you and can only be viewed; you can still edit its wording and turn it on or off.
Older answers
Answers that were replaced are kept in Older answers. Customers don't see them. You can use one again, or delete it for good.
Try a Message
Company admins can click Try a message to test as a customer. Type a message and click Try it to see which question the AI recognises and how it would reply. Nothing is sent to anyone.
If no taught question matches, the result says so and the AI will use the Knowledge Hub as usual. If a question is recognised but has no answer turned on, the AI replies as usual too.
Working With Guide Customers
If you have set up steps on the Guide customers tab, each question shows how its mode interacts with them:
- AI rephrases: after this answer, the AI may follow up based on the customer's step
- Send word for word: the message is sent as is, so the AI adds no follow-up from your steps
- Always pass to your team: the chat goes to your team, whatever step the customer is at
Troubleshooting
The AI is not using my answer?
- Open the question and check that it is switched on and that its status is In use, not Needs a look
- If "Only for the customer's first message" is on, the answer is never used once someone has replied in the chat
- Use Try a message to see which question the AI recognises for a given customer message
- If the page shows a notice that your company is on the older AI reply version, the AI does not use taught answers yet. Contact Fiko to switch to the new version
The AI recognises the wrong question, or none?
- Make "When should the AI use this answer?" broader, so it covers the different ways customers ask
- Add real customer messages under "Add ways customers ask"
- Check that the question is not turned off
The customer got a holding message instead of an answer?
- That is what "Always pass to your team" does. Change the question's answer to "AI rephrases" or "Send word for word" if you want the AI to answer
- The chat goes to your team's inbox after the holding message
If a request to save fails because of a network error, the page keeps what you wrote so you can press Save again.