Fundamentals (Must Read)

Read this page before getting started with Flow Builder that can save time in building good flows

Introduction

Before starting with the Picky Assist Flow Builder, please read this guide. It is designed to help you save time and effectively build truly dynamic, personalized chatbots for any industry, swiftly and without any need for coding.

Capabilities

The Picky Assist no-code Flow Builder is a multi-tenant flow architecture system that empowers businesses to construct intricate data-driven, dynamic chatbots. Utilizing the no-code visual builder, creating complex chatbots is as simple as connecting dots

1. Lead Funelling

2. Drip Campaigns

3. Lead Scoring

4. Feedback & Survey

5. Online Quiz

6. Gamification

7. Meeting Confirmations

8. Payment Collection

9. Collect Requirments

10. Support & Guided Onboarding

Working Principle

The working principle behind a flow-based chatbot is that businesses construct a flow that combines various steps, actions, and conditions. The conversation progresses based on user input or responses. Picky Assist has simplified the creation of such flows, eliminating the need for a developer. With the no-code chatbot builder, there's a low or virtually no learning curve involved.

Adding Users into a Flow

Businesses can incorporate users into a flow from various products as detailed below:

1. Smart Replies: You can define different keywords like "Hello", "Hi", and "Start", and add a Smart Action to trigger a flow whenever the system receives the keyword as a message from the user.

2. Connector: You can add an action in the connector that enables you to trigger a flow from a third-party application as part of an event. For example, you can initiate a flow when a form is submitted on your webpage, or when a lead status changes in your CRM, etc.

3. Workflow: You can trigger a flow from a CRM workflow whenever the status of CRM fields changes. For instance, if an order status changes to "Delivered", you can activate a feedback collection flow.

Channel-Specific Limitations:

Our flow-based chatbots can be integrated with WhatsApp Web Automation, WhatsApp Official (Managed by Us), and WhatsApp Cloud API. The WhatsApp Official and WhatsApp Cloud-based channels operate similarly, but the unofficial WhatsApp Web Automation has certain limitations. For example, interactive buttons and list menus are not supported in WhatsApp Web Automation.

Therefore, when creating a flow, please select the appropriate channel category to provide the best user experience.

Inbuilt Modular CRM

One of the unique features of the Picky Assist Flow Builder is that each flow is linked to a CRM module. This allows you to store user responses or any other necessary information for future reference in an organized manner. The same data can be assigned or shared with your internal team for further action.

Businesses have the ability to add more fields to the CRM module to increase its versatility.

Picky Assist also supports data lookup to other modules of the CRM, such as Search, Add Record, Update Record, & Delete. This provides advanced flexibility, enabling you to make your chatbot more personalized and dynamic.

Businesses can create advanced automated processes using the drag-and-drop visual workflows, even after the conversation has ended.

This feature sets us apart from other chatbot companies.

Global Settings of the Flow

Each flow have global settings that help business to control the flow like how many users can enter into the flow, setting up a reminder, setting up timeout, action on timeout version history, etc

Draft & Published Versions

Our system maintains both a draft version and a published version of each flow. The draft version refers to the version you are currently editing but haven't published, while the published version is the one that is currently live.

This feature allows you to build and test a version; once everything is satisfactory, you can merge it with the published version.

Version History

We maintain a version history of your last 50 published versions. If something goes wrong with your most recent published version, it's possible for you to restore any of the previous versions.

Conversation Context Conflict Situations

WhatsApp, along with all major social messaging platforms, supports single-threaded conversations. This means it's not possible to segregate a conversation into different subjects like you can with email, slack, web chats. Therefore, whenever a user enters a particular flow, our system flags this in our system, indicating that the user is in that flow. The system will then listen for inputs from the user specific to that flow only.

Using our various automation tools and developer features, it's possible to send messages to the same user at any time. If the message contains any interactive elements like buttons or lists, or if you're asking the customer to reply, the system will attribute these responses only to the flow in which the user is currently engaged.

If you add a user to a flow using any of our automation tools, our system will automatically terminate the existing flow for that user and initiate a new flow.

Since we don't know the priority, content, urgency, or context of the message, we don't block or hold any of the messages sent through our API, Connectors, Sequences, or any other third-party software connected to our platform. This means there could be confusion for the user if they receive another message while a conversation flow is in progress.

Conversation Timeout

Once a user enters into a conversation, businesses need to define a timeout for each flow. By default, the system is configured to timeout after 3 hours, i.e., if there is no response from the user for more than 3 hours, the system will automatically end the conversation with that user.

Please note that the timeout will not function if you have any smart delay or reminder blocks within your flow.

Global Reminder

When you ask a question to a user and they do not respond, you can utilize the global reminder feature. This feature sends an automatic reminder message as per the interval configured by you, assisting in resuming the conversation. If you wish for more control, you can also configure step-wise reminder blocks.

Smart Replies Automatically Pause

Whenever a user enters into a conversation, the smart replies for that user will automatically pause until the conversation ends. As soon as the conversation concludes, the smart replies will automatically re-enable for that user.

WhatsApp 24-Hour Window Limitations

If you have a flow that requires user interaction for more than 24 hours, you must use a WhatsApp Template block in your step to ensure that messages from subsequent steps are delivered to the user.

If you are proactively assigning a user to a flow, ensure that your first step is a WhatsApp Template block with interactive quick reply buttons or a question that the user is likely to answer. This is because further steps in the flow will only execute after receiving user input.

Looping Operations in Steps & Flows

Given our platform's N-Level Multi-Tenant nature, there is a possibility that an infinite loop could be created within a flow or between flows. Looping steps are often necessary to address various use cases, so we do permit them. However, to prevent potential issues, we have implemented a limit as below

• A step can be looped a maximum of 25 times in a conversation.

• Flow-to-flow looping can be done up to 10 levels.

Character Limitations

Please be aware that each content block has character limitations depending on the type of input. These limitations vary based on the channel category. Therefore, it's important to consider these constraints when providing content for your chatbot.

Published Version and Active Users

When you publish an update to a flow, it's possible that there will be active users already engaged with it. In this situation, the updated flow will only affect new users who enter into the flow after the update has been published. This means that all existing users in the flow at the time of the update will continue to interact based on the flow settings in place when they started their interaction.

For instance, if you modify a flow that asks users for their email and change it to ask for their phone number instead, users who began the flow before the update will still be prompted for their email. However, anyone who enters the flow after the update will be asked for their phone number.

Developer Features

Our Flow Builder is fully equipped for developers to build groundbreaking chatbots in the fastest turnaround time using the visual flow builder. Below are some tools available for developers to streamline the process:

1. Triggers from 3rd Party

Picky Assist connectors can receive triggers from third-party platforms and take action to initiate a flow along with the data passed from the platform. You can pass any custom payload, and the same will be available in your flow for personalization.

2. Webhook Inside Conversation

Whenever a user is in a conversation, it's possible to pass a payload to that specific step of the conversation by posting the payload in JSON format to the endpoint generated by us in the Webhook Step. A common use case is waiting for payment confirmation to deliver your digital product.

3. Trigger HTTP API

You can easily pull information from any other system using the HTTP API step, which allows you to make requests to external APIs.

4. Runtime Variable

You can conveniently save the data collected by the chatbots in a runtime variable that can be used only within the flow. Runtime variable data is destroyed when a user exits from the conversation.

5. Data Lookup

We have a straightforward data lookup to the Picky Assist inbuilt CRM. This helps you to reference a record and progress the flow as per the data saved in another module of the CRM.