This help file explains how to include formatting, hyperlinks, and provide specific instructions for your Chatbot to help them answer customer questions - all in your custom content.
Before you start
- Ava is available as an eDesk Add-On.
- To learn more, click here.
- Admin and Team Leader roles will have the Chatbot permission as default.
- You’ll need to have access to Smart Tools > Chatbots in your permissions.
- If you don’t have access, you can request it from an Admin user within your business.
- For an overview of the Content Hub including an introduction to building custom content, see here.
01 What makes great custom content?
Use the following in your custom content to help your AI Chatbot provide the best care to your customers:Provide formatted content
You can use markdown to format your content OR instruct Ava, eDesk's AI engine, to format the content in a particular way (more on this below). Typical formatting includes using bold text in section titles and adding hyperlinks to text like this.
Instruct Ava how to use and format the content
Ava can understand your instructions, and so you can include some guidance for Ava above your custom content in the Content Hub. For example, you can include instructions like the following "When a customer asks which bike is best for a child that wants to do a particular activity, use the content below to recommend a bike model and size for the child's age and activity, then list the benefits in succinct bullet points, then list the cons in succinct bullet points, and then display the price, colour options, and include a hyperlink for them to buy it online."
02 How to format text
Markdown is a way of formatting text by enclosing it in simple markdown characters like *, _, and #.Here's a quick cheatsheet on using markdown in your custom content.
| Type of formatting | Example |
| Bold text | *Add a star on both sides to make text bold.* |
| Bullet points | - Prefix the text with a dash to make it a bullet. - Here's another bullet. |
Here's an example of markdown being used in some custom content in the Content Hub:
03 How to add hyperlinked text
You can include hyperlinked text by using the following format:[Link Text](URL)
For example: [here](https://www.edesk.com/roi-calculator/)
Here's our example in some Custom Content in a Content Hub:
And this is an example of how hyperlinked text looks in the chatbot:
03 How to add instructions for Ava
Ava is smart enough to spot instructions in the custom content, so you can just include them at the top of the Content field in the Content Hub.Example custom content including instructions for Ava: note that the custom content is below the instructions.
Further readings
Learn more about Ava here.For a full overview of the chatbot, see here.
Learn about connecting, creating, and editing chatbots here.
