Configuring the template and rules for the Autoresponder
Some screenshots or videos may show an outdated interface. There are no critical changes that affect understanding of the main functions.
A template is a set of rules (message-reply) that the autoresponder will use. How the Autoresponder works
To create a template, go to the corresponding tab (see Screen 1) and click "Create template".
You need to specify a name and a mask — with its help, different templates can be applied automatically for contacts with different numbers (from which a message was received): % — means any number of any characters; if only % is specified, this applies to any numbers 7% — only for numbers starting with 7 314% — only for numbers starting with 314 And so on; you can build your own pattern.
You can specify several templates for a task — then the corresponding template will be picked for every contact based on their number.
A template with the mask % is the default template; it will be used last if no other more suitable templates were found. For example: There is a task with 3 templates, masks: %, 7%, 1%. This means that if a person with a number starting with 7 messages, the 7% template is used; if it starts with 1, the 1% template is used. For the rest the % template is used.
Reply rules
To create a rule, pick the desired template and click "Create" in the rules table. It is possible to Export / import rules for the Autoresponder.
A rule consists of a message (which we will reply to) and a reply. The reply can be text, an image, a file — anything supported in a broadcast message.
You can set an arbitrary label — then it will count how many users were sent a reply by this rule. Statistics are available on the "Label statistics" tab.
For the message you can set exact match or just word containment in the text. The comparison is always case-insensitive.
Examples: Hello — exact match. %Hello% — the message contains the word "hello" — i.e., it will trigger on messages like "Hello, how are you?", "By the way, hello", etc. %Hello — the message ends with "hello". It will trigger on messages like "By the way, hello". It will NOT trigger on "Hello, how are you?". Hello% — the message starts with "hello". Will trigger on "Hello, how are you?", will NOT trigger on "By the way, hello". % — triggers on any message; this is the default reply.
You can set several rules that react to the same message. Then on a match, a random rule from the matching ones will be picked each time and the user will get different replies to the same message.
Levels in a rule
A level is how many (message, reply) pairs there are in the dialogue.
For example: 0 — a rule with this level will trigger if the person writes first themselves. 1 — will trigger after the first (or first several in a row) message from us, after which the person wrote to us. 2 — will trigger after the second (or second several in a row) message from us, after which the person wrote to us.
For example, take a dialogue: (user) → Hello — the level-0 rule triggers on this (account) ← Hi there — here will be the level-0 auto-reply (user) → Who are you? — the level-1 rule triggers on this (account) ← I'm a bot! — here will be the level-1 auto-reply (user) → Cool! — the level-2 rule triggers on this (account) ← You bet) — here will be the level-2 auto-reply
During a broadcast dialogues are always started by our account, so after the person's reply in this scheme the level will always be 1. The dialogue will look like this: (account) ← Hi there — message from the broadcast (user) → Who are you? — the level-1 rule triggers on this (account) ← I'm a bot! — here will be the level-1 auto-reply (user) → Cool! — the level-2 rule triggers on this (account) ← You bet) — here will be the level-2 auto-reply
With levels we can set a rule for a specific level of the dialogue. Or configure the autoresponder so that, regardless of what the person wrote, the account replies automatically according to the ordinal number of the reply. To do that, specify % in the message and pick the level in the rule.
A rule with any level will trigger at any level, but rules matching the current dialogue level are searched for first.
So when looking for a reply, the sequence is:
- Find rule(s) at the current level with a matching message.
- Find rule(s) at the current level with the default message (if % was specified).
- Find rule(s) at any level with a matching message.
- Find rule(s) at any level with the default message (if % was specified).
If several matching reply rules are found, a random one will be picked from them.
Video instructions
Example
