Users

The Users tab helps you keep track of the information your users provide in the conversational flow. If you choose to use this feature, data collected during the interaction between the virtual assistant and your user is stored automatically in order to improve customer experience.

You can save any kind of parameter (given that it has a sys.any entity type) - from the user's phone number and name to more specific information based on your specific use case e.g. user's postcode, preferred way of communication, etc.

In case the user contacts the virtual assistant later, this data can be used to customise and optimize their experience, across channels and conversation sessions.

For example, this can be the ability to greet the user by their name and use the saved data for identification. Or, if there are some questions that every user has to answer prior to receiving service and these have been already answered by the user prior, the agent won’t have to ask them again.

This feature is only available for voice, WhatsApp, or SMS channels.

Enabling Users Tab

The Users tab is available on the navigation bar next to reports once you have opened up Studio. Once clicked, the tab will display all user parameters along with the data that was collected under them as well as the API keys of your agent.

Data for the users tab is saved under API keys. This means you can have multiple agents under the same API key and use your user data across all of those agents.

Here's how to enable your user parameters:-

Once you have entered the users tab, select the API key that your agent is on and click on the Create User parameter button. Once the drawer opens you can create the categories of user data you want to collect.

Return to your agent and make sure that these parameters will have information stored in them. You can do this by simply choosing your user parameter wherever you are collecting your input.

You can also use the set parameter node and equate the value of the appropriate collected parameter to the newly created user parameter towards the end of your conversation.

Alternatively, you can also create user parameters within your agent by going to Parameters and creating a parameter under User Parameters.

To be able to view the extracted information on this page, your agent needs to have a phone number assigned to the $CALLER_PHONE_NUMBER parameter. You can do this by setting the value using a Set Parameter node.

Once this is set up in the agent, every time your agent interacts with a user, the data collected will be automatically displayed under the users tab. It will look something like this:-

Make sure to tick “Skip this node if the value is already collected” in the respective Collect Input nodes you want to skip the prompt when the data has already been collected.

How is this useful?

Using this feature exponentially increases the opportunities for the customisation of your user’s journey. You can choose to greet a repeat customer by name, have their preferences already filled in and refrain from asking them repetitive questions.

If users have already filled in formation prior to accessing the agent, that data can also be used to dictate the flow within the agent.

Limitations

Saving user data to enhance user experience is great but currently it comes with a few caveats. Some of the drawbacks at this point are:-

• User Parameters have to be sys.any entity type: This means that parameters created with any other system entity type (like sys.numbers, sys.email, etc) or custom entities will not work as a User Parameter

• Only last collected values are saved: If during the conversation multiple inputs override in a parameter, the last collected value will be stored on the users tab.

How to test it

If you want to test this feature for your agent, make sure to add a phone number to the $CALLER_PHONE_NUMBER parameter. This way, you will open a new contact in the user data storage. Heres a quick video to demonstrate how this will work:-