Getting started
1. The first step is to decide on what your bot is going to say and/or what information it needs from the user. (We have some tips here on how to pick the best use case for your bot).
- For example, if I am building an intake/triage bot, what information do I need from the user for the purposes of this intake process?
2. Once this is decided, you can then begin to create your first bot (via the drop-down menu) in the Josef dashboard.
3. After naming your bot, you can tell your bot what to say by building out your bot's questions and statements (called 'messages' in Josef) in the Flowchart or List view tab.
- For example, the first message may be “Welcome to the XX bot”, and the second may be, “May I please have your full name?”
- It is also important to consider here what type of information you want your bot to gather or provide. Does your user need an answer to a question? A document? Guidance or advice? This will decide the message type you need to select when telling your bot what to say.
4. In building out your bot you may realise that you might want your bot to say different things to different responses from the user. In Josef you can do this by applying rules to connections.
Get your bot to automate documents and send emails
5. Your bot can generate automated documents. This can either be a document generated for the user (externally) or one generated (internally) for the builder to review. If you want to automate a document you can start by creating a document type message!
6. Your bot can also send automated emails! The email notification is customisable and can contain responses given by the user. You can also attach any generated documents from the bot to your emails. You can create email notifications via the notifications tab in the dashboard.
Create and use variables and calculations with your bot
7. Your bot can also perform calculations. You can build calculations for your bot to perform and generate variables that can be used in logic throughout your bot.
Styling your bot
8. You can style your bot by changing the colours and adding images and logos. You can also choose to launch your bot in a chat interface or as a smart form. Learn how to do this here.
Testing your bot
9. In the process of building your bot you can choose to review the progress made by “previewing” your bot. This function can also be used to test the bot once completed. (You can then troubleshoot your bot for any issues).
Launching your bot
10. Congratulations! You have built, designed and tested a bot ready for launching. Once you launch your bot, you can share the link with anyone to access it or embed it on a website.
11. You’ll be able to review all user interactions with your bot easily by logging in to the dashboard and looking in the Activity tab.
Support
More helpful articles on how to build on Josef can be found here in our Help Center. If you can't find what you're looking for you can also reach out to us directly at support@joseflegal.com.
Happy building!