Configure your chatbot to receive real-time messages from an agent

Many companies are using Business Messages to change their client’s need into useful, timely, and engaging experiences. The clients feel satisfied and the companies get results. To give such an experience, Google provides some features that generate value to the user, such as the option to connect themselves to a live agent for customized support. In other words, at any moment of the conversation, the user can be redirected to speak with an agent of your brand.

When you start talking with the agent, either through Google Maps or through organic search results, and click on “…” on the upper right corner, you will find this representative redirection option. However, to actually redirect the user to the representative, you will need to configure your smart contact’s flow on Blip to get the input generated when this option is selected.

There are several ways to configure it. In this article, we are going to show you the simpler one. Every time this option is selected during the conversation with your agent, an input is sent to Blip as variable.

In this article, we are going to talk about two types of blocks in your flow:

1. Blocks that send some type of option menu to the user, either via text, quick reply, carousel, or option menu.
2. Blocks that do not have any type of menu to allow the user to make a choice.

Based on it, you can add an exit condition in every flow block that do not have a product menu, quick replies, or when the client receives a suggestion menu from which he/she can type a number for the desired option. Especially in these blocks, you do not need to add exit settings. After all, if the user clicks on the option to talk with the representative, Blip will get an input as an invalid condition, and the user will be redirected to the exception block. Ergo, the exit condition will be added to the exception block and to the blocks that do not have any type of command to allow the user to select an option.

See how to configure the exit condition in the exception block:

If: Variable

Condition: Equal to

Variable: input.type

Values: application/vnd.iris.human-agent-request

Go to: Choose the contact’s destination block, which, in this case, should be the block that checks the business hours. We do not recommend you to redirect the user directly to the block in which the overflow to human interaction takes place, since the user can contact the company outside of its business hours, jeopardizing the experience.

Attention! ⚠️

The exit conditions’ order matters. In the example above, in which we want to redirect the contact from Business Messages to human service at any moment of the conversation, this variable’s exit condition should be the first of the condition list. Specific exit conditions should always come first!

Now see how to set the exit condition in blocks that do not have any type of menu or that invite the user to choose an option:

If: Variable

Condition: Equal to

Variable: input.type

Values: application/vnd.iris.human-agent-request

And

If: Variable

Condition: Equal to

Variable: contact.source

Values: BusinessMessages

Go to: Choose the contact’s destination block. As recommended above, the user should ideally be redirected to the block that checks the business hours.

Attention! ⚠️

The exit conditions’ order matters in this case as well! Since we want to redirect the contact from Business Messages to human service in these points of the conversation, this variable’s exit condition should be the first of the condition list related to the contact.source variable.

See how simple it is to configure your smart contact’s flow to give the user the choice to speak directly to a representative in real time? 😀

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