All Channels - Other Utility Steps
Table of Contents
Here's a list of utility steps in the Bot Editor, designed for various use cases and compatible with all channels, including AlcmeonChat, WhatsApp, and more.
Note
This step doesn't send any messages to your client. It's an internal note, much like a "sticky" note, allowing you to jot down information about your scenario as a reminder for yourself or a guide for your colleagues.
Waiting for a Message
This step has a simple role: it is triggered as soon as the client sends a message.
It is particularly useful when when placed after steps that do not have a “free message entry” output, such as “carousel” or “message only” steps, or even an “action” step.
Link to a Scenario
💡Advanced feature: Please contact Alcmeon support to use it.
This is a special step that remains invisible to your client. Its sole purpose is to link your current scenario to another active scenario, enabling the creation of interconnected "modules". Currently, this step can only be linked to scenarios within the Alcmeon Marketing environment.
Agent Shortcut (Beta)
💡Advanced feature: Please contact Alcmeon support to use it.
The Agent Shortcut allows you to embed a trigger point anywhere within your bot scenario that can be activated by an agent in the process of responding to a customer. This feature lets (re)launch the bot at that specific point for the customer immediately after the advisor sends their written response.
For example: If a customer didn't provide certain qualifying information that your bot typically gathers in a specific scenario branch, an advisor can use an Agent Shortcut to force the customer back into that part of the bot's flow. This ensures the customer provides the necessary details without the advisor having to manually prompt for them.
📄 Note: The title of this step is mandatory and should be very explicit, as this is the text that will appear to the advisor in their interface on the Conversation Page.
Promo Code
This step allows you to set a scenario variable to the value of a promo code.
Within your Alcmeon Bot scenario, you have the flexibility to deliver either the same generic code to all customers or a unique code per customer.
If you choose to deliver unique codes, you must provide our support team with an Excel or CSV file containing your codes, which we will then integrate into the Promo Code step of your scenario.
This step will then randomly distribute these unique codes to each customer. Note: A returning customer will always receive the same code they previously received. Each unique code is distributed to only one customer.
Within this step, you will need to select an "Operation" name, defined in your Excel or CSV file, as Alcmeon allows for multiple operations to run simultaneously.
The Promo Code step provides three distinct outputs that you can connect to your scenario:
- Code found: the code is saved in a variable named
promo_code_[yourOperationName]
- No code available: All promo codes have already been distributed.
- The user has already received the code
Once retrieved, the code can be used in a message. For example, if your promotion is named "Winter24," you could send a message via a "Message Only" step with a text like: "Here is your code, use it now! {{promo_code_Winter24}}".
Subbot
⚠️Advanced feature: Please contact Alcmeon support before using it.
This step offers two uses: Internal subbot and External subbot. You must select your desired type from the drop-down menu when editing this step.
Internal subbot
An internal subbot is created and administered by Alcmeon. It's designed to handle advanced features and execute complex operations.
Capture Message Content
This step stores the customer's last message into the variable message_context. This variable is designed for exemple to be used by "AI Connector" step.
Please note: This functionality only works for text messages. It cannot capture content from other types of client messages, such as images, videos, or audio files.
If a non-text message attempts to be captured by this subbot, the subbot will trigger the "Message format not supported" error output.
Check user answer
Deprecated Feature; Please do not use it.
Get the day of the week
This step allows your bot scenario to branch based on the current day of the week, taking the output corresponding to that day (e.g., "Monday").
For testing purposes, you can override the actual day. Pass a date in the format today_GMT_YYYY-MM-DD into the "message_content" variable. This will "trick" the subbot into operating as if it were that specific date.
Search Closest Store
Based on an Excel file containing a list of geolocated stores (which you will upload to the subbot), it prompts the customer for their postal code and then presents a list of stores within a 50km radius.
Two error outputs: Internal Error and No stores found within 50km radius.
The excel file to be uploaded must be in xslx format and have the following columns, in this order:
Wait for a Postal Code Input by the User
This step enables you to request a postal code from the customer and automatically populate the location variable with the corresponding latitude and longitude for that postal code.
Then use the subbot “Search Closest Store” for example.
External subbot
An External Subbot allows you to share control of the conversation with a system outside of Alcmeon. This third-party system will develop and host an endpoint within a middleware. Alcmeon will then call this external endpoint via a webhook whenever a specific part of the conversation needs to be handled by your external logic.
Technical documentation:
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/get_description-1
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/post_start-1
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/post_handle-event-1
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/post_end-1
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/get_uploaded-tabular-data
- https://developers.Alcmeon.com/reference/post_subbot-continue
Marketing campaign
💡Advanced feature: Please contact Alcmeon support to use it.
This step allows you to define, at any point within your bot scenario, the initiation of a message sending campaign path for Alcmeon Marketing.
📄 Note: The title of this step is mandatory and must be very explicit, as this is the text that will appear to the Alcmeon Marketing user in the push campaign interface.