FAQ: What do the Sequence Bot actions do?

You may already know that the Sequence Bot can route visitors to departments, agents, and even other chatbots. Beyond routing, the Sequence Bot may also perform other actions to direct customers through a predictable flow. In this article, we'll explore the types of actions and how they’re useful in various situations. 

In this article:

• Bot Reply and Visitor Attribute 
• Bubble Options 
• Card Response 
• Chat Widget 
• Go to and Redirect to 
• Post Lead, Send Lead, and Sync to CRM
• Add a Note 
• Chat with Agent and Chat with Department 
• Invite Conversational Bot 
• Assign Tag to Contact and Assign Tag to Case 
• Close Conversation 

Bot Reply and Visitor Attribute

Bot replies are the primary ways that text messages are conveyed during a sequence. You may use these messages with Visitor Attributes to prompt visitors to add more information or to select an option.

 A branch with Bot Reply and Visitor Attribute blocks. 

Bot Reply 

Bot Reply is the default action for each branch. To create a bot reply, create a new branch. You may also add more than one bot reply by clicking on ‘Add another interaction’ and choosing ‘Bot Reply’. 

 Videos, webhooks, links, formatting, and emojis may also be displayed through Bot Replies. Use the toolbar to select these features. 

> A 500 x 500 pixel image displayed in the widget.

Keep in mind that videos over 300 x 300 may require scrolling on desktops. 

A 300 x 300 pixel video displayed in the widget. Visitors may watch in the widget, select full screen, or click the button to watch on YouTube or Vimeo. 

Visitor Attributes

The Visitor Attribute action gives you another way to ask visitors for their details. Information from visitor attributes is captured and displayed in the visitor’s profile. To create an attribute, see Creating & Mapping Custom Attributes →

Use Visitor Attributes when you need to ask customers for additional information. Keep in mind customers who already have the attribute saved to their profile won’t see the prompt if you’ve enabled ‘Skip Flow for Existing Details’.

Enable ‘Skip Flow for Existing Details’ in Chatbot > Configurations. Once enabled, the visitor won’t be asked to share their details again.

Agent View

> In this example, an agent sets a Visitor Attribute to ask for their name during a sequence. The Bot Reply contains a variable for the visitor’s name. 

Visitor View

 Since the visitor already left their name previously, the Visitor Attribute step is skipped and the bot replies with the visitor’s name. 

To use a Custom Attribute in a Bot Reply, click on the webhooks button. 

Then, choose your Custom Attribute from the list. 

Bubble Options

Give your visitors choices with Bubble Options. Bubble Options direct visitors to different parts of the sequence. This is useful when you need to differentiate visitors based on location, device, and so on. 

Bubble Option text may between 2 and 100 characters long (including spaces).  

Agent View

 In this sequence, the Bubble Options help route customers to specific departments based on their inquiry. 

Visitor View

When a visitor selects a Bubble Option, they’re directed to that branch. 

Please note that Bubble Options must have names that are at least two characters long. 

Card Response

Card responses are a great way to show products in the widget. Cards may have images, text, and links, and can direct users to specific categories within an online store. In addition, customers’ responses may be tied to Visitor Attributes, so agents can easily look up a customer’s selection in their profile. You’ll also be able to track these answers in Custom Reports by selecting Custom Attributes for conversations. 

For more details, see our Card Response guide→

Card response can respond to visitors using the Visitor Attributes action.

Or, they may be used to link to another webpage.

Widget Apps

Widgets Apps are third-party integrations that may be used during a sequence. 

To make a Widget App part of a sequence, go to Chatbots > Sequence Bot and create a new sequence or update an existing one. Create a new branch and click on ‘Add another interaction’ and then choose ‘Chat Widget’.

A Chat Widget Block will appear to the right of the branch. Select the widget you’d like by clicking on the link after ‘Choose widget’.

If you’d like the sequence to continue after the Widget App process completes, add a new branch. 

Apps compatible with the Sequence Bot: 

During a chat use…

• Article Search — Allow visitors to search for articles in your Knowledge Base.
• Book a Meeting — Let visitors book meetings. 
• Calendly — Have visitors book meetings on calendars connected to your team’s Calendly 
• Chili Piper — Have visitors book a meeting on the calendar connected to your Chili Piper 
• Get a Demo — Have visitors book a demo and receive an email notification. 
• JotForm — Create and share a JotForm in a sequence.
• Mailchimp — Have visitors sign up for a newsletter. 
• OnceHub — Have visitors book a meeting on the calendar connected to your OnceHub account. 
• Stripe — Ask for contact and payment details during a sequence.
• Typeform — Create and share a Typeform in a sequence. 

During an SMS conversation use...

• Article Search 
• Calendly
• Chilipiper
• Get a Demo
• JotForm
• Typeform
  

Create a rich, visitor experience by incorporating widget apps in a sequence.

 JotForm allows you to make many types of customizable forms and display them through the widget. 

Go to and Redirect to

During a sequence, sometimes a visitor may need to go to a previous branch, or to another part of your website. 

Go to

Use the ‘Go to’ action to go back to another branch. This option is useful when you have bubble options or card responses and want to give the respondent an opportunity to change their mind before committing to an order or request. 

Go to actions should exist on their own branches with descriptive text that lets a visitor know where they’ll be directed to. 

 A branch with a ‘Go to’ action. Keep in mind that the visitor will once again see the text for the branch you route to. 

To set a Go to action, create a new branch. On that branch, click on ‘Add another interaction’ and then select ‘Add Auto Actions’ > ‘Go to’. Then select the branch you’d like the visitor to route to. 

Redirect to

When you need to redirect a visitor to a webpage, use Redirect to. When a visitor reaches a redirect branch, a new window will appear. The chat widget will still be on the previous page, unless the visitor closes that page.

Note: if the visitor has a popup blocker installed, the redirect action may not occur. 

When the visitor reaches a branch with a redirect action, they’ll go to the webpage associated with that action. 

To create a redirect, create a new branch in your Sequence Bot. Then select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Redirect to’.

If the visitor will be routed to a widget-enabled page, you may want to put a helpful message in your bot reply. If they’ll be redirected to a page that the widget isn’t on, we recommend closing the sequence.

Post Lead, Send Lead, and Sync to CRM

We currently support the Send Lead option. When a visitor leaves their contact details, you may send that information to an email address. To enable this feature, go to a Sequence Bot branch, select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Send Lead’. Then, type in the email address you wish to send their information to.  

Add a Note

During a sequence, it’s sometimes helpful to add notes about a contact or case. You may add text, emojis, Custom Attributes, or mention agents in your note. Similar to tags, notes aren’t visible to visitors and may be used on any branch with most actions.

Visitors never see notes, so they may be added to almost any branch. To add a note to a sequence, select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Add a note’.

You may add any amount of text, emojis, or mentions to the note, though we recommend holding custom attributes in their own notes. 

 In this branch, the visitor is asked to type their issue in the chat. That response is held in a Custom Attribute using the ‘Visitor Attribute’ action. Then, a note with that attribute, as well as a note that mentions an agent, is added to the flow. 

Visitors will not see the note appear in the widget. However, agents will see a yellow block, indicating a note was added, in the timeline. 

For a more detailed guide on adding Custom Attributes to a sequence, see this article’s section on Bot Reply and Visitor Attribute.

Chat with Agent and Chat with Department 

One of the most common actions for Sequence Bots is routing a visitor to the correct department or agent. 

After narrowing down a visitor’s issue in the sequence, use Bubble Options to connect a visitor with the appropriate department or agent.

 In this snippet from a Sequence Bot workflow, a visitor may choose to chat with agents or close the chat. If they choose to chat, their name is recorded, and they’re transferred to an agent.

To route visitors during a sequence, select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Chat with Department’ or ‘Chat with Agent’.

For Chat with agent, you may select a specific agent or all agents. Keep in mind that if ‘all agents’ are selected, all online agents will see a pending case in their Dashboard.

For Chat with Department, you may select a specific department or all departments. All agents that are online and within that department will see a pending case in their Dashboard. 

Invite Conversational Bot 

Sequence Bots may hand off visitors to Conversational Bots in a process known as Chatbot handoff. If you have a bot designed to introduce a visitor to your product, or answer questions, it may be useful to transfer the conversation to another bot.

To connect visitors with a Conversational Bot during a sequence, select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Invite Conversational Bot’. Then, select the bot you’d like the visitor to connect with using the dropdown menu. 

You can find out more about transferring bots to other bots in Triggering Chatbots.

Invite Sequence Bot

Handing off one Sequence Bot to another Sequence Bot allows you to create specialized bots and avoid complex flow. 

For example, you may want to create a branch that asks a visitor to select a bubble action about whether they want to connect with sales or support. Then you can invite the Sales Sequence Bot or Support Sequence Bot based on what action they chose. 

To do so, go to one Sequence Bot and, in a branch, select on Add Another Interaction > Add Action > Invite Bot. Then select the Sequence Bot you’d like to hand the visitor off to. 

 

Keep in mind the visitor will start at the first branch of the Sequence Bot they transfer to. 

Assign Tag to Contact and Assign Tag to Case 

Tags are useful for organizing cases and contacts based on similar features. The Sequence Bot may also tag contacts and cases. Similar to notes, tags aren’t visible to visitors and may be used on any branch with any action. 

To connect visitors with a Conversational Bot during a sequence, select ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Assign Tag to Contact’ or ‘Assign Tag to Case’.

In this example, the ‘U.S. Customer’ tag was assigned to the Contact, and a ‘follow-up’ tag was assigned to the case. 

In the Contact List, you’ll be able to see the tag. You may also segment the Contact List based on tags.

Close Conversation 

When the visitor reaches the end of a sequence, you may want to close the conversation. 

To close the conversation, ‘Add another action’ > ‘Add auto actions’ > ‘Close Conversation’.

Closed Conversation nodes turn red in a sequence. If you decide to add another branch beneath the 'Close Conversation' branch, the closed action will be cancelled.

Cases that reach the ‘Close Conversation’ branch are automatically closed in the Dashboard.

When you hand off the conversation to an agent or another bot, closing the conversation may not always be necessary.

There are many ways to use a Sequence Bot besides the actions above. Gaining a deeper understanding of these actions will help you to develop more efficient experiences that will keep your customers coming back for more. 

Need something more advanced? Read Webhooks for Chatbots.

Have questions? Reach out to support@acquire.io.