Hello Community,
Here is a collection of the most useful Apollo AI Base Prompt instructions that we have worked with so far:
Suggested Message buttons
Instruction for teaching Apollo to send clickable buttons in chat:
- if the response includes ‘’[option]‘’ always include it in your message as plain text.
With this instruction, we can place [option] before the text we want to appear as Suggested Message button.
Escalation
As an alternative to the toggleable Escalate setting, we can manually create escalation conditions using one of the following instructions:
- If the answer is not included in the given knowledge, say " Sorry, I’m not sure how to answer that. Please clarify your question [option] Talk to a human "
- if the answer cannot be provided from given knowledge , say ‘’ I do not have this information available, but if you confirm your preferred contact method and best email or phone number to reach you at, one of our specialists will be in touch within a business day’’
- if the answer cannot be provided from given knowledge or is not related to , say that you do not have this information available and add ‘’ [option] Transfer me to a human
[option] I am happy to leave a note ‘’ to the end of your message.
Similarly, we can use Base Prompt instruction to direct users to external forms or ticket submission links:
- if user is looking for billing support, direct them to open a ticket with the billing team at www.example.com/billing-ticket
- if user is looking for technical support, respond with ‘’ For technical support, please visit our example.helpcenter.com or click the button below to be transferred to our Level 2 Support team (during business hours) [option] Transfer me to Level 2 support
’’
Start of chat
To prepare AI for users submitting pre-chat we can use the following instructions:
- user starts chat by submitting their name and/or email, in response to this, greet them by their name and offer assistance
This can be further advanced by adding clickable buttons that will help smooth the conversation and allow you to prepare follow-up answers to pre-typed inquiries:
- user starts chat by submitting their name, email and/or phone number, in response to this, say ''Welcome to our site! How can we help you today?
[option] Looking to place new order
[option] Existing order support
[option] I have a different question
‘’
Lead Capture flow
When it comes to lead capture, it is possible to configure AI to operate with little to no Data Source info, it would just need to have clear instructions on how to ask qualifying questions:
- if user is looking to purchase PRODUCT/SERVICE, ask to confirm Detail 1
- once user confirms Detail 1, ask to confirm Detail 2,
- once user confirms Detail 2, ask to confirm Detail 3
- once you have confirmed Detail 1, 2 and 3, ask for users preferred contact method and best email/phone to contact them at
- once user has confirmed their preferred contact method, say ‘’Thank you for sharing your information. One of our specialists will be in touch within a business day.
For example:
- if user is looking to purchase real estate, ask to confirm if they have a specific location in mind,
- once user confirms if they had specific location in mind, ask to confirm what property type they are looking for,
- once user confirms property type, ask to confirm what would be their budget for the purchase,
- once you have confirmed location, property type and budget ask for users preferred contact method and best email/phone to contact them at
- once user has confirmed their preferred contact method, say ‘’Thank you for sharing your information. One of our specialists will be in touch within a business day.‘’
Alternatively, the flow can end with Suggested Message buttons that are linked to transfer/ticket shortcuts using prompt:
- once user confirms their budget, say ‘’ Thank you for your information, to proceed you can click the button below to be transferred to one of our agents during business hours, or choose to leave a note for us to get back to you at a later point.
[option] Transfer me to an agent
[option] I am happy to leave a note
‘’
Directing users to links
For AI to direct users to your website links they need to be provided as plain text. Typically this is done by uploading a product list export, but a easy alternative ( for website whose search result links have direct paths) is teaching AI to build search result link based on what the visitor is asking about:
-If a user is looking for an unspecified product by referring to its category or type, direct the user to https://www.example.com/en?products[query]=[key+phrase] and fill [key+phrase] replacing spaces with pluses
When uploading a product list CSV for AI to refer product links or descriptions from, there are instructions that can help support it. As part of Default instructions we have ‘’Keep answers short and concise’’, but when we want AI to include a link to product as part of its reply it needs to be replaced with a version of :
provide detailed answers about products from given knowledge
if user is inquiring about a product from given knowledge, include the link to product as part of your response in plain text
Sometimes AI will want to create hyperlinks that our widget does not recognize. A workaround we found that helps with these (Example)[example.com] links:
- Always present URLs in plain text. Do not format them as hyperlinks. For example, instead of creating a clickable link, simply write the URL in its raw form.
These Base Prompt instructions in combination with the Questions and Answers spreadsheet should be enough to get Apollo performing consistently.
If you have a useful Base Prompt that you want to share, or have any questions about how to make these instructions work for your setup, feel free to contact me at ralfs@tawk.to or book a call at Calendly - tawk.to Support