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How to Train a Bot

Emma Kreiner
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Overview

The building block of every Ada chatbot conversation is the Answer. Answers are your bot's responses to questions or requests that chatters ask. But how do you ensure that the bot knows what Answer to use, and when? The answer (not the Answer, mind) is training. Once built, an Answer must be trained with a variety of sample questions related specifically to its content. 

There are several dashboard sections where training occurs:

  • Build – Answers view
  • Improve – Unanswered, Not Helpful, and Clarifications view
  • Conversations – All Conversations view

This user guide describes how to train your bot in every available view.

Training in the Answers View

The first place you'll train an Answer is in the Answer editor, in the Answers view. The training section is at the top of the Answer editor. There are a number of ways to add and manage training in the Answers view. Read through them all, or use the following quick links to jump to a specific section.

Answer Training Suggestions

Answer Training Suggestions leverages Ada's language recognition to suggest training questions for your Answers. Training Suggestions takes into consideration the following Answer attributes:

  • Bot handle – This is your bot’s unique domain name: https://yourbothandle.ada.support
  • Answer title – This is the title you see above the Answer editor, and in your Answer catalog.
  • Answer content – Your bot assesses the content in Text blocks, only. Content in other blocks is not considered; however, a Text block can be nested inside another block, such as a Conditional block.
  • Existing builder-written training questions – Training Suggestions only considers training questions written specifically by a builder, and added directly to the training bar at the top of an Answer. Training Suggestions does not consider training questions that come from chatters and are added automatically, or via the Improve page.
  📝 Note: Answers must contain content for your bot to assess in order to make training suggestions. If an Answer has little or no content, you won't receive training suggestions for it.

Here's how to use Answer Training Suggestions:

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Build > Answers, and open an Answer.
  2. At the top of the Answer editor, under Answer Training, click the training input field to open the Answer Training Suggestions. If your bot has any training suggestions, it presents them here.
  3. To add a suggested training question, click the plus sign on the right to add it to your Answer's training. Hovering over a suggested question also reveals a minus sign. Click this to remove the suggestion from the list.
  4. If there are more than three suggestions, click View More to expand the list and display more suggestions.
  5. To see a fresh new set of suggestions, click Refresh. The list reloads with new suggestions.
    training_suggestions.png

Add Individual Training Questions

Training_bar.png

To add a training question, type a sample question or phrase into the training field and press the enter/return key on your keyboard to apply.

Bulk Add Training Questions

Screen_Shot_2019-09-05_at_1.33.13_PM_copy.png

To add training questions in bulk, click on the Training management icon on the right-hand side of the training question input field. 

  • In the bulk add Training modal, each line represents a unique training question – each question must be on its own line.
  • Type out questions manually, or copy and paste cells from a spreadsheet.
  • Use line breaks to separate individual questions. (ie. hit enter between each question.)
  • You can train up to 20 Training questions at a time in the bulk-add Training modal.

To ensure the most effective Training, we recommend using short, concise questions and phrases. 

Edit Existing Training Questions

edit_training_question_gif.gif

Should you wish to edit an existing training question, hover over the question, then click the Edit button. To save your edits, click the Save or press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Move Existing Training Questions to a Different Answer

move_existing_training_questions_to_a_new_answer.png

To move one or more training questions from one Answer to another, hover over the training question and click the checkbox to select it. If there are multiple Training Questions that you would like to move, select each of them, and then click the Move Selected button.

This will launch a modal in which you can select the Answer you would like them to be moved to. If you want to move all of the existing training questions from one answer to another, simply place a checkmark next to one of the training questions to select it, and then click the Move All Training button.

Delete Training Questions

To remove an existing training question from an Answer, hover over one you would like to delete. If a red Do Not Enter icon appears, click on it to delete that training question. If it does not appear, click the checkboxes that appear to select all of the answers you would like to delete. When you click Delete you will receive a warning, and clicking Delete again will remove the Training from your Answer.

Training in the Unanswered, Not Helpful, and Clarifications View

The Improve section of the Ada dashboard is where the majority of bot maintenance occurs. Of the four views it contains, you can train Answers from three of them:

  • Unanswered
  • Not Helpful
  • Clarifications

Unanswered

The Unanswered View is a collection of chatter questions that were not understood by your chatbot. This can happen for a few reasons:

  • The bot doesn't yet have an Answer for the question.
  • An Answer exists, but the training is not fully developed.
  • The question is out of scope
  • The question is illegible or nonsensical.

Create a new Answer for a chatter’s question or phrase if you feel that the bot doesn’t currently have an appropriate Answer for their inquiry. You can also use chatter’s questions to train Answers in the questions View.

Use the search bar to filter questions by keywords.

Use the drop-down menu to filter by category (Not Helpful, Not Understood, or both using All).

If you want context for a chatter’s question, click Open Conversation. You’ll be redirected to a transcript of the conversation where the Not Helpful/Not Understood question appeared.

  📝 Note: In the questions view, you can delete chatter-submitted questions that won’t be helpful in training your bot.

Training a Single Chatter's Question

  1. In the Unanswered Questions list, click the Choose or Create an Answer drop-down menu to open your Answer catalogue.
  2. Select the appropriate Answer to receive the training question. To create a new Answer, click the Create a New Answer button to the right of the search field.
  3. Click Train. One of two things happen:
    • If you trained to an existing Answer, the question is added to that Answer's training list.
    • If you created a new Answer to receive the training question, the Answer settings dialog box appears. Use this to set up your new Answer, then click Save. The new Answer is added to your catalogue with the question trained to it.
  4. The question disappears from the Unanswered view. You can now move on to the next unanswered question.

Training a Group of Chatter Questions in Bulk

  1. In the Unanswered Questions list, select the checkbox beside each question you want to train. The Choose or Create an Answer drop-down menu appears at the bottom of the dashboard.
  2. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Choose or Create an Answer drop-down menu to open the Answer catalogue.
  3. Select the appropriate Answer to receive the selected training questions. To create a new Answer, click the Create a New Answer button to the right of the search field.
  4. Click Train. One of two things happen:
    • If you trained to an existing Answer, the question is added to that Answer's training list.
    • If you created a new Answer to receive the training question, the Answer settings dialog box appears. Use this to set up your new Answer, then click Save. The new Answer is added to your catalogue with the selected questions trained to it.
  5. The question disappears from the Unanswered view. You can now move on to the next unanswered questions.

Training a Portion of a Chatter's Question

  1. Highlight the text in the chatter’s question that you want to use as a training question
  2. Click into the search bar that appears at the bottom of your screen
  3. Scroll through the drop-down list that appears or search by Answer title
  4. Click on the Answer you want to train; the Train button to the left will now be blue
  5. Click the blue Train button to apply the chatter’s question as a Training question (it will disappear from the Questions view)
  📝 Note: You also have the option to create a new Answer for a given chatter question if you feel that the bot doesn’t have an appropriate Answer yet. It’s best to check to see if an Answer already exists, or could be slightly modified, but if you decide to create a new Answer, make sure to add lots of new Training in the Answers view to help set up the bot for success.

Training in the All Conversations View

You can also choose portions of a chatter’s conversation to Train to an Answer. The Conversations view lists all customer conversations, and can be expanded to view full transcripts.

Training a Portion of a Chatter’s Conversation

  1. Click on chatter's question you are using as Training
  2. Click into the search bar that appears at the bottom of your screen
  3. Scroll through the dropdown list that appears or search by Answer title
  4. Click on the Answer you want to train; the Train button to the left will now be blue
  5. Click Train to apply the chatter’s question as a training question
    training_a_portion_of_questions.png

Auto-Training from Chatter Feedback

Your bot is programmed to self-improve with chatter feedback. When a customer provides a thumbs up review, it reinforces Training.

A chatter’s interaction is added to an Answer as a training question when they give a thumbs up if:

  • The question is asked in the bot’s native language
  • There are fewer than 100 training questions trained to the Answer
  • The Answer is not a Locked Answer (built-into the bot)

The bot can also learn from Clarifications predicted in the Needs Clarification Answer. When a chatter selects a Clarification option and gives a thumbs up to the Answer provided, their original question gets added as Training. 

  📝 Note: The question in this interaction will not appear in the Questions view since it is already trained.

Disable auto-training

Auto-Training is enabled by default. To disable Auto-Training:

  • Go to Settings > Bot Setup > Answers, then switch the Auto-Training toggle off.
    auto-training_toggle.png

Answers that Don't Require Training

Some Answers do not require any Training.

Certain locked Answers (Answers that are pre-set in the bot) aren’t meant to be triggered by text in chatter interactions, so they don’t need training questions. These Answers are:

  • Pictures
  • Emojis
  • Links
  • Videos
  • Not Understood
  • Cancel Capture
  • Needs Clarification

Answers that are structured as Answer Flows often only need Training at the top level. For example, the first Answer in a series of steps, or a Menu that leads a chatter to multiple sub-options.

To learn more about Training, see our Bot Training Overview. 

 

Have any questions? Contact your Ada team—or email us at help@ada.support.

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