State

Crafting Responses and Setting Up Intent-Driven User Interactions

Overview

The State block is a fundamental unit of dialog within Parloa. It is designed to handle specific topics or user queries, such as asking for an address. State blocks interpret user input, define responses, and manage the flow of conversation based on the user's intent.

State Block

Key Benefits

• Response Definition: Define the chatbot’s verbal and text responses to users.

• Intent Recognition: Configure specific user intents that the chatbot should recognize at different points in the conversation.

Define Responses

Use the Responses tab to input the chatbot's verbal and textual communication. Start by crafting a primary prompt that is clear and direct, effectively asking for the user's address.

• Single and Multiple Prompts: If only one prompt is placed above the dividing line and no prompts are placed below it, this prompt will be used by default in interactions. However, if multiple prompts are placed below the line, they are activated sequentially in the same call when triggered multiple times, ensuring a dynamic conversation flow.

• SSML Integration: Incorporate Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) to make the bot sound more natural and engaging. This can significantly improve the user's experience by providing a voice that is more relatable and easier to understand.

• Handling Varied Scenarios: Add additional prompts to manage different scenarios, such as lack of user input or misunderstandings. This ensures the chatbot can handle unexpected user responses gracefully.

• Response Priority: When both cross-platform and platform-specific responses are used, the platform-specific response takes precedence, allowing for a tailored user experience depending on the platform used.

• Autocomplete Features: Utilize our autocomplete features within the SSML section to streamline your response creation process. These features can help generate high-quality responses efficiently.

Set Up Intents

In the Intents tab, define the intents the chatbot should recognize. For example, in an “Ask for address” State block, you can include intents such as tellAddress, provideAddress, and fallback intents like else or misunderstood.

Each intent should account for a variety of possible user utterances to ensure comprehensive recognition. For example:

• "yes" intent: Accept variations like "yeah," "yep," and "yes."

• "no" intent: Accept responses such as "no" and "nope."

State Block – Intents

Local Logic

Handles else Locally

The handles else locally toggle determines how unmatched intents (fallbacks) are processed within a State block.

When enabled:

• The State block bypasses any global intent processing and directly executes the else case defined within the State block.

• This allows for localized handling of unexpected user inputs without involving global logic.

When disabled:

• The State block checks for matches in the global intents before triggering the else case.

• This enables global-level fallback handling for unmatched intents.

This toggle provides greater control over whether fallback logic is handled locally within a specific block or utilizes global fallback behavior.

else Ignores Global Intents

The else ignores global intents toggle specifies whether global intents are considered when local intent matching fails.

• When enabled:

  • The bot skips the global intent check entirely and directly executes the else case within the current State block.

  • This ensures that unmatched inputs are always handled locally, improving efficiency in scenarios that do not require global fallback logic.

• When disabled:

  • If the bot cannot handle an intent locally, it checks for matches in the global intents before triggering the else case.

  • This behavior is useful for maintaining global fallback consistency across multiple State blocks.

This toggle helps bot builders decide whether to prioritize local or global handling for unmatched inputs, ensuring flexibility in conversational design.

Add no input branch

The Add no input branch toggle configures a State block to handle situations where the user remains silent.

• Default behavior (toggle off):

  • If the user does not respond, the bot reprompts up to 10 times before ending the call.

• Customized behavior (toggle on):

  • A no_input intent is activated, allowing you to define custom flows for silent scenarios.

  • The number of reprompts before the no_input intent is triggered can be configured. To apply this change, contact your Customer Support Manager.

  • Once the defined number of reprompts is reached:

    1. A no_input intent is triggered.

    2. The bot continues along the defined flow based on the no_input event.

    3. If the user speaks after the no_input intent is triggered, the speech is ignored, and the bot proceeds without interruption.

• Granular application:

  • The no_input intent can be enabled or disabled for specific State and Start Conversation blocks, providing flexibility in how silent scenarios are handled across the dialog.

• Timeout customization:

  • To adjust the timeout period (the duration the system waits for user input before considering it as “no input”), contact your Customer Support Manager.