There are four different types of states: Initial, Default, Fallback and Rejoin.
State types can be changed by going to Bot -> States. The dropdown menu is in the top-right hand corner.
Initial
The state with the type ‘Initial’ is returned when the conversation with the customer starts. Depending on the chat platform you are using, there are differences in how the Initial state is triggered. In giosg, for example, the Initial state is triggered either by giosg’s own auto-suggest message or when the user types in their first message (if autosuggest is not in use).
With some platforms it is enough to just open the chat widget, but some need further configuration. This is very platform specific so ask your friendly Jenny support for assistance if needed!
Note that if you are using the GetJenny Chat Widget you must have an Initial state. Also keep in mind that Initial states can only be used at the beginning of the conversation and can’t be triggered otherwise.
Initial state is used as a greeting such as "Hey there, I'm Jenny the chatbot. I can help you with these topics..."
Default
This is a standard state that the bot will reply with if the rules you have set are met with a high enough threshold. This is the only state type that can be triggered using triggers, rules and queries.
Threshold equals to 'minimum score'. To increase the likelihood of a default state triggering, educate the bot with several queries.
Fallback
If the bot can’t find an answer to a question, it will return the ‘Fallback’ state. It cannot be triggered with keywords, queries or other triggers.
However, you might want to create more than one Fallback state and define when they are triggered using triggers / rules. You can, for example, use the ‘Business Hours / Opening Hours’ trigger to offer different fallback states at different times. This way you can offer one Fallback state during office hours and another when the office is closed.
Fallback state is necessary to have to create an intelligent conversation flow. You can use something like "Sorry, I don't know how to respond to that. Do you want me to transfer you to my human colleagues?"
Rejoin
The ‘Rejoin’ type is used in cases where the conversation has been transferred from the bot to a customer support agent. If you have a state with the type Rejoin, the bot rejoins the conversation after the customer support agent has left the conversation.
This state will only be returned when the last customer service agent has left the conversation and the customer has been “left alone”. This state can’t be triggered using triggers.
Rejoin state is only available with giosg and Zendesk.