Let Customers Ask Chatbot for Shipping Price

When a customer indicates they want to price a package, you have to know the size of the package. So our bot must be able to extract the parcel size from the conversation.

So create an entity for the parcel size. But in this case, create a restricted entity – which only recognizes a fixed set of valid values.

1. Go to Train | Entities.

   • Click Create.

   • Enter parcel-size for the name.

   • Specify Restricted entity.

   • Click Create.

     

     You now have a second entity.

     

2. Enter the valid values for this entity.

   And instead of you entering each size separately, we have supplied the sizes in a CSV file. Do the following:

   • Download the CSV file, which contains a fixed set of sizes expressed in various ways.
   • Click the new entity.
   • Click Import a CSV File.
   • Click Browse and select your file.
   • Click Upload.

   Refresh the page, if necessary.

   

3. You will want to return a shipping price based on the size. So “enrich” the entity’s data, setting a price value that the bot will add into memory when the entity is detected.

   • Go to Enrichments, and then select Map Enrichments (you may need to confirm by clicking Validate).

     

   • Click Add New Pair, enter name and null (the default value), and then press Enter.

     

   • Click again Add New Pair, enter price and null, and then press Enter.

   • Add 4 enrichment groups. For each, click Add New Group, specify a name ( >10kg, 3-10kg, 1-3kg or 0-1kg ), and then click Save.

     For each group, click the pencil icon, select the corresponding entity values for the group, and set the values for the fields name and price.

     Values must be in JSON format, so name must be enclosed in quotes.

     The groups should look like the following:

     

What’s going on?

When a customer enters a size, the bot detects this as the #parcel-size entity. It then sees what group the entity value is part of, and then adds the additional fields in the memory, which can then be used in subsequent conversation.

Try it out.

Go to the Test panel on the right, and enter small. You can see it was detected as an entity #parcel-size.

Change to the JSON view, and you can see that the enrichments were added, based on the value of the entity.

You now want to define an intent so the bot can know when the customer is asking for pricing information.

You can also fork this intent.

1. Go to cai-adoption / ups-bot / intents / @rate-parcel.

2. Just above the list of values – NOT at the top of the page (that is to fork the entire project) – click Fork.

   Select your project, and click Fork.

3. Go back to your project and click the Train tab (refresh the page if necessary), and you now see the @rate-parcel intent.

   Click into it, and see all its expressions, that is, all the ways someone could indicate they want a price for a package.

   Notice that some of the expressions only indicate a need to price a package, others include the size, and still others include a location.

   

4. Test the intent by clicking the Test flap on the right of the screen.

   Enter the following:

   Conversation Copy

   I want to send a parcel to 102 place Stanislas, 44100 Nantes with L size box

   You see that the bot detected the intent of the customer – to ship a package – and was able to extract #location (a built-in entity) and #parcel-size (the entity you just created).

   

Build a skill that:

• Requires the bot to have a location and parcel size.
• Makes an API call to get a map of the location.
• Displays the map plus the price from memory based on the enrichments you created earlier.

In this step, you’ll simply create the skill and add the trigger.

1. In the Build tab, click Add Skill and create a new business skill called price-parcel, and click Add

   

2. Click the new skill (it may be hiding under the track-parcel skill), and in the Triggers subtab, add the @rate-parcel intent, and click Save.

   

You must require that the bot knows the size and location, and in addition get a confirmation of either yes or no.

1. In the Requirements subtab, add the requirements as follows:

   • Add 2 requirements: #parcel-size and #location

   • Add another requirement list, and add 2 requirements: @yes and @no

   • Between @yes and @no, click And to change it to Or.

   Your requirements should look like this:

   

2. Now add a message in case the parcel size is missing.

   • Expand the #parcel-size requirement, and click New Replies in the case the requirement is missing.

   • Click Send Message | Carousel.

   • Add a card for the user to specify the small size, adding a Postback button type, and adding the texts as show below. When done, click Add Card.

     

   • Add additional cards for each size.

     

   • Click Save and then Back.

3. Now add a message in case the location is missing.

   • Expand the #location requirement, and click New Replies in the case the requirement is missing.

   • Click Send Message | Text, and enter the following for the message:

     Message Copy

     What is the delivery address? (France ONLY)

   • Click Save and then Back.

4. Now let’s require that the location be in France.

   • Expand the #location requirement, and click Add validators to handle errors.

     

   • Click in the field next to New Replies, and select #location.

     

     Select .country, click Save, select is-not, enter fr, and then press Enter.

     

   • Click New Replies for the new validation, and create an error message with the following text:

     Message Copy

     The delivery address is not in France. Can you give me another address?

A nice feature would be to get a Google map for the delivery location. Our application deployed to SAP Business Technology Platform also has a call for retrieving a Google map based on the location in memory.

Your default endpoint is already set up because you used it earlier to retrieve tracking information.

1. In the price-parcel skill, go to the Requirements subtab.

2. Expand the #location requirement, and click New Replies if #location is complete.

   

3. Click Connect External Service | Call Webhook

   • For the URL, enter: /get_location_thumbnail
   • Click Save.
   • Click Back.

You can open a chat and test this, by entering: How much to send package to Paris

1. In the requirements, click New Replies (if @Yes or @No are missing).

2. Click Send Message | Quick Replies.

3. For the message, add:

   Message Copy

   Are you sure?

4. Click Add Quick Reply twice, and create a reply for Yes and a reply for No.

   

5. Click Save and Back.

Finally, you want to display to the customer the results of the query.

1. Go to the Actions subtab, and click Add New Message Group.

2. Click Add Condition.

   • Select _memory
   • Enter .yes.
   • Click Save.
   • Select is-present.

   

3. Click Send Message | Text, and enter the following for the message:

   Message Copy

   A {{memory.parcel-size.name}} parcel sent to {{memory.location.formatted}} will cost ${{memory.parcel-size.price}}

   Click Save.

4. Since the conversation is complete, reset the memory so the customer can start a new conversation.

   • Click Update Conversation | Edit Memory.
   • Select Reset all memory.
   • Click Save.

   

If you want, add a reply if the customer says no. Currently, it will just say No reply.

Here’s an example of a conversation with the bot. Start off by saying this:

I'd like to send a package to 52 Place de la Madeleine, 75011 Paris

Test it by just indicating the intent (i.e., How much to send package?), giving it a non-French address, giving it the size in the right away, and other variations.