Shelf Answer Assist End-to-End Guide
Document Version History
Version number | Modified by | Modifications made | Date modified | Status |
1.0 | Shelf | Initial release of the document. | 26 October 2022 | Expired |
1.1 | Shelf | Version of the guide was updated to absorb new structure of the document and the Answer Assist configuration and use flow. | 11 November 2022 | Expired |
1.2 | Shelf | New section was added on the IVR configuration via context mappings. Figures were renumbered accordingly to accommodate new imagery. | 27 January 2023 | Expired |
1.3 | Shelf | Enabling and configuring the Artificial Intelligence Suggestions section was expanded with a subsection about scoreAttributes parameter and its configuration. | 1 February 2023 | Expired |
1.4 | Shelf | Multiple amendments and additions made to the document. New chapter added to describe the new Shelf Search Suggestions feature. New chapters added to describe the Interaction History feature. | 13 June 2024 | Active |
Document Purpose
- Give the users of the Shelf Answer Assist product (hereinafter - AA or the Product) an understanding of its capabilities so that they can utilize the Product to meet their business needs.
- Provide the AA users with information on how to enable its various features.
1. Answer Assist and Its Purpose
- Increases agents’ efficiency and productivity
Search suggestions featured in Answer Assist help agents find precise answers and surface them to customers directly in the interface of the system where it is integrated - Optimizes admin effort and service quality
Thanks to a simple yet robust Answer Assist configuration, Shelf makes it easier for your administrative team to help you help your organization’s customers in a faster and more efficient manner - Ensures long-term customer satisfaction
Shelf’s extensibility enables a more complete understanding of agent performance, from knowledge effectiveness to overall customer interactions, facilitating continuous improvement
Shelf Answer Assist’s Difference
- Suggestions: The key functionality of Answer Assist that provides your agents with a quick and easy way to answer your customers’ questions.
- Favorites: Agents can save specific content and frequently used content to Favorites. This functionality offers faster and easier access to the content agents use everyday.
- Search: Another fundamental feature of the Shelf Answer Assist; it identifies specific keywords and phrases within documents, PDFs, Word, PPT, Excel, images, Wiki pages, and Articles; your agents can search content by various and multiple filters such as date added, recently changed, tags, categories, content type, file type, favorites, and ratings.
- Feedback: There are two types of Feedback in Answer Assist - feedback on content and feedback on suggestions. Feedback on content allows using your agents’ knowledge of the content efficiency. Their Feedback is critical to keeping content accurate and up to date. Agents can submit content feedback directly from Answer Assist, so content managers can quickly implement recommended improvements and updates. Meanwhile, feedback on suggestions enables Shelf to improve the accuracy and relevance of AI suggestions via your agents’ feedback on suggestions they receive. A quick upvote or downvote helps improve the algorithm to make better suggestions over time.
- Announcements: Through this functionality, your agents can be notified of the important content changes or updates. This feature can be also used to ensure and track compliance of your agents with your organization policies. Content managers can see which users receive and acknowledge specific updates. Agents can access Announcements and confirm they have read important information directly inside the Answer Assist widget.
- Links: This functionality lets your agents link content they used to answer customers’ questions to interactions with such customers. It might be needed if the compliance or any other regulation or policy of your organization demands agents to specify what exactly is used to respond to customer requests.
2. Content and Context in Answer Assist
Before you proceed with making yourself familiar with other details on Answer Assist, you need to get an understanding of what the Content, Context and Content Mapping mean in terms of Answer Assist and why Shelf needs them to enable effective operation of the Answer Assist product.
2.1 Content
In Shelf’s terminology, content is any Gem created or stored on the Shelf Platform. It can be of various types. See the figure below for the types of content in Shelf.
Figure 1. Gem types in Shelf
- Gem type: in addition to the Gem types shown in the figure above, there is also the Custom type of Gems that can be configured to your specific needs, and the other two Gem types which are enabled upon request by Shelf administrators - FAQ and Decision Tree. Once these two types of Gems are enabled for your organization, they can be enabled for the needed users - content managers or agents.
- Gem category: this option allows you to assign any needed Gem any needed category(-ies) for a better grouping, filtering, or classificationFigure 2. Viewing and managing Gem categories in Shelf
- Gem tag: this option helps you better cover use cases for your content and allows you to assign any needed Gem any needed tag(s).Figure 3. Viewing and managing Gem tags in Shelf
2.2 Context
- your customer’s country, because different countries have different conditions on payments or refunds,
- your customer’s segment, because you can group your customers by their importance for your organization’s business and establish different request handling procedures for different customer groups,
- your business segment, because you can establish different request handling procedures for different business units of your organization.
- any other classification or categorization data you treat as important for distinguishing your customers or their domains.
3. Shelf Answer Assist Use Flow
3.1. Preparing the Shelf Answer Assist for Use
3.1.1. Shelf Admin Panel
Once logged in, go to the Admin Panel.
Figure 4. Accessing the Admin Panel in Shelf
Figure 5. Accessing the Answer Assist Configuration menu
Answer Assist Configurator SettingsFigure 6. Viewing the Answer Assist configuration(s)
Figure 6. Viewing the Answer Assist configuration(s)
Creating and Deleting the Answer Assist Configuration
Figure 7. Starting the Answer Assist configuration procedure
Figure 8. Confirming the Answer Assist configuration deletion
Enabling and Disabling Suggestion Sources for Answer Assist
Figure 9. Enabling/disabling suggestion sources for Answer Assist
Figure 10. Selecting libraries for your suggestion source
Enabling Features and Tabs for Answer Assist
Figure 11. Enabling the Feedback feature and the Announcements and Favorites tabs for Answer Assist
All these settings are performed by means of JSON code inserted into the Code Editor field.
Setting and changing the order of the Answer Assist widget tabs
{
"tabs": {
"order": [
"suggestions" ,
"favorites" ,
"search" ,
"gem" ,
"announcements" ,
"links" ,
]
}
}
Figure 12. JSON code for the default order of tabs in Answer Assist
Figure 13. Viewing the default order of tabs in the Answer Assist widget
- - Suggestions tab
- - Favorites tab
- - Search tab
- - Gem tab
- - Announcements tab
- - Links tab
- - Personal settings tab
Figure 14. Changing the order of tabs in the Answer Assist widget
Figure 15. Verifying the changed order of tabs in the Answer Assist widget
- - Gem tab
- - Suggestions tab
- - Announcements tab
- - Favorites tab
- - Search tab
- - Links tab
- - Personal settings tab
Setting the default opening Answer Assist widget tab
Figure 16. Search as the default opening tab in the Answer Assist widget
Figure 17. Changing the default opening tab in the Answer Assist widget
Figure 18. Links as the default opening tab in the Answer Assist widget
Enabling the Gem Linking (Links) feature
"contentLinking": {
"enabled": true
}
Figure 19. Enabling the Links feature for the Answer Assist widget
Figure 20. Viewing the Answer Assist widget without Links tab
Enabling and Configuring the Artificial Intelligence Suggestions
Figure 22. Viewing the scoreAttribute block in Answer Assist’s Advanced settings
Enabling and Configuring the Context-Mapped Suggestions
- Once logged in to your Shelf account with the Admin role credentials, go to the Admin Panel and access the Content Mappings feature and page, respectively, there.Figure 23. Accessing the Shelf Admin Panel
Figure 24. Accessing the Content Mappings feature in Shelf
- Once on the Content Mappings page, create new mappings for your content (Gems) either (1) manually by clicking the ADD MAPPING button and then populating the respective cells in the Content Mappings table grid, or (2) by uploading a prepared CSV file shown below via the UPLOAD CSV button.
Figure 25. Preparing the CSV file for content mappings
Figure 26. Adding new content mappings, manually or via CSV upload
When configuring content mappings for the Shelf Answer Assist’s context-mapped suggestions, make sure to properly enter correct mapping values, in accordance with the table below.
Table 1. Content mapping values in Shelf
Field | Type | Description | Example |
intent | string (required 1 - 256 characters) | Uniq code for the system combination of the intentGroupId and intent | Breeds |
intentGroupId | string (required 1 - 256 characters) | Useful to group several intents by some criteria (eg by market, specific topic, interaction channel etc.) | dogs |
mappingType | enum: CONTENT ITEM | SEARCH | Auto-populated based on the mappingValue | |
mappingValue | URL (string or array of strings split by ,) | URL of search results, single gem or list of gems for an Intent | https://domain.shelf.io/?cp=1&fi=identifier&it=card&ps=20&sb=CREATED_DATE&sl=en&so=DESC&tg={{breed}} (exemplary Search results link) |
Figure 27. Shelf Search Results page explained
Figure 28. Viewing the filtered search for content in Shelf
Figure 29. Viewing the Gem page to be used for the Intent
Figure 30. Saving the new content mapping
- Go to the Admin Panel and navigate to the Answer Assist Configurator feature.
Figure 31. Accessing the Answer Assist configurations
- In the Answer Assist Configurator window, open the needed Answer Assist configuration, navigate to the Advancedtab and add the JSON configuration for your context-mapped suggestions in Answer Assist integrated into your platform.
Figure 32. Accessing the Advanced tab in Answer Assist Configurator in Shelf
"contextSuggestions": {
"contextTypes": [
{
"accessor": "dogBreedStr",
"options": [
{
"value": "Large breeds",
"displayName": "Large breeds"
},
{
"value": "Medium breeds",
"displayName": "Medium breeds"
},
{
"value": "Small breeds",
"displayName": "Small breeds"
}
],
"id": "dog",
"color": "#f6b73c",
"type": "list",
"displayName": "Dog"
}
],
"enabled": true,
"defaultIntentGroupId": "dogs"
}
}
- accessor - the id of the conversation attribute that comes directly from the external integration and depends on the external system and configurations in it; more details can be found in integration-specific guides
- defaultIntentGroupId - comes from the Content Mappings configurations
- id - unique name of the context
- options - list of context to mapping configurations
- value - should match a context value set in an external system where Answer Assist is integrated; it is highly dependent on configurations implemented in such an external system
- intent - comes from Content Mappings
- color - a color of the context filter field in the hexadecimal format
- type - a required value that sets the type of the context filter field
- displayName - will be visible as the dropdown option for agents in the Shelf Answer Assist widget
Figure 33. Adding the needed JSON in the Code Editor of the Advanced tab
Configuring IVR Support via the Answer Assist Context Mappings
Figure 34. Creating an IVR-specific context mapping in Shelf
- There is only one Gem offered to you in suggestions
- No suggestions have been triggered manually in the Answer Assist widget
- No other suggestions have been displayed before that Gem.
Figure 35. Viewing the single suggestion in the Gem tab
Configuring Multifield Support in the Answer Assist Context-Mapped Suggestions
"contextTypes": [
{
"accessor": "dogBreedStr",
"options": [
{
"value": "Large breeds",
"displayName": "Large breeds"
},
{
"value": "Medium breeds",
"displayName": "Medium breeds"
},
{
"value": "Small breeds",
"displayName": "Small breeds"
}
],
"id": "dog",
"color": "#f6b73c",
"type": "list",
"displayName": "Dog Breeds"
},
{
"options": [
{
"value": "hunting dog",
"displayName": "Hunting dogs"
},
{
"value": "mountain dog",
"displayName": "Mountain dogs"
},
{
"value": "soviet dog",
"displayName": "Soviet dogs"
},
{
"value": "pet dog",
"displayName": "Pet dogs"
},
{
"value": "working dog",
"displayName": "Working dogs"
}
],
"id": "dog type",
"color": "#f6b73c",
"type": "list",
"displayName": "Dog Type"
},
{
"accessor": "dogBreedStr",
"options": [
{
"value": "Large Dogs",
"displayName": "Large dogs"
},
{
"value": "Working Dogs",
"displayName": "Working dogs"
}
],
"id": "Size",
"color": "#f6b73c",
"type": "list",
"displayName": "Dog Size"
}
],
"combinations": [
{
"conditions": [
{
"context": "dog",
"templateVariableName": "breed",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "dog type",
"templateVariableName": "dog type",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "Size",
"templateVariableName": "dog size",
"value": "*"
}
],
"intentGroupId": "dogs",
"intent": "Breeds"
}
],
"enabled": true,
"defaultIntentGroupId": "dogs"
{
"conditions": [
{
"context": "dog",
"templateVariableName": "breed",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "dog type",
"templateVariableName": "dog type",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "Size",
"templateVariableName": "dog size",
"value": "*"
}
],
"intentGroupId": "dogs",
"intent": "Breeds"
}
],
"enabled": true,
"defaultIntentGroupId": "dogs"
{
"context": "dog",
"templateVariableName": "breed",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "dog type",
"templateVariableName": "dog type",
"value": "*"
},
{
"context": "Size",
"templateVariableName": "dog size",
"value": "*"
Figure 37. Viewing the content suggested with the multifield support feature and the AND logic
Figure 38. Viewing the content suggested with the multifield support feature and the OR logic
Figure 39. Viewing tags and categories assigned to a Gem in Shelf
If tgo=and is used in a content mapping, only the matching Gems that contain all of the assigned tags are returned in the Answer Assist suggestions.
Configuring Context Filter Fields in Answer Assist
By default, once enabled, the context suggestion filters are displayed on top in the Answer Assist widget as shown in the figure below.
Figure 40. Viewing the default context suggestion filter fields in Answer Assist
"visibility": "hidden" | "menu" | "top"
}
Configuring Suggestion Labels
Figure 44. Disabling the display of context labels for suggestions in Answer Assist
Figure 45. Viewing the suggestions in Answer Assist without context labels
Enabling and Configuring Search Suggestions for Answer Assist
Figure 47. Accessing Answer Assist configuration in Shelf Admin Panel
"gptSearchSuggestions": {
"enabled": true
}Figure 48. Enabling Search Suggestions for your Answer Assist configuration
Enabling and Configuring Interaction History
Figure 49. Accessing the Interaction History feature in AA
"interactionHistory": {
"enabled": true
}Figure 51. Enabling the Interaction History feature and tab for Answer Assist
Previewing the Answer Assist Widget in Shelf
Figure 52. Using the Answer Assist Preview feature in the Answer Assist Configurator
Enabling the Public Share Feature for Answer Assist
Figure 53. Enabling the Public Share feature in the Admin Panel
Figure 54. Granting the Public sharing permissions for users
Multiple Configurations Support in Answer Assist
Figure 55. Viewing the list of available Answer Assist configurations in Shelf
3.2. Shelf Answer Assist Features Overview
- During an interaction with a customer, you start the Answer Assist widget and get the relevant Suggestions (both AI-matched and context-mapped suggestions)
- If no Suggestions are provided by Answer Assist, you use its Search feature to look up for the needed help articles (Gems)
- Before running a manual search to find content, you may use the Search Suggestions feature directly in the Search tab of the Answer Assist widget and receive the list of three most suitable suggestions based on your interaction with the customer
- Upon finding the suitable article, you view it in the Gem tab of the Shelf Answer Assist widget and can also link the article to the interaction from tooltips and open it in Shelf. You can also open any found article (Gem) not in Answer Assist’s Gem tab but in a new tab of your browser for a quick preview via the combination of Command (MacOS) or Control button on your keyboard and the left button of your mouse.
- After reviewing the article, you provide your feedback on it
- If you find the content in the article meaningful and helpful, you can share it with your customers or colleagues using the Public Share feature
- In addition to sharing the article, you can add it to Favorites for future reference; you can also remove other previously added article(s) from favorites
- Check the Announcements tab for any updates in the content sharing policy or the customer support regulations etc.
- Work with the Links tab in Answer Assist: check whether you have linked all the needed articles to the relevant interaction, unlink no longer needed articles etc.
3.2.1. Answer Assist Features Usage
Receiving the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Context-Mapped Suggestions
One of the Shelf Answer Assist’s features is to provide AI-matched content suggestions to your agents to allow them to address your customers’ questions in a quicker and more efficient fashion.
Figure 56. Receiving suggestions in Answer Assist integrated into Genesys Cloud
Figure 57. Viewing the Feedback tools
Working with the Context-Mapped Suggestions in Answer Assist
Figure 58. Checking the context-mapped suggestions in Answer Assist in Kustomer
Figure 59. Using the context filtering options in Answer Assist
Figure 60. Viewing the filtered context-mapped content suggestions in Answer Assist
Using Search Suggestions to Obtain Relevant Content Recommendations
Figure 61. Viewing system-generated search suggestions in Shelf Answer Assist
Figure 62. Viewing content items relevant to the selected search suggestion
Figure 63. Viewing search suggestions for a changed conversation context in Shelf Answer Assist
Looking for Content using the Search Feature and Search Tab
Figure 64. Viewing the Search tab in Answer Assist
- Library
You can limit the search by some specific library only. For this purpose, click the field and select the needed library from the dropdown list. If the Federated Search feature is enabled for your Answer Assist instance, you can select multiple libraries.Figure 66. Selecting the needed library(s) to search in
- Content Type
You can select which type of content you want to look for. For this purpose, click the field and select the needed option(s) from the dropdown list.Figure 67. Selecting the type of the searched content
- File Format
You can also select what type the content you look for needs to be. To do so, click the field and select the checkbox(es) next to the needed file type option(s).Figure 68. Selecting the file format for your searched content
- Language
If, like in the case of the similar filter in the Suggestions tab, multilanguage support is enabled for Answer Assist on the Shelf end, you may look for content in some certain language only. For this purpose, click the field and select the needed option from the dropdown list that appears.Figure 69. Selecting the language of the search content
- Source
You can indicate the source of the content you are looking for. It can be either Shelf or some third-party or external platform, or any. Click the field and select the needed option from the dropdown list.Figure 70. Selecting the content source - Added by
If you know who has added the content you are looking for, you can indicate this user in your search to narrow it. For this purpose, click the menu icon in this field. In the field that appears next, look for the needed user(s) in the search bar. The search-as-you-type feature is supported and yields the suggested user names under the search bar. Once the needed user(s) has/have been found, select them and click the SEARCH button to trigger the content search or the Back icon to go back to the advanced search settings.You can select as many as 20 users to your search, using comma as a separator. You can also see how many content items have been added by each of the users. The count is shown next to the user’s name. Use the up and down arrows to sort the users in alphabetic order from A to Z or from Z to A, or sort them by the number of gems they have added, in ascending or descending order.Figure 71. Selecting users who added the content to refine the search
- Rating
You may refine your search by indicating the rating you want the content to be. For this purpose, click the field and select the needed option from the dropdown list.Figure 72. Selecting rating of the search content
- Category
It is also possible to look for content of a certain category only. The category in this case is one of the categories assigned to Gems on the Shelf side. To select the needed category(ies), click the menu icon and, in the window that appears next, search for the needed one(s). The search-as-you-type feature is supported, and the results are displayed below the search bar. All the available categories are also displayed under the search bar. Select the needed category(ies) and click the SEARCH button to trigger the content search or the Back icon to go back to the advanced search settings.Figure 73. Searching for content from the specified categories
- Tag
Finally, you can look for content that has only some specific tag(s). The tag in this case is one of the tags assigned to Gems on the Shelf side. To select the needed tag(s), click the menu icon and, in the window that appears next, search for the needed one(s). The search-as-you-type feature is supported, and the results are displayed below the search bar. All the available tags are also displayed under the search bar. Select the needed tag(s) and click the SEARCH button to trigger the content search or the Back icon to go back to the advanced search settings.Figure 74. Searching for content with the specified tags only
Figure 75. Viewing the content search results
Working with Content in the Gem Tab
Figure 77. Viewing the Gem tab in Answer Assist
- Actions panel
- Breadcrumbs
- Gem title, description, and content block
- Connections
- Gem details (Gem metadata)
- Feedback tools (if the Feedback feature is enabled for your Answer Assist configuration)
Using the Actions Panel
Figure 78. Viewing the Actions Panel in the Gem tab in Answer Assist
Linking/Unlinking Gems to/from Interactions
Figure 79. Linking a Gem to an interaction in the Gem tab
Figure 80. Verifying the Gem linking to the interaction in Answer Assist
- Enter the needed Interaction ID in the respective field. The ADD button becomes enabled.
- Enter an ID or URL address of the needed Gem in the respective field that appears on the screen and click the LINK button. You can find both the Gem URL and ID in the address bar once you are viewing the needed Gem on Shelf. See the figure below for details.
Figure 81. Finding Gem URL and/or ID on Shelf
- Once you have found and entered either the Gem URL or ID, click the LINK button.
Figure 82. Linking a Gem to an interaction in Answer Assist
Figure 83. Unlinking the Gem from the Interaction
- Hover over this Gem to reveal the Unlink icon next to it.
- Click the Unlink icon to remove the Gem from the list of Gems linked to the interaction. When the Gem becomes unlinked, you will see the respective notification.
- You can also revert the Gem unlinking by clicking the UNDO button in the above notification. Note that you can revert the Gem unlinking only during 5 seconds after you have unlinked the gem. This is how long the Gem is unlinked notification remains on the screen before disappearing.
Figure 84. Unlinking a Gem from an Interaction in Answer Assist
Adding/Removing Gems to/from Favorites
Figure 85. Adding the Gem to Favorites in Answer Assist
Figure 86. Verifying the Gem addition to Favorites
Opening Gems in Shelf
Figure 87. Opening the Gem in Shelf
A new tab/window will open in your browser where the selected Gem is displayed in Shelf.
Figure 88. Viewing the Gem in Shelf
Sharing Gems to Public
Figure 89. Sharing the Gem publicly
Figure 90. Viewing the publicly shared Gem
Figure 91. Publicly sharing the Gem linked to the currently opened Gem
Using Breadcrumbs
Figure 92. Viewing the breadcrumbs in the Gem tab in Answer Assist
Using the Gem Block
Viewing Gems and their Content
Figure 93. Viewing the Gem and its content in Answer Assist
Copying/Sending Gem’s Content
Figure 94. Copying or sending the Gem content
Providing Feedback on Gems
Figure 95. Leaving the feedback on the Gem in Answer Assist
Using the Connections in the Gem Tab
Figure 96. Viewing Gem’s connections in Shelf
Figure 97. Using the Connections block in Answer Assist’s Gem tab
Using the Gem Details in the Gem Tab
Figure 98. Viewing the Gem details in the Gem tab of Answer Assist
Using the Personal Settings Tab in Answer Assist
Using the Announcements Feature in Answer Assist
Figure 100. Viewing the Announcements tab contents
Figure 101. Viewing the announcement that require confirmation
Using the Interaction History Feature in Answer Assist
Figure 102. Opening and viewing the Interaction History tab in the Answer Assist widget
Figure 103. Viewing the content sorting tooltip in the Interaction History tab
- location from which a relevant Gem has been opened
- date and time when this Gem has been opened from and the time when it happened will be indicated by corresponding labels and tooltips with more detailed explanations
- user(s) who opened the Gem(s), as all the Gems in the Interaction History tab are sorted under their viewer names.
Figure 104. Interaction History data explained
Figure 105. Opening and viewing Gem from the Interaction History tab in the Gem tab
Figure 106. Viewing DT Gem with the collapsed steps in the Interaction History tab
Figure 107. Viewing DT Gem with the expanded steps in the Interaction History tab
Figure 108. Viewing DT Gem on the last opened step in the Gem tab
Figure 109. Viewing the existing Gem in the Interaction History tab
Figure 110. Viewing the deleted Gem in the Interaction History tab
Figure 111. Display of the Gem with no permissions to view