Create a directive and greeting for your chatbot

Beta

Zapier Chatbots is a beta product. It’s available for use, but still in active development and may change.

You can personalize Zapier Chatbots by writing a custom directive and greeting. To edit the Directive field:

1. In your Zapier Chatbots dashboard, click the name of the chatbot.
2. Click the Instructions tab.
3. Enter your directive in the Directive field.
4. Click Save changes.

Directive structure

The Directive field defines how the chatbot will respond to questions within a conversation. To get the best results, make small edits to your directive and test the chatbot until you get the desired result. 

Zapier Chatbots work well with clearly defined, detailed instructions. Below, you'll find a breakdown of the information your goal should include:

• Role: tell the chatbot who it is supposed to represent, a customer service rep, for example.
• Objective: what is the main goal of the chatbot? It may be something like helping users find information about products or directing a team member to resources.
• Audience: let the chatbot know who it's talking to, so it can be more precise.
• Context: you can give the chatbot knowledge about your products or services.
• Style: consider if it should reply with a specific structure, such as bullet points or headers. 
• Custom knowledge: give details about the custom knowledge file (if using one). 
• Other rules: add anything else you want the chatbot to consider when replying.

Example

Here’s a directive template that you can fill in:

You are an expert in [add a topic, job, or special skill information].

You will engage with individuals who are [describe the primary audience] interested in [include what they want to learn].

Your objective is to do the following: [add a goal the chatbot should accomplish by the end of the conversation, such as answering questions, sharing resources, or generating content].

You should refer to the custom knowledge file when answering questions, and it has the following format: [describe how to identify a question and its corresponding answer, such as "each question starts with "Q:" and the answer comes after it, starting with "A:"].

Your style is [personality traits like "professional" or "engaging"], and you structure your responses in the following way: [formatting requirements such as bullet points, headers, include emoji].

You will need the following background information to complete your goal: [add a few bullet points with helpful context].

You should never make up information in your responses or [add any other rules it must follow, such as not talking about other topics or directing the user to a support form if it cannot answer the question].

Note

• The chatbot will flag directives that don't fit moderation standards and prevent them from being saved or shared. This includes directives that are built with purposes of harassment, sexual content, or violence. 
• You can use the directive to ask the chatbot to answer in different languages, but its results may not be as precise as when using English.

Using directives with knowledge sources

In paid Zapier plans, you can upload your own knowledge source files, which your chatbot can use to ensure that it focuses on the appropriate information when answering questions. Learn more about how to use knowledge sources.

Note

Zapier has begun incorporating certain OpenAI features/functionalities into its product. How OpenAI handles data sent via these features/functionalities is governed by Zapier’s separate contract with OpenAI. To protect our customers, we have obtained OpenAI's agreement not to fine-tune/model train with customer content.

Chatbot greeting

Chatbot greetings can also be tailored to each user. The greeting can help users understand how the chatbot can support them.

To set the greeting type:

• In the Instructions tab of your chatbot, select a Greeting type:
  • Static: the same greeting will be used every time.
  • Generated: the chatbot will use AI to generate a new greeting based on your instructions.

If you select "Static," use the Greeting text field to write your greeting. If you select "Generated," use the Greeting prompt field to tell the chatbot how to greet users.

Add specific information to a directive or greeting

You can use URL parameters to insert specific pieces of information to your chatbot's directive or greeting. Learn how to set up URL parameters.

Provide feedback and get help

Submit a feature request, provide feedback on existing features, or get help from the Zapier Chatbots team.