Slackbot

As your company grows, so does the number of Slack channels for employees to ask questions, such as #sales-questions, #technical-support, and #ask-it. They can receive hundreds of questions per week, overwhelming the channel managers. Employees may wait hours or days for help while managers answer repetitive questions.

By automatically responding to questions asked in Slack, the Dashworks Slackbot can cut channel managers' time by up to 73%. This allows them to focus on more important issues while unblocking the rest of the team with instant responses.

Add to Channel

Once you've set up a Bot Account, you can invite the Dashworks Slackbot to a Slack channel.

1. First, invite the Bot Account email to the Slack channel by typing "/invite @[bot-account-name]". The Bot Account will be automatically added to the default channels for new members, and you'll need to invite it to other public or private channels. Adding the Bot Account to the channel will allow the Slackbot to search the conversations and files in this channel for its answers.

2. Finally, invite the Slackbot "APP" to the channel by typing "/invite @Dashworks." This will allow the Slackbot to respond to questions asked in the channel.

   

Once the Slackbot has been added, the Dashworks Slackbot will automatically detect and respond to questions asked in new threads. You can customize the Slackbot from the Bots page. This lets you provide guidelines to the AI using Instructions and toggle auto-responding.

Questions the Slackbot will not respond to

While the Slackbot is trained to detect and automatically respond to most questions, there are questions the Slackbot is configured to not respond to. This is expected behavior to ensure the Slackbot is not creating unnecessary noise in shared Slack channels. The Slackbot will not respond to:

• Questions that are directed to other members (i.e. -- "John, did you hear back from customer X about the open proposal?")

• Action-oriented questions (i.e., "Send an email to prospect X about the items we spoke about.")

Asking follow-up questions

You can ask Dashworks a follow-up question inside the thread by tagging it with "@Dashworks".

Resolving a question

Click "Yes" on Dashworks' response to mark the question as resolved. Once resolved, Dashworks will add a ✅ emoji to indicate that it's resolved.

Training Dashworks

If you think Dashworks' responses can be improved, you can provide it feedback by clicking on the Show More menu to help improve its responses for similar questions asked in the future. You can learn more about how you can train Dashworks here.

Other Ways to Use the Slackbot

If you prefer not to have Dashworks respond automatically to questions in the channel, you can adjust this setting on the Bots tab. Here are some other ways you can also use Dashworks in channels:

Tag @Dashworks

You can trigger a response from Dashworks by tagging it with "@Dashworks" in your question.

Ask Dashworks

You can also trigger the Dashworks Slackbot when another team member asks a question by selecting "Ask Dash AI" from the message actions menu.

Slack Workflows

You can also set up Slack Workflows if you want additional configuration, such as structured form inputs, or trigger multiple actions after a question is asked in the channel.

Here are the steps to creating a workflow:

1. Go to the "Integrations" tab on the channel's top and select "Add a Workflow".

2. Select "Create Workflow' and then "From a link in Slack".

3. As the first step in this workflow, select "Forms" -> "Collect info in a form" on the right side. You can customize this form per your requirements. Include a "Long Answer" field with a descriptive name, such as "What is your question?". This field will send the user's question to Dashworks. Mark this step as required.

4. As the second step, select "Messages" -> "Send a message to a channel". Select the channel where you want to add the Slackbot. Under "Add a message," add "@user-who-asked-the-question: @dashworks {user question}", replacing [Variable X] with the appropriate variable by clicking "Insert variable".

5. Add any additional actions you want to take, then publish the workflow.

6. Copy the link to the workflow and add it as a bookmark in the Slack channel.

7. Users will be directed to the form created in Step 3 when they click on the bookmark. After submitting the form, a new thread will be created with the question, and Dashworks will respond.

DM

If you have questions that you don't want to ask in a public or shared channel, you can use the Slackbot to send a direct message (DM) instead. This way, you can ask questions privately without sharing them with your team. To access your DMs in Slack, go to the 'Apps' section in your individual Slack instance and find the Dashworks app. You don't need to tag anyone in your message to get a response from the Slackbot. All responses will be private, and you can access all the information you have permission to see in your company's knowledge base. To start a DM, open a direct message with the Slackbot, just like you would with a teammate, and ask any work-related question.