To use the Streamchat for Facebook Messenger Hootsuite app, you must first create a Facebook Page to use with the app. Once you have finished that, you can install the app in Hootsuite, and monitor communications with Facebook users. 

1. Installing the Hootsuite app

Once you have your Facebook page created, install the Streamchat Hootsuite app from the Hootsuite app directory, and add it to a stream:

Streamchat allows you to create Line or Facebook Messenger chatbots. Select Facebook Messenger from the dropdown menu to continue creating your Messenger chatbot. 

Next, click Login with Facebook to authorize the app on Facebook:

 

Now, select one of your Facebook pages, and, the timezone that your bot is in, and click Create Bot:

Since your bot hasn't received any message yet, your stream will be empty:

As new messages are sent to your bot, they will appear in-stream:

With your bot all setup and ready to go in Hootsuite, you can now monitor and respond to messages send by Facebook users to your bot

3. Using the Hootsuite app

App Menu

At the top of the app, is the app's menubar. In it are 4 options:

  Mark all messages read

Click this option to mark all of the messages in the current stream read. 

  Filter results

Choose to only view results from specific users, as well as filter to view only unread messages or all messages, i.e. both read and unread.

When you type in the Filter by User text box, the app will automatically search for usernames that match, and display a menu from which you can select a specific user's name.

You can also choose to filter for handover requests only, making it easy to know when a user is asking for a human operator to chat with. 

 Autoresponders/Content

Create Autoresponders that allow you to automatically send replies to messages received by users. You can also create content to use with your Autoresponders.

  Settings

Under the settings menu, you can choose to switch to another bot, if you have one. And, if you are the owner of the bot (i.e. the first to add the bot to Hootsuite) you will see a timezone setting. The timezone setting is used to determine when to send autoresponders. There are also settings for how to handle handovers to human operators.

  Menu

Under the Menu option, you can find links to this document, as well as support.

In-stream options

In-stream, there are many options you can choose from to interact with the message:

Click the check-mark  icon to mark the current message as read.

Click the reply  icon to open a new window where you can view all messages from this user, as well as send a message to them. 

Clicking the user's name or profile image will also open a new window where you can view the user's messages in addition to sending them a new message.

Also, if the user has requested a handover to a human agent, the item will be highlighted in-stream:

For more on handovers, see the handover section below.

User message stream

After clicking the reply icon, or the user's name or profile image, the user's message stream will be displayed:

You can scroll through all of the messages sent by the user, as well as enter a new message to send to this user. Clicking the drop down menu will display a list of your saved content. Choose one of the selections and the content will be inserted into the message entry area.

Once you have your reply message entered, and are ready to send, simply click the  icon to send the message.

5. Autoresponders and Content.

Clicking the  icon in the app's menubar will open up the Autoresponder/Content window. When you open it for the first time, you will be asked to create your first content. 

Click the Content tab to create your first content. 

There are three types of content currently available: Rich, Text and Image. Text content allows you to enter text only, and image content allows one image only. However, with Rich content, you can combine an image, with a title and subtitle, as well as up to three buttons.

There are 4 different types of buttons to choose from:

Handover

When a user wants to chat with a human operator, they can click this button and be transferred. If you have selected to use Hootsuite Inbox for handovers, the conversation will appear there. If not, you can respond to the user in the Streamchat stream.

Call

Enter a phone number that the user can reach you at. Be sure to preface the number with a plus sign and your country code. For example, numbers in the United States would start with +1, and then be followed by the phone number, including your area code. 

Link

Enter a link/url to content you want to display to the user. The link will be opened up in a new browser tab.

Content

Select from content that you have already created, and the content will be automatically sent to the user when they click. With content you can easily create a mini-web site within messenger. 

Once you have entered everything to your liking, click the Save button, and the content will be saved. After that, you will be returned to the content list:

Click the trashcan  icon to delete the content. Click the pencil  icon to edit it.

Now that you have created content, you can move on to creating your first Autoresponder. Click the Autoresponder tab to display the Create New Autoresponder page:

Autoresponder Types

There are two Autoresponder types: Message and Handover. Message Autoresponders are sent in response to a message sent to your bot. Handover Autoresponders are sent when a user clicks a handover button in rich content. There are two default handover autoresponders, one will be sent during your open hours and the other during your closed hours. You can customize the default handovers, but you cannot delete them.

Handover requests will be highlighted in-stream For Message and Handover Autoresponders, you can also determine when the auto-response is sent using filters for Date, Time of Day. For Message autoresponders you can also specify keywords that must be in the message sent by the user before the autoresponder will be sent.

Date Filtering

Under the Always send? menu, you will find two options: Yes, always send, and No, only between select dates. If you select always send, the Autoresponder will not check the current date to determine whether or not to send the response. If you select only between select dates, a date range option will appear. Click in it to display a calendar on which you can select a date range:

Time of Day Filtering

Under the Send at any time of day? menu, you will find two options: Yes, any time of the day and No, only between select times. If you select Yes, the Autoresponder will not check the time of day to determine whether or not to send the response. If you select No, a time range option will appear from which you can select the time of day during which you would like this response sent:

Phrase/Keyword Filtering

Using Phrase/Keyword filtering, you can enter text that will be searched for in messages sent to your bot from Facebook users. If the text is found, the response will be sent to the user. The app will search for the entire text. For example, if you enter Lunch menu in the Phrase/Keyword setting, it will match on:

Please send me your lunch menu

Do you have a lunch menu you could send me?

However, it will not match on:

Do you have a menu?

Finally, under the Select Content option, select the content you would like to use for the response sent to the user.

Mixed Filtering

You can use a mix of any combination of Date, Time and Keyword filtering, or no filtering at all, in an Autoresponder. All of the filtering conditions must be met before the response is sent to the user. 

Frequency

The Frequency setting allows you to determine how often an Autoresponder can be sent to a recipient. You can choose from 

1. Always send - user will receive this autoresponse every time they send a message to your bot
2. Send only once to a user - user will only ever receive this autoresponse once
3. Send maximum once every 24 hours - user will receive this autoresponse only once in a 24 hour period
4. Send maximum once every 7 days - user will receive this autoresponse only once in a 7 day period
5. Send maximum once every 30 days - user will receive this autoresponse only once in a 30 day period

Saving your Autoresponder

After you have configured your Autoresponder, click the Save button to save the Autoresponder and then be taken back to the Autoresponder list:

After creating a new Autoresponder, it will not be Active. Clicking the box in the Active column will make the Autoresponder active and start sending it in response to new user messages received.

NOTE: If you have more than one Autoresponder that matches for a message sent by a user, multiple Autoresponders will be sent. Also, you can only have one active Follower Autoresponder at a time. 

Default Content and Autoresponders

There are two default contents and autoresponders for handling handovers during the open and closed hours for your business. These cannot be deleted, though you can change the hours to send and the text of the content to match your company's requirements.

6. Handovers

Streamchat can handle handovers in two ways:

1. In-stream
2. Hootsuite's Inbox

In-stream Handovers

For the first, simply setup a handover autoresponder as described above and watch for Handover Request messages like this in your Streamchat stream:

Hootsuite Inbox Handovers

If you want to use Hootsuite's Inbox to manage all handover conversations, you must setup Streamchat to handle the handover properly. To do so, first, click the settings menu option in Streamchat's menu, and select the Yes, handover conversations to Inbox option from the Handover menu:

Next, you will have to setup your Facebook page to properly handle conversation handovers. First click Settings on your Facebook page. Next, click Messenger Platform in the menu on the left side of the page. Scroll down to General Settings, and select Responses are partially automated, with some support by people. This will allow Streamchat to handover the conversation thread to Hootsuite Inbox when the user requests it.

Next, scroll down to Connected Apps, and make sure that both Hootsuite and Streamchat are connected to your page:

If Hootsuite isn't connected, you will need to add your Facebook page to Hootsuite first.

Now that you have both apps connected to your page, click the Configure button above to select the Primary and Secondary Receivers:

Select Streamchat for your Primary Receiver, and Hootsuite for your Secondary receiver.

The setup is now complete, and when a user initiates a handover request, the conversation will be switched from the Streamchat stream, to Hootsuite's Inbox:

Switching back to bot/automated responses

Once a user has been handed over to a human operator, they will not receive any of the automated responses that you bot is setup to send. To switch a user back to receiving automated messages, you have two options:

1. Manual switch

When you hover over a message from a user in a Streamchat stream, options will appear on the upper right side:

Clicking the bot  icon will revert the user to receiving automated messages from the bot once again. However, you can still send messages manually to the user by clicking the reply   icon. 

2. Automated switch

You can also choose to automate the switch back to bot process by selecting a value under the handover options:

If you select Never, once a user has been handed over they will not receive automated responses again, unless you manually switch them. Selecting any of the other options will switch the user back to receiving automated responses after the selected duration of time. 

7. Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the Streamchat for Facebook Hootsuite app, please feel free to contact us via our support system at:

https://www.synaptive.com/contact-us

 

 

Related Articles

• Streamchat Quickstart
• Line Quickstart