Confirming Understanding of User Intent

(JI) #1

Hi

I’m working on a conversational flow which involves taking some details from the user and returning confirmations as part of additional questions ( to show understanding of user intent) till the bot has enough input to carry out the user request. For example:

Bot: Where would you like to go?
User: Denver (or Frankfurt)
Bot: You’re flying to Denver, Colorado, USA. When do you want to go? (Or: You’re flying to Frankfurt, Germany. Where are you flying from?)

I understand the concept of Attributes and how to store user inputs in them. But I’m struggling to show understanding of the user’s intended destination/departure city by returning it as City, State, Country, or City, Country. This is important because London, could mean United Kingdom or Kenturky, and Norfolk could mean Virginia or United Kingdom. I’m not sure I clearly understand how to do this and the tools available for putting it together. Or is that what Webhook, HTTP Request, and Code are for?

Any ideas?

(Karen Barker) #2

Hi,

To get a country based on the city the user enters this would probably be best handled either by a webhook to a service which can return the information or by creating your own database that holds city in one column and country in the next. Once the user has answered, you’ll need to do a lookup either via the database or the webhook request and then you’ll be able to use the results of this action to update your message action.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile: Any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

(JI) #3

Yes @KarenBarker, this really helps.

Thanks :+1:

#4

I would think using Dialogflow could help with this.

(JI) #5

Thanks @stellarun1! I did take a look into Dialogflow, and much as it’s able to help in some way, working with APIs through HTTP Requests provide simpler, yet richer and a more complete solution.