Life of an agent: Creation to launch

To enable conversations between users and brands on Business Messages, you create an agent: a conversational entity that users interact with. An agent represents a brand and includes all code, infrastructure, assets, and conversational design required to power user interactions.

Review the following lists for requirements and best practices in creating and launching agents. These lists are organized sequentially and designed so you can optimize and launch your agent easily.

Set up

Create a Business Messages agent.

1. Register as a partner. Required. Get access to the Business Communications Developer Console and APIs.
2. Create an agent. Required. Create an entity for your brand, and create a customized agent.
3. Explore features with the Business Messages Helper Bot. Recommended. Learn about the Business Messages features and try them out in a conversation with your agent.
4. Add locations to your agent. Optional. If your brand has physical locations, associate them with your agent to enable location-based conversations.

Configure

Optimize your agent's availability and usability.

1. Specify messaging availability. Required. Specify the days and times that live agents are available to respond to users.
2. Support localization and set supported locales. Required. Learn how Business Messages reports user locales, and set your agent's default locale.
3. Set non-local information. Recommended. Specify the agent's associated domains, phone numbers, and available regions. Increases your agent's conversation entry points and user reach.

Design

Define the kinds of conversations and user tasks your agent supports.

1. Design the conversation flow. Required. Review Business Messages's conversation design guidelines and design the conversations and user tasks you want to support.

   1. Gather prerequisite information. Required. Define the critical user journey you want to support, the user's end goal, and your metrics for success.
   2. Design the chatbot’s personality. Required. Identify the optimal tone of voice to represent your brand.
   3. Create a welcome message. Required. Greet the user and explain what the agent can and can’t do. Use conversation starters to highlight the supported tasks.
   4. Map out the conversation path. Required. Define the sequence of steps that gets the user to their end goal, via back-and-forth dialog with the bot.
   5. Use rich features to guide the flow or make it more dynamic. Optional. To advance the conversation, use suggested replies and actions. To combine suggestions and text with graphics, use rich cards and carousels for visual appeal.
   6. Craft the language for each bot response. Required. Use conversational language that mimics the rhythms of natural human dialog.
   7. Create a fallback strategy. Required. To avoid deadends in the conversation, create default responses for unexpected queries.
   8. Create a handoff strategy. Optional. Recognize when live agent support is needed, and transfer the user to a human representative. Live agent backup is required for conversations that start from Google-owned entry points. Conversations started from brand-managed entry points don’t require live agents.

2. Design a flow for re-engagement. Optional. Add a path to the conversation for re-engaging users within 30 days of the user’s last message.

Develop

Support conversational functionality and integrate with other products.

1. Implement conversation handling. Required. You can use the client libraries, code samples, or REST APIs.

   1. Receive messages. Required. Acknowledge and process messages from users.
   2. Send messages. Required. Send text, suggestions, and rich content to users.
   3. Track message receipts. Optional. Know the users receive and read your messages.
   4. Send and receive events. Required. Send, receive, and support non-message conversational content.
   5. Send surveys and receive results. Required. Customize the surveys users see to suit your business needs.

2. Integrate with other products. Recommended. Add custom functionality to your agent and satisfy your business needs.

   1. Start conversations from a website or URL. Recommended. Enable conversation entry points on surfaces that you manage.
   2. Add automation with Dialogflow. Optional. Easily add automation to your agent's conversations.
   3. Authenticate with OAuth. Optional. Verify user identities to provide secure, personalized conversations.

Deploy

Make your agent available to users on available entry points.

1. Verify your agent and locations. Required. Confirm and finalize agent information. If you have locations, confirm that the specified locations belong to the brand your agent represents.
2. Launch your agent. Required. Make your agent available on entry points that don't rely on location.
3. Launch your locations. Required if you have locations. Make your agent available on location-based entry points.

Measure

Measure and improve your agent's performance.

1. Track metrics to measure agent performance. Required. Track and improve your agent's conversational performance.
2. Iterate your conversation design based on agent metrics. Recommended.