The very best way to reply to end users with predefined answers is to use Quick Replies. To get started with Quick Replies, please see the following FAQs:

An alternative to Quick Replies is the ‘Insert FAQ’ function. This allows you to insert an FAQ instead of a Quick Reply in response to end users.

In Helpshift, an FAQ written for the sole purpose of responding to Issues via ‘Insert FAQ’ is called a Predefined Answer.

You can create Predefined Answers by creating new FAQ articles and leaving them in an ‘Unpublished’ state. To learn more, see How do I create FAQ Sections & articles?

Once you’ve created some Predefined Answers, you can insert them into Issues as follows:

  1. Navigate to the Issues feed, then find and select the Issue you’d like to insert the FAQ for.
  2. This will open the Issue details page on the right in the 3-pane view. On that page, click the ‘Insert FAQ’ button at the bottom.
  3. In the pop-up that appears, search the Predefined Answer you’d like to insert. Once it appears, click on it to add the text to your reply box.
     
  4. You may now click REPLY to reply to the user using this FAQ.

Please note the following when using Insert FAQ:

  • For web and email Issues, you will see all FAQ results in the ‘Insert FAQ’ list, because the Issue isn’t associated with a particular app.
  • For app Issues, you’ll ONLY see FAQs associated with the specific app.
  • If you want to use a given FAQ across apps, use the ‘link’ feature to link the FAQ across any relevant apps. For more information, see How do I copy or link an FAQ across multiple apps?

Note: The HTML, images, and hyperlinks will not work via the Insert FAQ function. This function is used mainly to share text responses and links to your FAQs. More information on this is available in Why is the formatting incorrect when using Insert-FAQ?

Additionally, if you paste tables, bolded letters, or hyperlinks from other documents, or different-sized text, it can cause problems in the preview window. If you encounter any difficulty inserting the FAQ preview window or copying text, make sure to use Ctrl or Command+Shift+V to strip all previous formatting.

You may use deep linking on iOS and Android to open an in-app FAQ page for non-email users if it is already configured at the SDK level. This will keep your users from leaving your app, and they’ll be able to use your deep link to view the in-app FAQ after receiving it in the conversation.

If you choose not to use deep linking, you can shorten your URLs with TinyURL or Bitly, and users can copy and paste them in their browsers.