The Variant Management feature in PolyAI allows contact centers to manage content tailored for different sites, like a coffee shop with three stores or a hotel chain with branches in New York, London, and Tokyo.

This setup means location-specific details, like multiple phone numbers, addresses, and operating hours, can be handled by a single assistant single assistant. Variants streamline the configuration of multi-site operations and provide precise responses to customers based on their location.

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Prerequisites

  1. Ensure you have admin access to the Variant Management tab in your PolyAI assistant.
  2. Set up a Knowledge Base aligned with your multi-site configuration goals. Learn more: Knowledge Base Guide.
  3. Understand how to use functions in your assistant: Functions Guide.

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Key capabilities

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Multi-site configurations

Use Variant Management to manage multiple locations within the same assistant, ensuring responses are location-specific. Attributes such as phone numbers and opening hours can be stored per variant, enabling dynamic customer interactions.

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Knowledge base integration

Attributes defined in Variant Management are accessible in your Knowledge Base (KB) rules, templates, and actions. For example, you can use ${variant_foo} to populate responses dynamically with location-specific information.

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Flexible routing

Set up phone number-based routing in the start function to direct callers to the appropriate variant. Variants can also be used to tailor SMS messages dynamically.

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Advanced functions

Use the conv.variant object to retrieve variant attributes during conversations or to make decisions based on variant data. Use functions to set, retrieve, or act on variant-specific attributes.

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Testing and troubleshooting

Testing variants is currently limited in chat, but workarounds include setting variants manually in the start function or creating specialized testing rules.

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Real-life use case

A hotel chain with multiple branches worldwide uses Variant Management to manage its assistant. Each branch (e.g., “London” and “New York”) has a variant configured with attributes like phone numbers, addresses, and check-in hours. When a guest calls, the assistant identifies the branch based on the caller’s phone number and tailors the response accordingly.

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Variants and attributes

  • Use the (+) plus sign to add a new attribute.
  • Use the Add variant button to add a new variant.

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Setting up a new variant

To configure variants:

  1. Navigate to the Variant Management tab in your assistant.
  2. Add a new variant and provide a name, such as “London” or “Tokyo.”
  3. Save your configuration.

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Setting up a new attribute

Define attributes for the variant, such as:

  • Phone numbers
  • Address
  • Operating hours
  • Menu
  • Accessibility

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Using variants in SMS templates

Main article: SMS

To include variants dynamically in SMS messages, use the syntax ${variant_attribute}. For example:

  • ${variant_phone_number} dynamically includes the phone number associated with the active variant.

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Testing in chat

Testing variants in chat requires manual setup in the start function or custom testing rules:

  1. Update the start function with the desired variant:

    if not conv.callee_number:
    conv.set_variant("London")

  2. Create functions such as set_variant1, set_variant2 to manually switch variants during testing.

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Advanced: Accessing variants in functions

This example demonstrates how to dynamically assign variants based on a caller’s phone number. Using the conv.variant object, you can retrieve and set the appropriate variant to ensure responses are tailored to the caller’s location or context.

def start_function(conv: Conversation):
    phone_numbers = {
        variant.phone_number: variant_name
        for variant_name, variant in conv.variants.items()
    }
    if conv.callee_number:
        conv.set_variant(phone_numbers[conv.callee_number])
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