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Sprout Concierge Simplified: Best Practices You Need to Know

Training isn’t just about uploading all your files — it takes a bit more to build a great sidekick. You’ll still need to organize your files, clean up the content, and test things thoroughly to get the best results. Remember: your sidekick learns from what you give it — the better the input, the better the output.

This document aims to provide the best practices and criteria for organizing content in a file in order to achieve the best results in responses from the Sprout Concierge agent.

Best Practices

  • Name your documents properly.
    • Example:
      • Before: emp_handbk.pdf
      • After: Employee Handbook.pdf
  • Think like you’re crafting a reviewer for a student when creating a document.
  • Include relevant information only.
    • Note: Any type of text formatting is valid, as long as it’s readable.
  • Remove redundant and unnecessary labels or statements (e.g. headers, footers, words with no context).
  • Remove images as these will be disregarded.
  • If important information is in image format, convert it to text.

Example:


  • Convert information such as FAQs or textual data with descriptions into tables.
    • Note: For each table, always add headers that are descriptive and well represent the data.
  • Limit tables to 10 columns max, not exceeding a single page.
    • No table overlaps (e.g. same table extended to next page)
    • No merged cells for table headers and rows

Example:

  • Limit each paragraph to 500 characters max (with highlights as bullets).

Example:

Option 1: 500 characters max per paragraph

Option 2: Bulleted form

 

  • When working with presentation slides, group content with the same topic into a single text box.

Criteria

Zendesk URLs

Tip: Make sure to specify the following when entering your Zendesk help center URL: 

  • The subdomain name you chose when you set up your account, followed by zendesk.com/hc 
    • Example: 
      • mycompany.zendesk.com/hc
  • The main language based on the locale code in the URL 
    • Example: 
      • “.../hc/en-us”

Note: All articles from a given Zendesk website will be retrieved. If you need to import a specific Zendesk article, add knowledge via the website URL instead.

Files

  • Files should be in PDF, DOCX, PPTX, or HTML format.
    • Note: Old versions of DOC or PPT will not work. Please convert them to DOCX or PPTX.
  • Files should not be password-protected.
  • File content should be typewritten (editable text that can be copied and pasted, not scanned).
    • Note: Images will be disregarded.
  • Max file size for each batch upload should be 50 MB.

 

Website URLs

Tip: Enter any of the following URL types:

  • Document URL (PDF, DOCX, PPTX)
    • Example:
      • https://example.com/file.pdf
  • Website URL
    • Example:
      • https://example.com/page
  • Public Google Drive URL (PDF, Docs, Slides)
    • Example:
      • https://docs.google.com/document/d/abc123

Note: Images will be disregarded.

Limitations

Note: The whole website will not be imported. Only individual web pages will be retrieved.

Here are the website URLs not supported:

Website URLs not supported Example
Document URL (DOC, PPT) https://example.com/file.doc
Media URL (e.g. JPG, GIF, MP4, YouTube)

https://example.com/image.jpg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=abc123
Google Drive folders https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/abc123
Google Drive formats that are not Docs, Slides, or PDF https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/abc123
Private links that need login Google Docs file that has restricted access

If a URL is not supported, please let us know by submitting your feedback.

Want real-time responses? Explore Sprout Info, your 24/7 guide for product inquiries!