External integrations with Hotline Telegram CRM

This article talks about a way to expand Hotline Telegram CRM functionality using your own helper bot (the so-called assistant bot) working on the side of your topic group using Hotline Topics API.

Using a bot assistant, you can significantly improve the convenience and productivity of working with the system:

• implement your own commands on the topic group side
• obtain user information from external systems
• create deals or call arbitrary commands in external systems
• connect an AI bot to the group to interact with users

Also in Hotline There are other approaches to expanding functionality, which are described in separate articles:

• Adding an official extension bot with commands for mass sendings, marks for users, quick replies, assigning a topic to a manager, templates with message chains, export of the client database
• Parallel connection Hotline to an existing bot to expand its functionality with a convenient user support system
• Account Automation API to perform operations on behalf of connected Telegram-accounts

You can implement the assistant bot yourself or request paid development from our support service. Our team has already accumulated a number of standard solutions that can be quickly adapted to different tasks.

We often use the platform as a constructor for the assistant bot N8N. The free version of this platform is quite functional and is not limited in the number of executions, the system can be installed on your own server, allows you to visualize the bot’s operation algorithm, and has many ready-made API connections with external systems.

The assistant bot can monitor operators messages on the side of the backend group and supplement the command output /info with additional information about the user, or respond to any other custom command.

If you enter the required command in a topic with the user, the assistant bot can call Topics API , provide the address of the topic and receive information about the user in the format JSON (user_id, language_code, first_name, last_name, username, phone).

Next, the assistant bot can request additional information about the user from the external system according to his user_id and display it in a topic for the system operator.

For example, through the command extension /info In our support, we have implemented a quick display of a list of the user’s active instances and whether he has a paid subscription.

A similar principle can also be used to obtain any other available information about the user, for example:

• list of user transactions by his user_id
• current balance, connected user tariffs
• list of shared groups with the user

Such tasks can be solved by an external system, while Hotline can act as a super-convenient native interface for communicating with Telegram users (to be a kind of front office).

Example of integration with Notion

At the support service Hotline We use Notion as a system for storing and structuring our client database (notion.so).

When sending a command /notion on the group topic side, client data is written to the Notion database and a link to the created client card is returned. By clicking on the link, you can quickly go to the client card, fill out tags for the client, and give him priority.

Notion can conveniently present your customer base in the form of a table, board with cards, filters, and sortings. If necessary, you can filter the required users on the Notion side, get a list of their identifiers and, for example, then use it in your newsletter.

By calling the command /notion in the user's topic again, the assistant bot, in addition to the link to the card, returns a list of specified tags for the user.

Similar integration via API is possible with many other systems: Google Sheets, AMO, Bitrix, SalesForce, etc.

If the users with whom you communicate through Hotline are also users of any system, then the operator Hotline can use the assistant bot to activate the necessary methods.

Example 1: After agreeing and receiving payment from the user via Hotline, you can send a command like /activate t1 m6, which will activate conditional Tariff 1 for 6 months for this user and send him a notification about it. The command is implemented in a similar way /deactivate.

Example 2: Command / admin Administrator mode is launched in the external bot to manage the settings of the corresponding user who contacted the support service.

If it is necessary to establish a connection between the user Telegram by his user_id with the corresponding account identifier in the external system, then it is possible to implement a command like /link N005

A similar command can bind a user (or several users) to account number N005. After establishing a connection with the user, the command /info (Case 1) can be supplemented by displaying information about his account from an external system.

This is often useful when implementing a corporate help desk, when several users can write to the help desk from one client.

In order for the assistant bot to see messages from users and be able to process them, messages to the topic group must come on behalf of the user account, and not the bot. Due to Telegram restrictions, bots cannot see messages from other bots in groups.

Activate a special mode of messages forwarding to a topic group through a user account (userbot) is possible through our Support Service.

When messages from users are forwarded to a topic group through an account is enabled, these messages become available to the assistant bot for processing.

This makes it possible to save messages in an external system, for example, to backup correspondence with clients or use fragments of correspondence to train artificial intelligence.

Note about saving messages: You can also make backup copies of messages from a group at any time manually through the function Export Chat History in the group topic properties.

When forwarding messages from users to a topic group through an account is enabled (userbot) the assistant bot can see user messages.

Then you can transmit user messages with the desired AI context via the API and receive a response, which you can then display in the topic group as a comment or send directly to the user.

For example, you can invite the user to ask his question while waiting for the operator to answer the artificial intelligence so that he can try to solve his problem on his own.

It is good form to ask questions to artificial intelligence by starting your question with the AI’s mention, for example: ai what commands are there in the system?

You can also teach AI to understand that if it is asked a question starting with a comment, then this is a question from the system operator and the answer must also be given in the form of a comment.

Alternatively, you can send all messages from the user for AI analysis (this is more expensive in terms of AI tokens) and issue a response or not according to the required logic. For example, answer the user only when the AI ​​believes that the question exactly matches what is in its knowledge base.

For flexible control of AI operation, you can enter special restrictions and auxiliary commands that turn AI on/off in a given topic or switch the mode of communication with the user.

Read more about cases of using AI in connection with Telegram CRM Hotline (soon)

See also other ways to expand functionality Hotline:

• Extension bot with commands for bulk mailings, user tags and customer database export
• Parallel connection to the bot
• API for account automation Telegram