Smart response editor
The Smart response editor is the building area to configure the different aspects required to set up a Smart response. Navigate through the editor as desired, clicking Back and Next.. Additionally, you can click through using the left navigation pane. From there, you can access:
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Instructions — Provides the directions to AI to follow when generating a Smart response.
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Preview response — Displays the response for review and validation based on the provided Instructions.
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Branding — Customize the email design by adding branding elements around the generated response.
To create and manage a Smart response, see Create and manage Smart response.
Smart Response Version Upgrades
As part of Medallia, Inc.'s version upgrade strategy, we incorporate refinements into the prompt, which are then released during the regular release cycle. Smart Responses created in Medallia Admin Suite will automatically update to include the latest enhancements, ensuring they reflect the most recent improvements.
Instructions
Instructions provide the directions for generative AI to follow when creating a Smart response, both for the content and the subject of the response.
Instructions
Instructions are guidelines provided to the AI to specify desired outcomes, akin to directing an assistant.
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Company context — Name and brief description of the company sending the response, or the use case you are aiming to achieve. It is not required the company name in the company description.
Company Name — Enter the name of the company that is sending the response.
Company Description — Provide a concise overview of the company, its services, and the target use case for AI.
Best practices for writing company description:
Keep the company description brief; ideally, one sentence is enough. Avoid lengthy narratives.
Avoid starting the company description with the company name; the system automatically formats it as '[Company Name] + which is +{Company Description}'.
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Instructions— Medallia, Inc. provides a set of optimized instructions for setting up Smart Response, designed for accuracy, personalization, and safety across various use cases. Ensure AI-generated responses align with your business needs before modifying the pre-defined, recommended instructions.
You can edit this content, rewrite it entirely, or add new instructions if the responses generated using the pre-defined, recommended instructions do not align with your needs.Note: The response generation instructions only appear after setting the Company context.
Settings
Settings define the general configuration of the response. It includes:
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Email subject — Whether the Smart response Subject line is generated using AI or entered manually, where you can click
to use variables.
Salutation — The greeting used at the beginning of an outgoing message. By default, the system applies Dear. When you keep the default setting, the system automatically translates the greeting into natively supported languages (Spanish, French, and German) based on the feedback record language. You can change this to a custom greeting (for example, "Hello" or "Hi") using the dropdown list.
Important: Custom text does not auto-translate.-
Address recipient by — If the Smart response recipient is addressed by their first name, last name, or full name (first name and last name).
Signature — The personalized block at the end of every email generated by the template. To insert dynamic fields (for example, central contact information or unique user attributes), use the variable picker. Dynamic variables populate automatically when rendered in Reporting.
Important: The configured signature block is used across all emails generated by the template and completely overrides individual user signature settings.
Create instructions
Complete these steps to generate the instructions:
Company Name — On the Instructions area, enter the name of the company sending the Smart response.
Company Description — Enter a brief description of the company.
Settings — Select how to generate the subject of the response, a default or custom salutation, how to address the recipient, and the user's signature.
Click Done.
The pre-defined, recommended Response generation instructions appear.
Click Next to navigate to Preview response.
Manage instructions
Click Edit to modify the Company name and Company description. For the response generation instructions, click
Edit to modify an existing instruction or
to delete it. Click Add instruction to include more directions for the response generation. Click
to drag and drop the instructions in the desired order.
The order of instructions in a Smart Response template influences response quality. The model interprets guidance differently depending on how you structure the template.
General recommendations for writing instructions:
Be specific
Recommended — The more specific your instructions are, the less likely there will be misunderstandings.
Not recommended — Avoid vague language, for example Ask for more information, without additional details.
Keep it simple
Recommended — Use plain language and short sentences.
Not recommended — Don’t use overly complex or technical terms if they aren’t needed.
Organize your ideas
Recommended — State the goal and then give context as part of your instruction
Not recommended — Avoid long, unstructured paragraphs that mix different ideas together. Avoid combining two guidelines into one instruction.
Avoid ambiguity
Recommended — Double-check that your words can only be interpreted one way.
Not recommended — Avoid words or phrases that could have multiple meanings.
Know your audience
Recommended — Write your instruction with the person or use-case perspective in mind.
Not recommended — Don’t assume the AI or reader has background knowledge you have not provided.
Constraints or specific requirements
What It means — Mention any limits or special rules (e.g. only list three points).
Why It matters — Helps the AI tailor its response exactly to your needs.
Test and revise
Recommended — Try your instruction out and see if it gets the result you expect; adjust if needed.
Not recommended — Don’t assume the first version of your instruction is perfect — refinement is key.
Medallia, Inc. manages the following aspects in the internal prompt for Smart Responses:
Employee Signatures
We provide the title of the employee (if and as configured in your employee’s signatures) as an input to the LLM to serve as context and help formulate the response content accordingly.
PII fields – Employee Name, Phone Number are not sent to the LLM. Instead, they are provided as placeholders to maintain data security and governance.
If you're adding an instruction related to any field in employee signatures, such as a follow-up on the employee's phone number, ensure that the field is configured in the employee’s signature. Otherwise, you may encounter an inaccurate response or see a placeholder in the generated content."
Question Label
We provide the question labels, as configured in the responses form, when sending data to the LLM to provide context about the customer’s response.
To ensure accurate and relevant outputs, we strongly recommend using meaningful question labels in the response form.
It's important to note that, currently we don't explicitly instruct the prompt to exclude the question labels from the content generated as part of smart response.
Presence or absence of comments
Medallia’s internal prompt is designed to handle scenarios where there are no comments. When a score is positive, the prompt will generate a response asking what went well. Conversely, when a score is negative, the prompt will ask what didn’t go well, ensuring the response aligns with the score provided in the response.
Preview response
Preview generates and displays the response based on the guidelines established in Instructions.
To preview a Smart response:
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Click Preview Response for to review the Smart response for any feedback or for a particular scenario. If choosing the last one, click Add condition to define the scenario, such as Likelihood to recommend is less than 6.
Note: To use the Survey ID as a filter, leverage Survey ID (a_surveyid)in the condition. -
On Role, select a Role to view Smart responses for. Note that the roles available are the ones assigned to your user. For more information, see Roles and data access.
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Review the Smart response content to ensure it aligns with the business case you are targeting to.
e_accepteddate). Branding
Branding formats the response with styling elements, such as a logo or footer, to reflect the company's brand identity. It uses a visual editor (also known as rich text editor) to configure basic font settings (font family, size, color), format text (bold, italics, underline), text alignment options, lists, bullets, images, links, and variables, with a real-time preview. Additionally, it includes some generic text as a placeholder for the AI-generated response.
To customize the response look and feel, click Add branding.
To insert an image:
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Click
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Select either
Upload image to upload an image from you local device or
Insert URL to enter the image URL.
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Click Insert.
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Click on the image to define its properties, such as horizontal and vertical alignment. Click
Edit to modify its width and height, the image source URL, alternative text, and advanced settings.
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Click Apply to save the settings. Click
Delete to remove the image.
Send preview of Smart response
Once the Instructions and Preview Response steps are completed, you can send a preview of the Smart response to your email to ensure its format and content meet your expectations before activation.
First, select Send Preview.
Then, enter your email address, and click Send Preview.
Activate and deactivate Smart response
After all the Smart response configuration is valid and completed, click Activate allow users to produce AI-generated content for responding to feedback. Note that the status changes to Active and the Smart response becomes available to use in reports when Responding to feedback.
Click Deactivate to stop using this Smart response. As a result, the Smart response status changes to Inactive and it does not appear when clicking Respond from the Responses Form report or the Responses Feed module.
You may also activate and deactivate a Smart response from the Details pane menu on the Feedback response screen.
Publish changes
After activating a Smart response, Publishing changes allows for safely making changes or editing without deactivating the Smart response and impacting its current live settings.
After making the changes, click Publish changes to apply those changes.
