Siebel SmartScript Administration Guide > Working with Questions, Answers, and Translations >

About Creating Questions

The question is the basic element of a SmartScript and is created first when you build a new SmartScript. You create questions in the Questions view of the Administration - SmartScript screen. Questions are stored separately from the SmartScript itself, and can be used more than once in a SmartScript as well as in multiple SmartScripts.

Questions can serve various functions in your SmartScripts such as:

• Eliciting information. A call center agent can ask questions to elicit sales or service information from a customer. Over the Web, questions can be presented to a customer as a survey or a series of questions to isolate a problem. The answers given can then be stored for later use.
• Providing information. A question can provide text for an agent to read to a customer, or a customer can read it on a Web site. Examples of this type of question are policy statements, legal disclaimers, and product descriptions. These types of questions do not have answers.
• Guiding a process or question flow. A single question can determine which path the SmartScript is to follow. On the Web, a customer's answer to a single question dictates the use of one form or another, or one part of a form rather than another. The answer to a call center agent's question can lead that agent to a different series of questions.

Many of the fields in the More Info form of the Questions view in the Administration - SmartScript screen are related to storage of answer data (also known as question control data). The Answer Type and Must Answer fields are obvious examples. The fields labeled Save Business Object, Save Bus Comp, and Save Field all serve to define the location for answer data given in response to a question. The fields labeled Width, Height, Min Length and Max Length all refer to the user interface space provided for answers.

For more information about creating questions, see the following topics:

• Creating Questions
• Defining Question Text and Translations
• Displaying Answers Within a SmartScript