---
schema_version: "1"
id: a173f49cd72251afb3b481aa5f44a3f749ea4082b19b6bad83f0127b38190736
title: Use a Dialog Question Step
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/bots_service_using_dialog_question.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_using_dialog_question.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: acb9b89f7999e6d6475be714428e12bf25091fe656f9a068805f75f19df30113
description: Question steps allow bots to ask the customer questions, receive data from the customer, and inform the bot about what action to take next.
products:
  - Service Cloud
  - Service Intelligence
release: "264"
---
# Use a Dialog Question Step

Question steps allow bots to ask the customer questions, receive data from the customer, and inform the bot about what action to take next.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.einstein_service_intro.htm&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">View supported editions</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small permission">
      <colgroup>
        <col style="width:50%">
        <col style="width:50%">
      </colgroup>
      <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
        <tr class="">
          <th scope="colgroup" class="slds-cell-wrap" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" id="d28824e55">User Permissions Needed</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="User Permissions Needed" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d28824e55 ">To build and manage Einstein Bots:</td>

          <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d28824e55 ">
            <p>Customize Application</p>
            <p>OR</p>
            <p>Modify Metadata</p>
            <p>OR</p>
            <p style="margin-bottom:0;">Manage Bots</p>
          </td>

        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>

Question steps are essential for a great bot experience. They allow the bot to collect and act on customer inputs. When creating a question step, the first decision to make is how to capture this data. Question steps allow for two types of input from the customer: choices (static or dynamic) or text.

- Choices provide the customer with a set of options. Some of the benefits of selecting choices include consistent data, a quicker setup, and ease of use from the customer’s perspective. Choose static options that are delivered the same way every time or dynamically generated options from a flow, Apex, or list variable. Choices don’t allow for text input.
    - [Set Up a Dialog Question Element with Choice Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use a Static Question step to offer predefined options that let your customers answer questions quickly.")
    - [Set Up a Dialog Question Step with Dynamic Choice Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question_dynamic.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use a Dynamic Question step to offer dynamically created choices based on the output of a selected action")
- Text allows customers to enter unstructured data and allows the bot to act on it. For example, to capture an email address or order number. Text responses are more complex to set up because we don't know the customer response. However, we include features, such as Conversion Repair, to help the bot handle input errors gracefully.
    - [Set Up a Dialog Question Step with Text Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question_text.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use a Question step to gather information from your customers using text input.")
    - To learn more about Conversation Repair, visit [Maintain Chatbot Conversation Quality](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_maintain_conversation_quality.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "The best industry chatbots include graceful solutions to error handling. Einstein Bots has many features to ensure data quality without creating frustration.")

Question steps also require an understanding of entities and variables, as the bot must know where to place this data and in the correct format.

- [What’s an Entity?](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_whats_an_entity.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "An entity represents a type of data that you want to collect from a customer. We provide the following system entities: Boolean, Currency, Date, DateTime, Email Address, Number, Object (standard or custom), Phone Number, and Text.")
- [What’s a Variable?](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_whats_a_variable.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "A variable is a container that stores a specific piece of data collected from the customer or output from Salesforce. Since variables are containers of information, they can be used within dialog actions as both inputs and outputs and can be inserted as part of the text in messages.")

Finally, the bot must know what to do with the data. Bots can act on this information through dialog action steps, or through dialog rule steps. Actions refer to Salesforce-related functions, such as launching a flow or Apex. Rules handle conditional, conversation-specific actions, such as routing inside the bot.

- **[Set Up a Dialog Question Step with Static Choice Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use a Static Question step to offer predefined options that let your customers answer questions quickly.
- **[Set Up a Dialog Question Step with Dynamic Choice Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question_dynamic.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use a Dynamic Question step to offer dynamically created choices based on the output of a selected action
- **[Set Up a Dialog Question Step with Text Responses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.bots_service_setup_dialog_question_text.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use a Question step to gather information from your customers using text input.