Story From The Floor: Technical Support That Quotes The Manual

If you manage a site for an industrial brand, you know the drill: thick PDFs, dense spec tables, and customers asking “Will this actuator work in a 60°C environment with 24V DC?” Your team can answer—eventually. But every answer requires searching the manual, copying a line, and double‑checking compatibility. It’s slow, error‑prone, and expensive.

Here’s a realistic story of how a cited AI assistant turned that chaos into confident, self‑serve answers—without changing the product catalog or retraining the team.

How AI (and Seekdown) Solves It

1. Unify every product source. Seekdown ingests websites, catalogs, PDFs, and APIs into governed collections so answers stay scoped to the facts you trust.
2. Serve strict, cited responses. Retrieval, summarization, and tone controls ensure every AI answer cites the right SKU page or spec sheet—no hallucinations.
3. Guide conversions automatically. Intent-aware starters and CTAs route shoppers to quotes, carts, or humans the moment confidence dips.
4. Measure and improve. Built-in analytics expose intent coverage, low-confidence gaps, and assisted revenue so you can prove ROI and iterate weekly.

The Starting Point

• Website: product pages + a library of PDFs (datasheets, mounting guides, troubleshooting).
• Pain: repeated questions on operating ranges, part variants, and replacement kits.
• Goal: faster answers with proof, fewer escalations, and fewer returns caused by mismatches.

Step 1: Connect Real Sources

We connected the public website and the PDF library. Seekdown ingested product pages and parsed tables in the datasheets (operating temperature, ingress ratings, torque, voltage). Content was grouped into three collections:

• Catalog (all product specs and comparison tables)
• Policies (warranty, returns, shipping)
• Troubleshooting (common faults, error codes)

Why collections? They let the assistant answer narrowly—no “creative” guesses outside the catalog.

Step 2: Set Strict, Cited Answers

We enabled strict mode: the assistant must base responses on the ingested sources and include citations. If the exact information isn’t present, it says so and suggests the best next step (e.g., “Share your serial number” or “See mounting guide”). This eliminated hallucinations and built trust quickly.

Step 3: Design for Decisions

We added three starters: “Compatibility with 42mm rails,” “Operating temperature for Model X,” and “Replacement kit for Motor A.” Answers were kept to 2–4 lines with source links and follow‑ups like “Compare Model A vs B” or “Open mounting guide.”

What Customers Saw

Question: “Is the MX‑200 actuator compatible with 42mm rails in 60°C environments?”

Answer:

• “MX‑200 supports 42mm rail mount. Operating range: −10°C to 65°C.”
• Citations: product page spec table and datasheet PDF (sections ‘Mounting’ and ‘Operating conditions’).
• Follow‑ups: “Compare MX‑200 vs MX‑300,” “See mounting guide for rail adapters.”
• CTA: “Request a quote for MX‑200.”

No hunting. No guesswork. Just the line that matters, with proof.

Early Outcomes (4 Weeks)

• First‑contact resolution on top 10 intents rose to 78% with citations.
• Ticket deflection on compatibility and specs reached 52%.
• Support time per answer dropped from ~6 minutes searching to < 1 minute reviewing.
• Returns due to mismatched mounts declined as customers saw the exact mounting guidance.

These aren’t magic numbers—the pattern is what matters: verified sources + strict policy + clear starters.

Operational Wins for the Team

• Weekly review: export intents, fill gaps by adding the missing PDF/page, re‑ingest.
• Safer answers: strict policy prevented “helpful” but wrong recommendations.
• Consistent tone and disclaimers: “For harsh environments above 65°C, contact support.”

How To Replicate This (No Code)

1) Connect your site and PDFs; group into Catalog, Policies, Troubleshooting. 2) Enable strict, cited answers; limit scope to Catalog for product questions. 3) Add starters based on ticket history; keep answers short with links. 4) Add CTAs: “Request a quote,” “Book a diagnostic,” “See mounting guide.” 5) Review weekly: intents without citations → add sources → test in the playground.

Why This Works

Industrial buyers don’t want chatty bots—they want certainty. A short answer that quotes the datasheet beats a paragraph without proof. Seekdown makes that easy by learning from your actual documents, citing them, and staying within the guardrails you set.

If your support inbox is full of “Is this compatible?” and “What temperature can it handle?”, your content is ready. You just need a faster way to put it in front of the customer—with citations.

Want a jump‑start? Share your top 20 support questions. We’ll help you map them to sources and ship a cited assistant in days, not weeks.

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