Question 1

What is an Instance?

Accepted Answer

An instance is a collection of related FAQ’s and/or Workflows that your users will see and interact with plus a set of management tools that you and other members of your staff or team will use.

Each instance also includes an optional hosted hub that you can customise and brand.

If you decide to use Malcolm! in two distinct areas of your business it can make sense to have two different instances. For example you could use one instance of Malcolm! to support customers of your product or service and another instance as an internal HR portal.

You can see some examples of how Malcolm! instances can be used here

Instance Billing

Our billing is based around instances. You can start an instance any time and enjoy a 14 day trial. This can be great for trying ideas out. If you want to keep using the instance beyond 14 days you'll need to choose a plan and give us your card details, or agree an enterprise plan with us.

Instance Owners

Each instance will have an owner. This is the master user who is ultimately responsible for the instance. If you are on a Team or Enterprise plan you can invite other users to the instance too. If you need to transfer ownership of the instance to another user (for instance if you are leaving a company or organisation) you can do that as long as the proposed new owner agrees.

Question 2

What does Malcolm! cost?

Accepted Answer

We offer four types of plan and pricing - they can be viewed here.

We bill on a per instance basis - you can read more about instances here.

Question 3

What is the Share section in MyMalcolm for / how does it work?

Accepted Answer

The Share section of MyMalcolm gives you tools to embed and share content from Malcolm! into your existing websites, applications and social spaces.

You can bring content from Malcolm! directly into your current website via embeds. Choose the content you want to embed and how you want it displayed and we'll give you some code. Inserting that code into your current website will load in your content from Malcolm!

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/N17DhjfW2Z/Screenshot%202021-12-30%20at%2013.57.57.png ("Choose your embed type in MyMalcolm)

You can embed individual FAQs or Workflows, create custom widgets that can pull in things like search results, category listings, all content by a particular author, recent content, tagged content, most popular content and much more.

If you don't have a website or you want to group all your Malcolm! content together you can use our Hosted Hub.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/77KnCbIxOb/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.11.05-11_21_58.png (About our Hosted Hub)

We also have a plugin for Wordpress.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/3xBONmPNuf/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.11.05-11_06_58.png (The Share section of MyMalcolm)

In addition to the above customers on our Enterprise plans have full access to our API which means they can pull from and push content to Malcolm! in a variety of ways - please speak to your account manager for more details.

Question 4

How are Related FAQs determined and can I change this?

Accepted Answer

Related FAQs are auto-generated and by default are FAQs either in the same category or similarly tagged (we combine this pool of FAQs). We take the top 4 results from that pool, based on the sort order defined in the instance. For info on how to change the default sort order see this FAQ.

You can choose to force the Related FAQs to use tags or just the category by updating the setting in MyMalcolm / Settings / FAQs:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/mNimQ1t2R3/Screenshot%202020-03-30%2021.19.11.png (Settings in MyMalcolm)

In this scenario we will then take the top 4 results from just the category or tag pool using the defined sort order.

Question 5

What can I change or customise in the Brand Section?

Accepted Answer

The Brand section of MyMalcolm has many powerful options to help you change the look and feel, layout and content of your Malcolm! Hosted Hub in order to reflect your own brand.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/juvGMA0a3E/brand-facebook%402x.png (Use your own brand with Malcolm!)

Get started by going to the Brand section in MyMalcolm, copying your current theme, then editing things on the copied version.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/xsC67Mdwy8/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.06-17_50_20.png (Edit your brand settings in MyMalcolm)

Watch a video guide to customising your look and feel below.

Question 6

When a Workflow is completed will I be sent an email?

Accepted Answer

When a user completes a Workflow, by default all the Team members of the instance (who are added and manged via the Team section of MyMalcolm) will receive an email.

You can also configure other people to receive an email on a Workflow by Workflow basis.

To do this:

In MyMalcolm go to the Workflow section
Click Library and then click on the Workflow you wish to configure email alerts for
Then click "Configure" on the black horizontal navigation then "Email Answers" on the left hand vertical navigation
Click "add a new email address" to add a new recipient. This can be a fixed email address you enter or, if you collect an email address on your Workflow, you can choose for the email to be sent to the supplied email
Note that you can also make a recipient conditional - this is very useful if you only want an email to be sent to a particular address when certain criteria on a Workflow are met

Question 7

What are Integrations?

Accepted Answer

Integrations are a way of passing data you collect in a Malcolm! Workflow into other third party software or systems.

We currently offer integrations with:

Plus over 1,500 over apps via Zapier (more info here) and Make (formerly Integromat) (more info here).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/v5lAa3NjkY/zapier-fb%402x.png (Malcolm! Integrations)

Configuring Integrations

Once you have created your Workflow, go to the Configure section and select Integrations. There you can link your third party accounts at our integration partners to your Malcolm! Instance by providing your credentials. Once your accounts are linked you can configure integrations with that partner and choose the data from your Workflow that is passed across. You can configure whether data is passed on every Workflow completion or only when certain conditions are met. It is possible to have multiple integrations so, for example, you could create a form which collected details from a new customer including a copy of their ID. You could then subscribe that new customer to a Mailchimp mailing list and store their uploaded ID documents in your Dropbox account by creating two integrations.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/5KmZGb3Q9Q/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.06-19_50_53.png (Integrations in MyMalcolm)

Customer Consent

A reminder that it is good practice - and in certain territories a legal requirement - to ensure that your customers actively consent to their data being passed to third party companies who, like Malcolm!, act as data processors on your behalf. You act as the data controller. Most companies handle this consent via provisions in their Privacy Policy which their customers agree to. It is good practice therefore to include a check box in your Workflows that reminds customers of your Privacy Policy and their continuing agreement of it.

Integration Failures

Sometimes integrations may fail. This could be for a variety of reasons, for example the integration partner's API's may be down and/or there may be a problem with your account at the third party provider (for example your Dropbox account may be over quota).

Firstly don't worry re losing customer data - Malcolm! will always store any user submitted data so if there is a problem with an integration

When a problem occurs we'll create a notification to let you know and periodically retry the integration. You can review the Integration logs and retry a failed integration event manually via MyMalcolm (navigate to the Workflow via Library then select Integration logs).

More Integrations coming soon!

We will be adding more and more integrations to Malcolm! in the coming months. If there is a particular integration you'd like us to add please let us know.

Question 8

How do I use your Wordpress plugin?

Accepted Answer

First download the Malcolm! Wordpress Plugin here.

In MyMalcolm! create your embeds as normal - instructions here.

At the end of the Embed creation process when your embed code is generated there is some text which says "Embedding in a Wordpress site?" - if you click that text you will be shown your instance ID and for some embed types you will be shown a shortcode. There is also an option to have this information emailed to you.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/Lglywov3F9/Screenshot%202020-05-24%2022.00.27.png (Embedding in a Wordpress site?)

In Wordpress, install the Malcolm! plugin then goto Settings --> Malcolm! and add your instance ID. Currently on some versions of Wordpress when you add the instance ID and press Save there is no acknowledgement of this but you can verify the instance ID has indeed been saved by navigating away and then back to Settings --> Malcolm!

You can see your instance ID in your URL when you are in MyMalcolm eg, https://my.malcolm.app/instances/XXXXXXXXXX/dashboard. The instance ID is the 10 digit code code shown where the X's are above.

For Widget and Full page embeds this is all you have to do - you can then configure on which pages your embeds appear via MyMalcolm (via the URL rules section of the respective embed).

For inline embeds and overlays you need to position where you would like the embed or the overlay launcher in your content. You do this using the Shortcode. Go to the page or post in Wordpress, make sure you are in code editor (not visual editor) and put the Shortcode where you wish the embed to appear / or the overlay be launched from.

If you have any issues with you embeds not appearing first check these things.

Question 9

Can I remove the Malcolm! branding?

Accepted Answer

It is quick and easy to remove the Malcolm! branding and - if you want - replace it with your own. Here is how:

Hosted Hub

By default your Hosted Hub is Malcolm! branded. To change that:

In MyMalcolm go to the Brand section.
Click "Themes" on the black sub navigation.
The default Malcolm! theme will be selected. Click the "duplicate" icon (two squares overlapping). This will create a copy of the default theme called "Default copy".
Select the Default copy theme by clicking on it. Then click the "edit" icon (a pencil).
This brings up the edit theme interface. There are a huge amount of things you can change here. Use the left hand vertical navigation to browse all the possibilities.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/6ACEG5RrGl/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.05-10_46_38.png (MyMalcolm Theme Editing Options)

Footer

Be default a "powered by Malcolm!" badge appears at the bottom of content. You can turn this off (and also add other footer content such as copyright notices etc) in the "Footer" section of the edit theme interface referenced above.

Embeds

You can turn off the "powered by Malcolm!" badge in your embeds by turning off the footer. You do this via the style section of your embed configuration.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/m6Pb8R7IbC/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2020.05.26-11_42_48.png (Style controls in an Embed in MyMalcolm)

Emails

Malcolm! can send emails to your customers/users in the following situations:

Email this answer functionality on an FAQ
Sending the resume later Workflow link
Payment confirmation email

To change the branding of these emails see this article.

To change the sender name and email address see this article.

Domain

Finally don't forget you can easily configure Malcolm! to use your own domain or sub-domain. For further details see this article.

Question 10

Could I use Malcolm! as a publishing platform?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! has primarily been designed around service interactions with users (eg answering their questions and taking them through a process) but we do have users who use Malcolm! in a more "marketing" or "content" based way eg to host content and/or take their users through forms to download content or register for something.

If you want to use Malcolm! in this way it's worth remembering that you have full branding control (more info here) and can even rename things like FAQ's and Workflows (more info here). You can also change your base URL. See more information in this article.

By default we do mark up FAQs content using https://schema.org/FAQPage so if your content doesn't follow a question and answer format and you allow that content to be indexed by search engines you may wish to change the schema to https://schema.org/WebPage. You can see how to do this here.

The Examples section on our website may give you some further ideas on how you could use Malcolm!

If you want to go even further you might want to consider contacting us and having a chat. We do offer enterprise packages and bespoke development on top of the Malcolm! Platform.