Your agent’s behavior is written in plain language, in three parts. Together they’re the difference between “a bot picked up” and “someone helpful answered.”
The three parts
- Role — who the agent is and what business it represents: “You’re the front desk for Beacon Dental in Austin. You help patients book, reschedule, and get quick answers.”
- Rules — what it must and must never do: “Always collect the caller’s name and callback number. Never quote treatment prices — say the office will confirm. If someone is in pain, offer the soonest slot and flag the call urgent.”
- Style — how it talks: “Warm and brisk. Short sentences. No corporate filler.”
The setup wizard drafts all three from your business description; edit them anytime in your agent’s editor.
Writing instructions that work
- Be concrete. “Offer Tuesday or Thursday if the caller is flexible” beats “be helpful with scheduling.”
- Tell it what to do instead, not just what not to do. “Don’t discuss pricing” leaves a dead end; “for pricing, take their number and say Maria will call back within the hour” gives the call somewhere to go.
- Put facts in Knowledge, not in rules. Hours, services, addresses, and FAQs belong in the knowledge base where they’re easy to keep current. Rules are for judgment and boundaries.
- Steal from your best employee. Listen to how your best person answers the phone and write down what they actually say.
Drafts, publishing, and testing
Your edits go to the agent’s draft — live callers keep hearing the published version until you click Publish. That means you can rewrite instructions in the middle of the workday, run test calls against the draft, and only ship when it sounds right.
Publishing keeps a version history, so a change that isn’t working can be rolled back.
After any real call in your Inbox, read the transcript and ask: “What would I have said differently?” Turn the answer into a rule, test it, publish. Ten minutes of this a week compounds fast.
