What a talking website knows, and what it says when it does not

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A face that greets your visitors is only as good as its answers. Before you put a face on your website, it is fair to ask what it will say. This post answers that from the pages you will actually use: where your agent's knowledge comes from, how you tell it what to do when it does not know, and what it will not do on your website without you.

It answers from what you give it

Your agent's knowledge lives in the agent editor. Open your agents list; on each agent you own there is a small wand button titled Unified Editor. The first row of tabs, Who Is Your Agent, holds Identity, Personality and Knowledge.

The Knowledge tab opens on Knowledge Base, and the box you will use most is Knowledge Text. Paste into it whatever your agent should be able to answer from:

• A page. Copy the text of your services page, your opening hours, your returns policy.
• A pasted FAQ. Question on one line, answer under it. Plain text works; headings help.
• The parts of a document that matter. Open the document, copy the sections a customer would ask about, and paste them here.

Under it, Tags (comma-separated) lets you label the knowledge, for example bookings, returns, opening hours.

You will also see a Knowledge Documents drop box. Uploading a document straight into your agent's knowledge from this editor is coming. Until it arrives, paste the text instead: pasted text is the route our guide can vouch for.

Nothing is hidden from you here. Come back to the Knowledge tab and the Knowledge Text box shows exactly what you saved, nothing more and nothing less.

You write what it does when it does not know

No knowledge box covers every question. So the most useful sentence you can write is the one that tells your agent what to do at the edge of what it knows.

That sentence belongs in Personality, in Soul MD: a free-form description of your agent's character and operating principles. Our guide calls it the natural place to write what it must never do: never promise a delivery date, never give medical advice, always hand a complaint to a person.

Write your edge rule the same way, in plain words, and name the contact route you want people sent to. For example:

If my Knowledge Text does not answer a question, say you do not know, and offer our phone number and opening hours instead of guessing.

The contact route is yours to choose: your phone line, your contact page, your email, a callback. Put the details in Knowledge Text so the agent has them, and the rule in Soul MD so it knows when to use them. The same tab also holds Tone, Goal and Background, and the Welcome Message your agent opens with.

Ask it before your visitors do

At the top of the editor, next to Save, there are two buttons. Chat opens a typed conversation with your agent. Talk opens a spoken one.

Ask a question only your new Knowledge Text can answer. Then ask one your Soul MD should shape, such as "Can you give me a delivery date?" Then ask something you never gave it, and listen for your edge rule. Read the answers, not the settings.

If an answer does not reflect what you just wrote, the agent is still leaning on the instruction set it was given at creation. Say what you want more plainly, save, and ask again. Nobody else can reach a private agent, so this is the safe place to get it wrong a few times.

What it does not do without you

A talking website is still your website. These are the lines our guides walk, each one a step only you can take.

• It does not answer anyone while it is private. A private agent does not answer anyone on your site. It answers once you publish it.
• It does not answer on a site you have not proved is yours. Until your site is verified on the embed page, your agent tells visitors the door is closed instead of replying.
• It does not speak first unless you switch it on. Speak first on this site is a switch beside each verified address, and it is off until you press it.
• It does not hear a visitor who has not said yes. The browser asks the visitor's permission before the agent can hear them, and it listens only if they allow it.
• It does not keep answering on a site you withdraw. Press the × beside the address on the embed page, and the chat on that site stops answering.

Two things the editor does not change today

Being straight about the edges is part of the job. The body of instructions written when you created the agent is kept as its own versioned record; editing that body from your dashboard is coming, and today the editor tabs are how you shape the agent after creation. The face is chosen at creation, and the Studio edit bay that tunes a face is coming.

FAQ

Where does my agent's knowledge come from?

From what you give it. Paste your pages, a FAQ or the parts of a document that matter into Knowledge Text on the Knowledge tab of the agent editor, and press Save.

Can I upload a document instead of pasting?

Not yet from the editor. Uploading a document straight into the agent's knowledge from the editor is coming. Until it arrives, paste the text of the parts that matter.

What happens when it does not know the answer?

You decide. Write the rule in Soul MD, for example to say it does not know and offer your phone number, and put that contact detail in Knowledge Text. Then test it with Chat or Talk before you publish.

How do I check what it knows?

Open the Knowledge tab. The Knowledge Text box shows exactly what you saved, nothing more and nothing less.

Can it answer on my website before I am ready?

No. A private agent does not answer anyone on your site, and until your site is verified your agent tells visitors the door is closed instead of replying.

Put your agent on your website

Once your agent's answers sound right in Chat and Talk, and its Soul MD says what to do at the edge of what it knows, it is ready for your visitors. Our step-by-step guide walks the embed page: copy one tag, add your site's address and verify it with one small text file, then choose whether it speaks first on that site. It also shows how to take it off again, and it takes about five minutes to read.