Prompts & agent behavior
The instructions (also called the prompt) are where you tell your agent what to do. This is the single biggest lever on how well your agent performs. This page shows you how to write instructions that work.
What the instructions control
Your instructions define:
- Who the agent is — its role and the business it represents.
- What it should do — its goals for each call.
- How it should sound — tone, pace, and personality.
- What it must not do — guardrails and escalation rules.
A good structure to follow
# Role
You are the appointment assistant for Bright Smile Dental in Mumbai.
# Goal
Help callers book, reschedule, or cancel dental appointments, and answer
common questions about services and opening hours.
# Style
Warm, professional, and concise. Speak naturally. Keep replies short —
one or two sentences at a time. Confirm details back to the caller.
# Rules
- Our hours are 9am–6pm, Monday to Saturday.
- Only offer appointment times within opening hours.
- If a caller is in pain or has an emergency, offer the earliest slot.
- If you can't help, offer to take a message and transfer to the front desk.
- Never give medical advice.
Tips for great instructions
| Do | Why |
|---|---|
| Write like you’re briefing a new hire. | The agent follows your words literally — be clear and specific. |
| Keep replies short. Tell the agent to speak in one or two sentences. | Long monologues feel unnatural on a phone call. |
| Give concrete facts (hours, prices, policies) directly in the prompt or knowledge base. | The agent can only be accurate if it has the information. |
| Define what “done” looks like. | e.g. “A call is successful when an appointment is booked.” Drives your success metrics. |
| Add escalation rules. | Tell the agent when to transfer to a human or take a message. |
| Handle the unexpected. | Add a line like “If you don’t understand, politely ask the caller to repeat.” |
Using variables in prompts
When you place a call (or run a campaign), you can pass in variables — like the contact’s first name — and reference them in your instructions:
Greet the caller by name: "Hi {{first_name}}, this is Maya from Bright Smile Dental."
Any extra fields you include with a call or in a campaign contact list become available as {{placeholders}} you can use in the prompt.
Tuning creativity
The creativity setting (temperature) controls how varied the agent’s wording is:
- Lower → more consistent, predictable phrasing. Best for compliance-sensitive or scripted calls.
- Higher → more natural variation. Best for casual, conversational agents.
Start with the default and adjust only if the agent feels too robotic or too unpredictable.
Iterating safely
Every change is versioned automatically. Change one thing at a time, test it, and roll back if it doesn’t help.
Next: Voices & languages →