The How to speak to customers tile provides Sidekick with pieces of advice to follow when generating responses to Customers based on information available as Public Answers. New pieces of advice can be added or modified at any time within the How to speak to customers tile. We suggest following certain guidelines as you add advice, in order to set Sidekick Answers up for success.
General tips when writing advice for Sidekick
Keep advice content concise
Aim for a maximum of 10 statements.
More than 10 pieces of advice may introduce redundancy.
Consider when to include URLs in advice statements
URLs that link to external content frequently trigger a quality check failure and will result in unnecessary hand offs. Avoid placing URLs directly into advice and instead, include the URL in the Public Answer content. For example, refrain from an advice statement such as "When asked about returns, send retale.com/returns." Learn more about writing Answers to set Sidekick up for success.
For instances where you want to encourage Sidekick to include URLs in the response to the Customer”
Ensure the Public Answer already contains the correct URL.
Add guidance such as “If an Answer references a website, always include the URL of that website in the final response to the Customer.”
Avoid complex lists
Avoid including long lists of behavioral preferences within advice. Sidekick is most successful when this information is summarized into a general statement about style or tone. For example, rather than adding a piece of advice such as “Remove all discussion of a, b, c and x, y, z,” try dividing this guidance up into shorter, simpler advice statements.
Avoid complex logical conditions
Steer clear of authoring advice with multi-step conditions. For example a statement such as, "If the customer has previously been identified as a VIP and the discussion isn’t about returns, do XYZ if they aren't complaining, but escalate to an agent if they are complaining" is challenging for Sidekick to interpret and will likely result in a hand off. Refrain from using logic sequences in guidance and instead, use clear, simple statements.
Encourage Sidekick to refer to itself as part of your organization’s team
Advise Sidekick to refer to itself as a member of your CX team, the same way an Agent would. Use “we” or “our” instead of “I” or “they.”
Including this piece of advice dissuades Sidekick from separating itself from the team and providing replies such as, “Contact [Your Company] or their customer support team directly.”
Advice applies to every message generated by Sidekick
It’s important to remember that every piece of added advice impacts every message Sidekick generates. As a result, we suggest carefully considering asking Sidekick to adhere to the following types of broad guidance:
Avoid emphasizing a strict response length
Be careful setting strict limits on response length. Advice such as "Limit responses to 200 words and provide an answer within the first two sentences" can result in Sidekick omitting important information, resulting in increased quality check failures and handed off Conversations as a result.
Avoid advice that encourages introductions
Advice that requests Sidekick routinely provide an introduction to the Customer will result in Sidekick including that introduction in each response throughout the Conversation. For example, advice that states “Always introduce yourself as ‘Virtual Assistant’” will cause Sidekick to add this introduction to each message throughout the automated exchange with the Customer.
Sidekick Answers context limitations
There are certain pieces of general information that Sidekick Answers does not have access to and should not be referenced in advice statements.
Sidekick does not know…
Whether it is generating the first or last message in the Conversation with the Customer.
Which Channel (Chat, Email, SMS) it is using to converse with the Customer.
Whether or not it has access to integrated Action, or what those Actions are.
Avoid adding advice that hinges on Sidekick’s knowledge of any of the above items. Guidance that relies heavily on these types of information risks Sidekick provided repetitive or redundant responses to the Customer.
Certain Channels command unique best practices for adding advice to your Sidekick configuration
Review specific tips for writing advice for Sidekick Voice.