AI · 5 min read · Savina Bansal
7 rules to make your AI agent sound like your shop
Seven settings and habits that keep a WhatsApp AI agent sounding like your shop, not a call centre, and stop it promising what you cannot give.
Building the platform this article is about
Customers message a small business on WhatsApp partly because it feels like talking to the shop. An agent that answers like a bank loses that. These are the settings and habits that keep it sounding like you.
1. Pick the tone that is closest, then adjust
Start from one of four: Friendly, Professional, Warm & playful, or Straight to the point. Ask the same question in the test chat after each and keep the one that sounds like the person at your counter.
2. Keep it short
WhatsApp is not email. Short answers, one or two lines, read like a person typing. Go longer only if your customers ask detailed questions.
3. Say the rest in your own words
There is a free-text box for anything else about how it should sound. Use it for the specific things: “Call customers ji.” “No emojis.” “Say ‘team Kavya’ at the end.” Specific beats adjectives.
4. Write the greeting yourself
The greeting opens every new conversation, and {{name}} becomes the customer’s name. It is the first thing they read; it should be yours.
5. Put your limits in its knowledge, not its manners
The agent is already told never to invent prices, stock or policies. Help it: write down what you do not do. “We do not give discounts on WhatsApp.” “No returns on sale items.” A rule written in its knowledge is a rule it can quote; a rule only in your head is one it will hand over to a person, every time.
6. Write the hand-off line in your voice
When the agent hands a chat to your team, the customer gets your hand-off line. Make it sound like you and be honest about when someone will reply.
7. Correct it like a new hire
Read its replies for the first week. When one is off, rate it low and type, or say, what it should have said. It uses that answer on similar questions from then on.
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Questions this answers
- How do I stop my WhatsApp AI agent promising discounts?
- Write your discount policy into its knowledge, for example “we do not give discounts on WhatsApp”. The agent is instructed never to invent prices or policies; anything not covered goes to a person.
