An assistant cannot reliably explain an offer that the business itself describes in three conflicting ways. Before comparing models or choosing a mascot, organise the information it will use.
Start with the questions your team actually receives. For each one, write the approved answer, who owns it and when it needs reviewing.
Separate facts from guidance
Business facts include service names, contact details and published starting prices. Behavioural guidance explains how the assistant should respond: concise answers, no invented guarantees and a clear handover when something requires judgement.
Keep those roles distinct. Repeating the same price across several instruction documents makes future updates unnecessarily risky. One controlled source is easier to maintain.
Write the awkward answers too
What happens when someone asks for a service you have not approved? When a price depends on scope? When they say a founder promised a special arrangement?
The assistant should acknowledge the question and explain what needs confirmation. It should not invent a policy, accuse the visitor or commit the business to an agreement.
Include examples of ordinary conversation as well. Someone saying hello may just be saying hello. Yes, even on a business website.
Give uncertainty a proper route
Write down which questions can be answered, which can be clarified and which need a person. Provide a real contact route for that last group.
Test questions out of order. Give an email address early, return to an earlier topic and decline to share a phone number. See whether the assistant remembers the conversation without turning every response into another interview question.
Maintain the knowledge after launch
Assign an owner to changes in services and prices. Retest the affected answers after editing the source. Keep private customer information and account credentials out of the general knowledge material.
A useful starting task is to collect twenty real, anonymised pre-project questions. Resolve the contradictory answers before building the assistant. Our Rico backstage story shows why conversation instructions matter alongside the facts.
