Write good instructions for your chatbot

Chatbot instructions are the text that tells your chatbot who it is, which business it works for, what it should do and what it shouldn't. This setting has the biggest effect on the quality of its answers.

Where to edit the instructions

When creating the chatbot: in step 1 of the wizard, Essentials. First choose an instruction template: it fills the System Instruction field, in the Chatbot behaviour section just below, which you can then adapt. With the Custom template, you write it yourself.

Afterwards, at any time:

1. Open My Chatbots and click Edit on your chatbot.
2. Open the AI Model tab.
3. Edit the System Instruction field.
4. Click Save Changes.

The change applies to your website immediately, with no need to reinstall the code.

Start from a template

The System Instruction Template area offers four starting points: FAQ, appointment booking, lead generation and custom template (empty field). Their names are shown in the language chosen for the chatbot (in English when the language is set to Auto Detect).

When creating the chatbot, choosing a template is required: if you don't pick one, the wizard asks you to. A template is a starting point: replace [Company Name] with yours and adapt each line to your business.

The 5 things to write

Effective instructions often fit in 10 to 20 lines. Cover these points:

1. Who you are: business name, activity, service area.
2. The chatbot's role: answer questions, qualify requests, offer a quote or an appointment.
3. Key information: opening hours, average lead times, starting prices, warranties. For long information (catalog, terms), use the knowledge base instead.
4. What it must not do: give a firm price, talk about competitors, promise a date.
5. What to do when it doesn't know: stay honest and offer to take the visitor's contact details.

Example to adapt:

You are the assistant of Solar Plus, a solar panel installer in Texas.
Your role: answer visitors' questions and help them get a free quote.
Useful information: installation within 3 weeks, 10-year warranty on installation work.
Never give a firm price: the price depends on a technical visit.
If you don't know the answer, say so and offer a call back.
Answer in 3 sentences maximum.

Tone and creativity

In the same place (the Essentials step when creating the chatbot, then the AI Model tab), two settings complete your instructions:

• Conversation Tone: Professional, Friendly, Casual or Formal.
• Temperature (Creativity), in Chatbot behaviour when creating the chatbot: from Precise (0.0) to Creative (1.0). For a business chatbot, stay between 0.3 and 0.7: the lower the value, the closer the answers stay to your content.

Instructions and lead capture

The information to ask visitors for (name, email, phone…) is set in the Lead capture section (the Leads step when creating the chatbot, then the Leads tab). No need to list it in the text. You can still reuse information already collected in your instructions with {{variable}} (for example to call the visitor by their first name). See Choosing the information to collect.

What's next?

1. Test the chatbot with your customers' real questions, then fine-tune your instructions.
2. Fill in its knowledge base.
3. Set the welcome message and languages.