1. Collect the FAQ and choose an agent for each answer.
Copy the questions and answers from your FAQ page or help centre. Website import is switched off, so paste the text in rather than pointing the agent at a page.
Sort them by who asks. Questions people ask before they buy, about plans, prices, trials and fit, belong to the sales agent as sales notes. Questions customers ask while using your product belong to the support agent. The sales agent never sees support knowledge, so copy any answer both need into each.
Check each answer is still true before it goes in. A reader can see when a web page was last updated, but a caller hears every answer as current.
2. Rewrite each answer to be heard.
A written FAQ leans on things a listener can’t use: links, tables, bold text and “see below”. Rewrite each answer so it works aloud.
- Open with the direct answer, such as yes, no or the number, then add the detail.
- Keep sentences short, with one fact in each.
- Replace each link with directions in words, such as “open Settings, then Billing”, or a short address a caller can type, such as example.com/pricing.
- Turn tables into sentences. “The Team plan includes 10 seats” is easier to follow than a pricing grid read out cell by cell.
- Write abbreviations in full the first time, such as single sign-on (SSO), so the agent can match either form.
Before: written for a web page
Q: Can I change plans?
A: Yes! See the pricing table below, or click here to upgrade.
Downgrades apply at the end of the billing cycle (see Terms, section 4).
After: written to be heard
Can I change plans, upgrade or downgrade?
Yes. You can change plans at any time in Settings, then Billing, then
Change plan. An upgrade starts straight away. A downgrade starts at the
end of your current billing period. Only the account owner can change
plans, so if you can't see Change plan, ask your account owner.3. Group related answers into one source per topic.
Each source has a title of up to 140 characters and up to 50,000 characters of text, and a workspace holds 100 sources across both agents. During a call, the agent searches with words from the caller’s question and reads at most four sources, each from an excerpt of about 4,500 characters that starts just before the first matching word.
So give each topic its own source, such as billing, invitations or exports, with three to eight related questions in each, and keep it under about 4,000 characters. One source holding the whole FAQ matches almost every question, and answers near its end can fall outside the excerpt.
Start each source with its questions in customers’ words, so the excerpt starts at the top.
Title: Billing: changing plans, invoices and refunds
Questions this answers: Can I change plans? How do I upgrade or
downgrade? Where are my invoices? Can I get a refund?
Can I change plans?
[The answer, written to be heard.]
Where do I find my invoices?
[The answer, written to be heard.]
Can I get a refund?
[Your policy and who decides. The agent can explain it, but it can't
see accounts or issue a refund.]4. Add each source and approve it.
On the Knowledge tab, choose Add knowledge, paste the title and text, and choose Add for review. Sales notes are added from the Sales agent tab in the same way. Each new source is saved as Needs review.
Open each one, read it through as a caller would hear it, then choose Approve for your agent. The agent searches only approved sources. Approval controls what it can use rather than guaranteeing every answer, so you’ll still test.
5. Tell the agent, and callers, what the FAQ covers.
Name the FAQ’s topics in the greeting, such as “I can answer questions about billing, your account and getting started”, so callers know what to ask.
In the instructions, name the route for anything the FAQ doesn’t cover, such as your support email or help centre. The agent can’t look up accounts, and human handover is an early release that stays off until you turn it on, so the agent needs a route it can give.
6. Test with each question asked the way customers ask it.
Ask each FAQ question as written, then the way a customer would say it: “how do I get my money back” for refunds, or “add my colleague” for invitations. Ask a few questions the FAQ doesn’t cover too, and check that the agent says it doesn’t know and gives your route.
Read each transcript. When the right source wasn’t found, add the caller’s words to its first lines. Dashboard tests use the workspace’s 50 free conversations, so group several questions into each call.
Keep the written FAQ page as well.
Keep the FAQ page live. People who prefer to read still use it, search engines index it, and it’s the version your team edits first. When an answer changes, update the page, add the corrected source, approve it and remove the old one, because a pasted source can’t be edited in place.
Common questions
Can a voice agent answer from our existing FAQ page?
Yes, once you paste the FAQ’s text in. Kawl Now can’t import web pages at the moment, so copy each answer into a knowledge source, rewrite it to be heard and approve it. The agent then answers from those approved sources.
Should each FAQ question be its own knowledge source?
Not usually. Group three to eight related questions into one source per topic, under about 4,000 characters. Kawl Now reads up to four sources for each search, so focused topic sources are easier to match than one long FAQ, and you stay well inside the 100-source limit.
Does the agent read FAQ answers word for word?
No. The agent uses your approved text as the facts for a spoken answer, so it may shorten or rephrase it. Write each answer so every sentence is true on its own, and read the transcripts to hear how it comes across.