Custom instructions that actually work

They steer behavior and voice: how concise to be, whether to lead with a summary or a clarifying question, how to handle competitor mentions, what to do when information is missing, and how aggressively to suggest demos, trials, or sales contact— in harmony with your sales intensity setting.

They do not replace facts. If something must be accurate (pricing, legal claims, medical or regulated language), put it in the knowledge brief or on the site; use custom instructions to tell the agent how to use those facts.

A practical split:

• Brief / site / PDFs: what is true.
• Custom instructions: how to decide, how to phrase, when to escalate to a human, and what to do when sources conflict.

Example: the brief states your refund window; custom instructions say to state it verbatim, avoid over-promising extensions, and offer a link to the policy page for edge cases.

Bullet rules are easy to scan. Pair the most important two or three with mini examples of preferred phrasing—especially for tone (formal vs friendly) and for how to decline when you cannot verify something.

Good rule shape

Use direct imperatives: “If pricing is not in the knowledge base, say you cannot confirm and link to the pricing page.” Avoid vague goals like “be helpful” without a testable behavior.

Handling unknowns

Spell out the fallback: offer to collect an email for sales, suggest the visitor book a call, or point to a form—whatever matches your funnel. Ambiguity here produces either silence or invention.

Custom instructions should reinforce the preset you chose for sales intensity, not fight it. If you run a light touch, instruct the agent to prioritize clarity and only suggest a next step after fit is clear. If you run a more assertive profile, you can still forbid spammy repetition: one well-placed CTA beats three weak ones.

Write explicit stop rules: for example, do not ask for a demo twice in the same thread unless the visitor raises buying intent again.

Adapt language to your brand; keep the structure.

Accuracy and limits

“Never invent integrations, customers, metrics, or pricing. If unsure, say so and point to the most relevant page or offer to connect the visitor with our team.”

Competitors

“If asked about competitors, stay factual and neutral: compare on dimensions we can substantiate from our docs. Do not disparage named products; offer to explain our differentiation for the visitor's stated requirements.”

Style

“Default to short paragraphs and bullet lists for dense answers. Open with the direct answer, then context. Avoid exclamation marks unless the visitor uses them first.”

Next steps

“When suggesting a trial or demo, tie it to a concrete outcome they mentioned. One CTA per reply unless they ask for options.”

• Novel-length instructions — too many overlapping rules confuse priority. Keep the top ten behaviors that matter.
• Contradicting the brief — if instructions and knowledge disagree, visitors get mixed signals. Fix the source of truth first.
• Over-scripting every phrase — leave room for natural follow-ups; you are guiding judgment, not writing a fax template from 1998.
• Negative space only— long lists of “never say…” without positive examples of what to do instead.