Scope and handoff threshold
An assistant does not try to answer everything. Which topics it covers and when it hands over are written at the start; handing over is part of the design rather than a failure.
- Out-of-scope topics are recognized and handed over at once
- A customer repeating themselves twice triggers handoff
- Conversation history transfers with the handoff
- A customer can ask for a person at any point
Accuracy and sources
An answer given to a customer counts as a commitment by the company. Answers therefore rest on approved content and can cite a source; where no source exists, the assistant produces no answer.
- Answers come from an approved content set
- Pricing and commitment topics are handled separately
- No source found means handing over instead
- Wrong answers return to the content owner
Language, tone and accessibility
The assistant speaks in the company's voice. A tone guide is written; abbreviations are expanded and legal text is not pasted verbatim. Accessibility belongs to the design too.
- The tone guide is written with sample answers
- Equal capability is targeted in both languages
- Screen reader usability is tested
- Long answers are broken into readable pieces
Measurement and feedback
Success is measured by resolution rate and by the experience after a handoff. Conversations that start with the assistant and land with an agent are tracked separately — they are the richest source of improvement.
- Resolution rate is reported by topic
- Waiting time after handoff is measured separately
- Satisfaction is asked separately for assistant and agent
- Unanswered topics enter the content plan