Customers of most online stores ask about the same few topics. Cover these first, then fill the gaps as they show up.
Cover these first
- Shipping: where you ship, how long it takes for each country or region, what it costs, and when orders leave (processing days, cut-off times).
- Returns and exchanges: how many days, in what condition, who pays for return shipping, how to start one, and when the refund arrives.
- Order status: where customers find tracking, and what to do when a parcel is late or lost. Connect Shopify or WooCommerce so the AI can look orders up. See Order answers.
- Payment: which methods you accept, when a card is charged, invoices and VAT.
- Products: sizes and fit, materials, care, compatibility, what's in the box, and restocks.
- Contact: how to reach a person and when your team is available.
- Anything your team explains again and again.
Your own gaps are the best guide after that. Reports > Where the AI got stuck lists questions the AI passed to your team, and the Internal Agent suggests answers your team already gave.
Where each thing goes
| What you want the AI to know or do | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| What's already on your site: policies, product pages, FAQs | Website |
| Answers that aren't on your site | Text entry |
| Price lists, catalogs, manuals | Upload file |
| Something temporary or urgent: holiday hours, a delay, a sold-out product | Business note |
| How it sounds | Tone in AI behavior |
| What to do for a type of question, like "for returns, ask for the order number first" | Specific instructions in AI behavior |
| What it must never do | Restrictions in AI behavior |
| How customers reach your team | Contacts in AI behavior |
Facts belong in your knowledge, not in instructions. An instruction tells the AI how to answer, but it isn't something the AI can answer from.
Write it so it gets used
- Keep each topic in one place. If your delivery times appear on three pages and one is out of date, the AI may find the old one. Correct or remove outdated pages (see Keep your knowledge up to date).
- Put rules that must always apply in a text entry or a business note, not only deep inside a long page.
- Write exact numbers: days, prices, countries and limits.
More tips in Add text and FAQs.
Check your work
Ask the Simulator the questions from the list above, in your customers' words. Anything it can't answer shows you what to add next.