The most common worry new business owners have is "where do I even start?" You do not need to write a manual. You need to tell your agent what a smart new hire would need on their first day, and nothing more.

This tutorial walks through exactly what to share, in order, and what you can safely leave out.

Step 1: Describe the job in one sentence

Start with the single task your agent owns. For example:

Answer customer questions about our services and prices, collect the details of anyone who wants a quote, and pass serious enquiries to me.

Then say two more things: what the agent should never do (for example, promise a delivery date or offer discounts), and when it should call in a person. Plain language is enough. Write it the way you would brief a colleague.

Step 2: Share what customers actually ask

Your agent is only as good as what it knows. Focus on the questions you answer again and again:

• What you sell, and what it costs
• Opening hours, location and how to book
• Your policies: returns, cancellations, deposits
• How you want to sound: friendly and casual, or formal and precise

Give it this in whichever way is fastest for you. Upload the documents you already have, add your website so the agent can read it, or simply answer a few questions in the chat.

Step 3: Check what it learned

Before anything else, look at what your agent took from the material and correct anything it got wrong. This takes a few minutes and prevents most problems later. If a price is out of date or a policy changed, fix it now rather than after a customer notices.

Step 4: Test it like a customer

Open the playground and ask your agent the questions your customers really ask. Try the awkward ones too:

1. A question it should answer easily
2. A question the answer is not in your material for
3. A request it should refuse
4. A customer who is upset and needs a person

A good agent answers the first confidently, admits when it does not know the second, politely declines the third, and hands over the fourth. If it does not, add the missing detail or tighten the instructions and test again.

Step 5: Put it where your customers are

When you are happy, add the agent to your website or connect a channel such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram or email. Start with one. You can add more later.

What you can skip

• Everything about your business history. Customers rarely ask, and it adds noise.
• Every possible question. Cover the top ten and let the agent hand over the rest.
• Perfect wording. Clear and honest beats polished.
• Internal details such as staff names or private pricing rules. If you would not tell a customer, do not tell the agent.

Keep improving it

Your first version does not have to be complete. Read a few real conversations each week, note where your agent hesitated, and add that answer. Within a month most business owners find their agent handles the majority of repeat questions on its own, and the conversations that need a person arrive with the details already collected.