Basic Tips For Training Your AI Chatbot

Train your AI Chatbot to provide fast and accurate answers — no technical skills required! Well-written Conversation Rules help your chatbot respond consistently and behave exactly the way you want.

You can customize your AI Chatbot in the Agent tab, including its role, tone, response length, and behavior. To guide how your chatbot responds, use the Conversation Rules section:


Conversation Rules work best when each rule covers a specific situation or behavior. Create separate rules for scenarios such as pricing questions, refund requests, or delivery inquiries.


Basic Guidelines


Follow these guidelines to write clear and reliable Conversation Rules:

Use rules for behavior, not information

Define how the chatbot should behave using Conversation Rules, but store pricing, product descriptions, policies, contact details, and other business information in your Knowledge Base.

Learn more: Set Up Your AI Chatbot Knowledge Base.


Put important rules first

Place the most important and restrictive rules first, especially rules about accuracy, misinformation, prohibited claims, compliance, or other high-priority requirements.


Avoid conflicting instructions

If multiple rules may apply to the same situation, make sure the more specific or restrictive rule is clearly defined.

Avoid combining unrelated topics into a single rule, and review your rules regularly to remove overlaps and contradictions.


Be direct and specific

Use clear instructions that describe exactly what the chatbot should do. Prefer direct wording like “You must”, “You should”, “Do not”, or “Ask one clarifying question”. Avoid vague phrases like “Be helpful”, “Answer well”, or “Use common sense”.

**Example:**If a user asks about unavailable features, explain that this information is not available. Do not speculate or make assumptions. Direct the user to contact our support team for confirmation.


Make rules testable

A good rule should let you quickly check if the chatbot acted correctly. Describe the expected behavior clearly so you can verify it during testing.


Next, let’s look at how to structure your Conversation Rules for the best results :sparkles:


How to Structure Conversation Rules


Organize your rules using a clear structure. Simple Markdown formatting such as headings, bullet points, numbered lists, and examples help the chatbot follow instructions consistently.

A Conversation Rule can contain several parts, depending on how detailed the instruction needs to be:

Part Purpose
Title Explains what the rule controls.
Trigger Defines when the rule should apply.
Main instruction States the required behavior.
You should Lists expected or preferred actions.
You must not Lists restricted behaviors or actions.
Exception Explains when the rule should change or additional conditions apply.
Fallback Explains what the chatbot should do when information is missing, cannot be confirmed, or the request is unclear.
Examples Shows the desired response pattern for complex, sensitive, or easy-to-misunderstand scenarios.

The template below shows a recommended structure for most Conversation Rules:

[Title]

When [situation or user intent], you must [main instruction].

You should:

  • [allowed or expected behavior]
  • [allowed or expected behavior]

You must not:

  • [restricted behavior]
  • [restricted behavior]

If [exception, missing information, or unclear request], you should [fallback action].

Examples:

  • User: [example user question]
    You: [desired response pattern]
See example of a structured Conversation Rule

The example below follows the recommended structure and uses Markdown to organize instructions clearly:


Final steps


Now that you know how to write effective Conversation Rules, here are two final tips to help your AI Chatbot perform at its best:

  • Review and update your Knowledge Base regularly to remove outdated or conflicting information, such as policy updates, seasonal pricing, or product changes.

  • Enable the Footer disclaimer so users understand that AI-generated responses may contain mistakes. Learn more in Configure Your AI Chatbot Settings: Footer.


Guys, we hope these tips were helpful! If your Conversation Rules still don’t work as expected or you just have any question, feel free to share them in this thread. We’ll be happy to help :wink:

This suggestion proved to be especially valuable for us.

That’s awesome - thank you so much for the feedback :wink:

Max, after updating the Instructions text today, when we tested the result in the chat window it seemed like the changes didn’t take effect immediately - only after waiting for several minutes did we seem to get the expected result.

How long should users wait after saving an Instructions update before testing the result?

Hi @Paul_D :waving_hand:

I just confirmed with the devs, and you’re right – there is a slight delay taken by the AI Chatbot re-education in this case. However, it shouldn’t take a lot of time – you can test everything in about a minute after the change :raising_hands:

I hope it helped! Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you :blush: