Overview

Improving your Voice Agent is an ongoing process of reviewing conversations, identifying friction, and refining prompts, workflows, and transfer logic to improve booking rates and customer experience. Feel free to use this article as a guide in further understanding how to navigate your Voice Agent settings to fine-tune the set-up.

To start, it is important to understand the differences across the the four main settings of your Voice Agent: the Knowledge Base, the Objective, the Playbook, and Guidelines. They are as follows -- 

Before making changes, identify whether the issue is related to:

• What the agent asks
• How the agent behaves
• What information the agent knows
• What the overall goal of the call should be

Key Takeaway

• Agent Guidelines = how the agent thinks, adapts, and handles real-world conversations
• Playbook = the exact questions and flow used to capture data
• Knowledge Base = shared company information across all Voice Agents

Making the wrong fix in the wrong place will not solve the problem.

For example:

• Trimming the Playbook will not fix a handling issue
• Updating the Knowledge Base will not fix a bad question flow
• Adding behavioral logic to the Playbook can create conflicting prompts

Ensure your Playbook, Knowledge Base, and Agent Guidelines are aligned and do not compete with each other.

Playbook FAQs

When should I make a change in the Playbook?

Make a Playbook change when the issue is about what the agent is asking.

Examples include:

• Callers dropping off at a specific question
• Questions that do not apply to certain callers
• Question order causing confusion
• Asking too many questions too early
• Missing important intake questions

If the problem is related to the structure or flow of the conversation, it is usually a Playbook issue.

What does a well-structured Playbook look like?

A strong Playbook:

• Identifies caller intent early
• Captures critical information first
• Uses simple, conversational questions
• Adjusts based on what the caller already said
• Avoids unnecessary or repetitive questions

Best practice is to collect:

• Name
• Phone number
• Move date

as early as possible in the call in case the conversation ends unexpectedly.

Why is question order important?

Front-loading the most important questions protects against caller drop-off.

If callers hang up before reaching key intake questions, you may lose the lead entirely.

Critical questions should typically come early in the conversation flow.

What is the risk of a Playbook that is too long?

If completion rates are consistently low, your Playbook may be collecting more information than callers are willing to provide in a single interaction.

Long Playbooks can:

• Increase caller fatigue
• Cause more transfers to representatives
• Reduce completion rates
• Lower conversion rates

Trim the flow to only the information truly needed during the initial interaction.

How do I find where calls are breaking down?

Review call transcripts and identify patterns.

Look for:

• Questions where callers frequently hang up
• Moments where callers ask for a representative
• Repeated confusion
• Off-topic conversations
• Places where callers stop responding

Once you identify the pattern, determine whether the issue belongs in:

• Playbook
• Agent Guidelines
• Knowledge Base

Agent Guidelines FAQs

When should I update the Agent Guidelines instead of the Playbook?

Update the Agent Guidelines when the issue is about how the agent handles situations.

Examples include:

• The agent sounds too robotic
• The agent does not recover well from interruptions
• The agent mishandles off-topic callers
• The agent repeats itself
• The agent struggles with edge cases
• The agent does not gracefully handle rep requests

Behavioral issues belong in the Agent Guidelines.

What kinds of situations should be defined in the Agent Guidelines?

The Agent Guidelines should explain how the Voice Agent should handle:

• Requests for a representative
• Confused callers
• Wrong-number situations
• Existing customers reaching a sales agent
• Call interruptions
• Off-topic conversations
• Incomplete calls
• Callers refusing to answer questions

This section helps the Voice Agent adapt naturally during real conversations.

What should the agent do if a caller wants to speak with a person?

The Agent Guidelines should instruct the Voice Agent to:

1. Acknowledge the request
2. Capture useful contact information if possible
3. Exit gracefully or transfer the call

The Voice Agent should avoid abruptly ending the conversation without collecting anything useful.

You can also configure a Call Transfer to route callers directly to a person or department.

Best practice is to avoid transferring calls to numbers that loop back into the Voice Agent again.

What should the agent do if a caller goes off-topic?

The Agent Guidelines should include redirect language that helps guide the conversation back naturally.

Example:

“I want to make sure I get you to the right place — can I grab a few quick details first?”

This helps keep the conversation productive without sounding robotic or abrupt.

What if a caller lands on the wrong Voice Agent?

The Agent Guidelines should explain how to handle callers who reached the wrong workflow.

Examples:

• Existing customer reaches new-lead intake
• Billing caller reaches sales
• Support caller reaches after-hours intake

In these situations, the agent should:

• Acknowledge the issue
• Collect basic contact information
• Route or escalate appropriately

The agent should not force callers through the wrong Playbook.

What should the agent do if the caller’s intent is unclear?

Best practice is to default to new move intake when intent is unclear.

This helps ensure the call still captures useful information instead of ending without direction.

Knowledge Base FAQs

What is the Knowledge Base used for?

The Knowledge Base stores shared company information the Voice Agent can reference during calls.

Examples include:

• Business hours
• Services offered
• Office locations
• Service areas
• Pricing FAQs
• Company background information

Which Voice Agents use the Knowledge Base?

All Voice Agents share the same Knowledge Base.

Because of this, the Knowledge Base should contain company-wide information rather than agent-specific instructions.

When should something go in the Knowledge Base instead of the Playbook or Agent Guidelines?

If the information is something the Voice Agent needs to know — but not necessarily ask — it belongs in the Knowledge Base.

Examples:

• Business hours
• Service areas
• FAQ responses
• Pricing ranges
• Office information

The:

• Playbook controls what the agent asks
• Agent Guidelines control how the agent behaves
• Knowledge Base provides supporting company information

Can the Knowledge Base be used for FAQs?

Yes.

The Knowledge Base is a great place for frequently asked questions that do not belong directly in the intake flow.

Examples include:

• “Do you service my area?”
• “Are you open on weekends?”
• “Do you offer packing?”
• “What’s included in a move?”

This allows the Voice Agent to answer naturally without disrupting the Playbook flow.

Measuring Voice Agent Performance

Different Voice Agents may require different configurations depending on the type of calls they handle.

Examples include:

• New move inquiry agents
• Existing customer support agents
• FAQ/general information agents
• After-hours routing agents

Each use case may require different:

• Playbooks
• Objectives
• Agent Guidelines
• Post-call actions

What metrics should I monitor while iterating?

Track metrics that help measure call quality and business impact.

Common metrics include:

• Total calls handled
• Calls successfully completed by the Voice Agent
• Lead conversion rates
• Missed-call recovery rates
• Average move revenue
• Call completion rates
• Representative transfer rates

Establish baseline metrics before launching your Voice Agent so you can measure improvements over time.