Guidance rules tell your AI agent how to handle customer scenarios.
Go to AI agent → Guidance
You can use one of our templates or create a new guidance from scratch by clicking Add guidance
Each rule has five parts:
- Guidance: Short name (e.g., "WISMO: Regional delivery timeframes")
- Trigger: WHEN to trigger, the situation the customer is in
- Agent instructions: HOW to handle it, with specific scenarios and conditions
- Status: Disabled, Testing (playground only), or Enabled (live)
- Apply to channels: Pick the channels this guidance runs on: Email, DMs, Chat, Social media comments, Voice and AI drafts. Guidance with no channels selected doesn't run anywhere. Tick AI drafts if the suggested replies in your team's reply box should follow this guidance. Drafts only use guidance with the status Enabled.
Writing triggers
The trigger defines WHEN this guidance runs. Describe one situation in plain words, not a list of keywords. Details that change the answer, like order status or country, go in the instructions.
Examples:
- "Customer asks where their order is or when it will arrive"
- "Customer wants to return an order or item"
- "Customer reports product arrived damaged, broken, or defective"
Writing instructions
Instructions tell the AI HOW to handle the situation. Break them into scenarios with clear conditions.
Example: WISMO with regional timeframes
Guidance: WISMO: Regional delivery timeframes
Trigger: Customer asks where their order is, when it will arrive, or why it's taking longer than expected.
Instructions:
Scenario 1: No tracking available yet
Trigger: Customer asks for tracking and no tracking number is available
IF order created less than 2 business days ago:
- Inform customer that tracking will be available once dispatched, usually within 24 hours
- Note that processing can take up to 3 business days during busy periods
- Advise customer to check back later
IF order created more than 2 business days ago:
- Apologize for the shipping delay
- Escalate to an agent
Scenario 2: Tracking available, not delivered
Trigger: Order has tracking but has not yet been delivered
Delivery timeframes by region:
- USA: 5 to 9 business days
- Canada: 5 to 9 business days
- UK: 5 to 7 business days
- Australia: 5 to 9 business days
- Other countries: 10 to 15 business days
Calculate expected delivery using the order date plus the regional timeframe above.
IF order is on time:
- Share tracking information
- Reassure the customer that the shipment is being tracked
IF order is behind by less than 2 business days:
- Advise customer to wait an additional 2 days due to possible delays
IF order is delayed by more than 2 business days:
- Escalate to an agent
Scenario 3: Marked delivered, not received
Trigger: Customer reports order marked as delivered but not received
Ask the customer to check:
- Whether a neighbor, roommate, or doorman accepted the package
- That the shipping address on file is correct
- Whether they've contacted the carrier for delivery details
- Whether the package may have been left in a discreet location
Next steps:
- Ask customer to wait 2 business days after the posted delivery date
- Share tracking info and the shipping address used
- If the customer has checked all of the above and it has been 2+ days since the package was marked delivered, escalate to an agent
Example: Damaged item reports
Guidance: Damaged or defective item reports
Trigger: Customer reports product arrived damaged, broken, defective, or not as described
Instructions:
- Check whether the customer has an order on file
- If the order contains multiple items, ask which specific item was damaged
- Request one or more photos of the damaged item(s) for assessment
- Review the damage policy and explain the available options to the customer:
- Replacements ship within 1 to 2 business days at no cost
- Full refunds are available if the customer prefers not to receive a replacement
- Items must be reported within 7 days of delivery for fastest resolution
- The customer does not need to return the damaged item unless specifically requested
Example: Influencer collaboration
Guidance: Influencer collaboration requests
Trigger: Creator or brand asks about a paid or affiliate partnership, sponsorship, or collaboration
Instructions:
Step 1: Initial response
- Thank the customer for their interest in partnering
- Express enthusiasm about the potential partnership
- Ask for collaboration details: rates, content requirements, and deliverables
Step 2: Assess the partnership type
IF the customer proposes a paid partnership:
- Explain the current partnership model available
- Outline the affiliate program terms:
- Commission rate: [INSERT PERCENTAGE]
- Product allocation: [INSERT DETAILS]
- Content requirements: [INSERT DELIVERABLES]
Step 3A: Customer agrees to affiliate terms
IF customer agrees:
- Collect: name, email, phone, and shipping address
- Label the conversation: [INSERT LABEL]
Step 3B: Customer declines
IF customer declines:
- Thank them for their time
- Express openness to future partnerships
- Label the conversation: [INSERT LABEL]
Key principles
1. Use scenarios for different situations
Don't handle everything in one block. Break into Scenario 1, Scenario 2, etc.
2. Include specific timeframes and thresholds
Use "2 business days", "5 to 9 business days", or "within 7 days", not "soon" or "quickly".
3. Define clear escalation rules
Be specific: "delayed by more than 2 business days" not just "if there's a problem"
4. Tell the AI what to DO, not what to SAY
- Good: "Apologize for the delay and share tracking"
- Bad: "Say: Dear customer, we sincerely apologize..."
5. Reference actions naturally
- "Escalate to an agent"
- "Assign to the returns team"
- "Leave private note about shipping damage"
- "Label conversation: [tag name]"
- "Hand over to the team without replying to the customer"
With that wording the customer gets no message, and the labels, notes and assignments in the same guidance still run. To skip the handover message on every email, tick Hand over silently on email in AI agent → Settings instead.
Leave ticket status out of guidance. Commslayer handles resolving and pending based on your settings in AI agent → Settings.
You can also trigger custom actions to send data to external systems like Zapier, n8n, or Google Sheets.
6. Keep facts in knowledge
Policies, prices, and product details belong in your knowledge base, where every guidance can use them. In guidance, keep only the thresholds that decide what the AI agent does, like "within 7 days of delivery".
Common mistakes
Catch-all guidances
Creating one guidance that should trigger on every new ticket, like "any new customer support request". Broad triggers like this don't match reliably, and combined with the "Restrict AI responses to enabled guidances only" setting they can cause the AI to leave conversations without replying at all. Fix: If you want the AI to respond to every ticket, turn the restrict setting off in AI agent → Settings and put your guardrails in AI agent → Guidance → General rules instead.
Keyword lists in triggers
Listing words like "broken, cracked, smashed, defective". Lists miss paraphrases and catch unrelated messages. Fix: Describe the situation, like "Customer reports product arrived damaged".
Missing scenarios
Not covering different situations (tracking available vs not). Fix: Break into separate scenarios with triggers.
Vague thresholds
Using "if delayed" instead of specific timeframes. Fix: "Delayed by more than 2 business days"
No escalation rules
AI doesn't know when to hand over to a human. Fix: Define specific conditions for escalation.
Over-scripting
Writing full customer messages instead of instructions. Fix: Write instructions, not scripts.
Overriding defaults
Telling the AI agent to resolve, close, reopen, or set a conversation to pending. Ticket status is handled by your AI agent settings, not guidance. Change pending behavior in AI agent → Settings instead. See AI agent capabilities and actions for details.
Asking customers to verify who they are
Asking for an order number or email to confirm the customer's identity. Commslayer verifies customers before sensitive actions like refunds or cancellations, so an extra check in guidance asks the customer twice. Fix: Leave verification out and describe what to do once the action succeeds.
Using quotes
Instruction to use specific sentences using quotes. The agent will prioritize using these quotes without really checking the context like the customer's last orders, conversations, etc.
Instructions for behavior or tone of voice
While the AI agent supports instructions for specific behavior or tone of voice, guidances are not the appropriate place to put it. Use AI agent → Guidance → General rules for rules that apply to every reply and AI agent → Settings → Tone of voice for tone.
If an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT writes guidance for you, Commslayer won't save guidance that changes ticket status or asks customers to verify who they are, and warns about tone and scripted wording.
Troubleshooting
Wrong guidance triggering
Your guidance is enabled but a different rule is matching instead, sometimes one that is still in Testing. A guidance in Testing can be picked for a live conversation, but it isn't applied there. A disabled guidance is never picked.
Fix: Check if another guidance has overlapping or broader triggers. Either:
- Adjust the triggers to be more specific
- Remove or disable the guidance that's incorrectly matching
For example, if you have both a general "shipping inquiries" guidance and a specific "WISMO" guidance, the broader one may match first. Consider consolidating related scenarios into one guidance rule or making triggers mutually exclusive.
Guidance never matches
Your guidance is enabled but the AI agent doesn't use it, or it leaves the conversation with "no matching guidance detected".
Fix: check these on the guidance:
- Status is Enabled. New guidance starts in Testing, which is active in the Playground only.
- Apply to channels includes the channel the conversation came in on. A conversation in an email inbox needs Email. Facebook and Instagram messages need DMs. Chats need Chat.
- Your latest changes are published. Customers get the published version until you publish the draft.
- The trigger describes the customer's situation. Matching reads the guidance name and the trigger, not the instructions.
In AI agent → Guidance, the Conversations column shows how many conversations matched each guidance in the last 7 days.
Testing guidance
- Set status to "testing" (active only in playground)
- Simulate real conversations in playground
- Test each scenario path
- Adjust and re-test
- Set to "enabled" when ready