Give your assistant a knowledge base
The knowledge base is what your assistant knows. Everything it tells a customer comes from here, so this is where the quality of its answers is decided.
It is one box of text
Worth being clear about, because it changes how you work with it. The knowledge base is a single field — About the business — on your assistant's page. Not a folder of documents the assistant searches. One block of text it reads in full, every time.
That has two consequences:
- It has a ceiling. 200 characters minimum, 15,000 maximum. Everything the assistant knows has to fit, so what goes in has to earn its place.
- Uploading a document does not attach the document. It extracts the text and pastes it into this box. From then on the box is the only thing that matters.
Writing it yourself
The default. Type or paste straight into About the business, under Business information.
This is usually the better route. A 15,000-character budget spent on answers you chose beats the same budget filled with whatever happened to be in a brochure.
Importing from a document
Switch the toggle to Import from a document, then drop a file in. Wap2b pulls the text out and appends it to the box below, where you can edit it like anything else.
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
PDF (.pdf) | Must be real text. A scanned page is a picture and reads as nothing. |
Word (.docx) | Reliable. |
Excel (.xlsx) | Good for price lists and specification tables. |
Plain text (.txt) | The most reliable of all. |
Up to 5MB per file.
Read what came out
Extraction is not magic. A heavily designed PDF can arrive as scrambled column fragments, and the assistant will answer from that mess exactly as written. Always read the text after an import, and fix it in the box.
Removing a source does not remove its text
Once the assistant is saved, uploaded files are listed so you can re-import or remove them. Removing one deletes the stored file only — the text it added is still in About the business, and the assistant still answers from it. Delete the text too.
What to put in
Start with the things customers actually ask about:
- Prices — the single most valuable thing you can write down.
- Products or services, with the details people ask before buying.
- Delivery — areas, times, charges.
- Returns, refunds and warranty, in the wording you want quoted back.
- Opening hours, address and directions.
- Your existing FAQ, if you have one.
Some of this is already covered by the Business information fields above the box — operating hours, service areas, contact details, the returns policy. Fill those in rather than spending characters repeating them here.
Writing text an assistant can use
The best knowledge base is not your glossy brochure. It is plain text written as questions and answers.
This works well:
Do you deliver outside the city? Yes, anywhere in the state. Delivery inside the city is free and takes 1–2 days. Outside the city costs ₹150 and takes 3–5 days.
Can I return an item? Within 7 days of delivery, unused and in its original packaging. Refunds reach your account in 5–7 working days.
This works badly:
Our company has always been committed to the highest standards of customer satisfaction, and our nationwide logistics network ensures timely fulfilment.
The first answers a question. The second says nothing an assistant can use, and costs you 150 characters of a 15,000-character budget.
More rules of thumb:
- Be specific. "3–5 days" beats "quickly". "₹150" beats "a nominal charge".
- State the exceptions, because that is what customers ask about.
- One topic per section, with a heading that reads like the question.
- No internal jargon or product codes the customer would not recognise.
- Say what it must not do. "Never quote prices for custom orders." The box sets the boundaries as well as the facts.
Keeping it current
An assistant quoting last season's prices is worse than no assistant. When something changes, edit the box — it is a text field, so this takes seconds.
Watch for contradictions, which is the failure mode importing creates. Import a new price list on top of an old one and both sets of prices are now in there, with nothing to tell the assistant which is right. Delete the old text before you add the new.
If something goes wrong
- The import added nothing. A scanned PDF, or one where the text is images. There is nothing to extract. Convert it to plain text.
- The import stopped part-way. You hit 15,000 characters. Trim the box and import the rest.
- The assistant does not know something you put in. Check it is actually in the box, and worded near how a customer would ask. Add a plain question-and-answer version.
- It gives an out-of-date answer. The old wording is still in the box. Text is only ever removed by you.
- It contradicts itself. Two versions of the same fact are in there. Delete one.
- It will not save. Under 200 characters. Add more.
Next
Read your analytics, or set up how pricing works if you want to understand the charges first.