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Your Cloud Employee does not read one prompt. It reads the base prompt, plus a channel prompt for each channel you use, plus the description on every tool. Because of that, a change you make in the base prompt can be cancelled out by writing somewhere else that you forgot about. Read general best practices first. If the problem is a wrong answer saved into a field, go to data capture instead.

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Where each instruction belongs

Write each instruction in the same place as the thing it controls. If someone opens a tool and cannot see the writing that changes how that tool behaves, they will break it by accident later. It is common to find the same rule written in both the tool and the base prompt. That is worth cleaning up. It is worse when the two copies say different things.

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Best practices

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Keep the base prompt about identity and goals

Say who your Cloud Employee is and what a good outcome looks like. Do not explain how one tool works. Don’t (in the base prompt)
When you look up an account in Salesforce, skip the record ID and turn “Customer - Direct” into plain words.
Do (in the base prompt)
You are an account coordinator. Help the caller understand the state of their account.
Put the wording about how to read account details out loud in your voice channel prompt instead.

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Use each tool’s exact name

Copy the name exactly as it appears on the tool page, including any underscores and capital letters. When the name is close but not exact, your Cloud Employee is worse at choosing the right tool. Don’t
Use the salesforce tool if they ask about their account.
Do
If they ask about their account, use salesforce_get_account.
Here the tool page shows salesforce_get_account, so that is exactly what you write, underscores and all. “The Salesforce tool” or “SalesforceGetAccount” are close, but close isn’t as effective as exact.

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Put phone and chat differences in the channel prompt

In a chat, raw information from a tool is usually fine to show. On a phone call, it is not. Salesforce hands back record IDs and values such as “Customer - Direct,” which are fine on a screen and awful in someone’s ear. Don’t (in the shared base prompt)
Never read the record ID out loud. Always say “direct customer” instead of “Customer - Direct.”
Do (in your voice channel prompt)
When you describe an account out loud, say “you are a direct customer” rather than reading the account type the way Salesforce returns it. Never read the record ID aloud, and leave out details the caller did not ask for.

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What to avoid

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Asking for something it cannot do

Timing is the one that catches people most often. A line like “wait 3 seconds, then hang up” reads perfectly well to us, so it is an easy thing to write. Your Cloud Employee always answers right away, though, so the pause simply never happens. It is worth a quick check that everything you have asked for is something it can actually do. If you are unsure about a particular ability, leave that line out and see how it behaves first.

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The same rule in two places

Don’t
The description on salesforce_get_account says when to look up an account, and the base prompt explains when to look up an account all over again, in different words.
Do
Leave “when to use this” on the tool. Mention a tool in the base prompt only when you need it to choose between several, and use the exact name.

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Absolutes about ending a call

Overusing absolutes causes trouble in any prompt. On a Cloud Employee it shows up most in rules about hanging up, and the result is easy to recognize: your Cloud Employee drops the call rather than work out which rule to break. Don’t
Do not speak to the person unless you have already used this tool. You must use the end-call tool the moment you say goodbye.
Do
When the caller is finished, say goodbye and end the call. If they ask something else, answer first.

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Fixing a prompt that failed

Follow the five steps in the general guide. Two things to keep in mind here.
  1. Gather all of your Cloud Employee’s writing, not just the base prompt. Copy your channel prompts, the description of any tool it used or should have used, and your Navigator levels if you use them.
  2. Gather the conversation too. Copy it from the start through the moment it went wrong, along with anything your Cloud Employee had been given, such as customer details or an answer that came back from a tool. The prompt tells you what it was told, but only the conversation shows what it was responding to.
  3. Start where that behavior belongs. Chose the wrong tool? Read that tool’s description. Sounded wrong on the phone? Read your voice channel prompt. Acted like the wrong person? Read the base prompt.
  4. If you find the same rule twice, delete one copy. Do not try to settle it by writing a third version.
  5. Test the same request again, plus one close variation. Check the other channel as well, so a fix for phone calls does not break chat.

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Checklist

Read your Cloud Employee’s writing once more and check these off. If you cannot check one, that is the first thing to fix. The base prompt
  • It says who your Cloud Employee is and what a good outcome looks like
  • It does not explain how any single tool works
  • Wording meant for only one channel lives in that channel prompt instead
Tools
  • Every tool description says when to use that tool, and nothing more
  • Every tool name is copied exactly, including underscores and capital letters
  • No rule about a tool is written in both the tool and the base prompt
Everything else
  • Nothing asks for an ability your Cloud Employee does not have, such as waiting
  • Absolutes about ending a call are few enough that they can all be followed at once
  • There are no leftover Band-Aid lines from problems you no longer have
  • If you use Navigator, every level knows what it receives and what to pass along