Symptom → Cause → Your Action
The most important table in this documentation. Almost every finding from your test calls is here.
| Symptom during the call | Cause lies in | Your action |
|---|---|---|
| Invents prices, hours, or waiting times | Facts missing, or the facts rule missing | Store the facts (Knowledge Base) and add the facts rule (Writing the Prompt) |
| Asks for name/email twice | Memory section missing | Add the memory block (Writing the Prompt) |
| Talks too long, asks three questions at once | Response rules missing | One or two sentences, one question per turn (Writing the Prompt) |
Reads out <emotion …>, <break …> or similar | Control characters in the prompt | Remove all tags (see Writing the Prompt → What Does Not Belong) |
Reads numbers as a run of digits, $12.50 sounds wrong | Pronunciation rules missing | Pronunciation, including in Knowledge Base files |
| Says a tool or technical name out loud | Tool rule missing | Never name tools during the call (Writing the Prompt → Tools) |
| Silence when an interface is slow | Failure path missing | Announcement plus fallback behavior (Writing the Prompt → Tools) |
| Gets stuck on out-of-scope requests | Transfer missing | Transfer to a Human |
| Transfer rings out | Destination not verified | Test each destination individually; without a reliable one, take a message |
| Hangs up mid-sentence | Call-end rule missing | Don’t end after silence or a cut-off sentence (Writing the Prompt → Managing the Conversation) |
| Jumps between languages | Language rule missing | Switch entirely, never mix (Writing the Prompt → Language) |
| A Result Dashboard column stays empty | Property description too vague | Sharpen the description (Properties) |
| Follow-up email arrives with empty fields | Property not captured, or variable name wrong | Check the Result Dashboard, verify the ${…} syntax |
| The flow is different every time | No numbered flows, no examples | Writing the Prompt → Recognizing Call Reasons and Examples |
| Resolves “next Tuesday” incorrectly | Timezone set wrong | Configuration → Call timezone |
| Behavior seems contradictory | The same rule stated several times, worded differently | Merge the duplicates |
| Generally sounds robotic, talks over the caller, systematically mishears names | Platform level | Contact support — do not patch in the prompt. First: try a different voice |
That last row matters. Trying to fix such symptoms in your own prompt makes the prompt long and the behavior worse.
Continue to the Go-Live Checklist.