Unknown answers in a plumbing chatbot

The decision to make first

An assistant may receive a reasonable business question whose answer is absent from the approved information available to it. Make uncertainty an explicit response path and offer the relevant office contact rather than guessing from a similar business or old webpage.

What the handoff should contain

Capture the unanswered question, the approved information checked and a callback request only if the visitor wants staff follow-up.

Suggested wording to approve

Example wording: “I do not have an approved answer to that question. I can help you contact the office so the team can confirm it accurately.”

Test the difficult case

Ask about an unlisted holiday, an unsupported service and an invented promotion, checking that each remains clearly unconfirmed. Do not let a general language model turn a likely assumption about opening hours, equipment or pricing into a business-specific fact.

Worked example

Fictional example: The visitor asks whether an unlisted holiday promotion applies tomorrow. With no approved promotion in the fact register, Ava should say it cannot confirm and offer office contact. It must not infer a discount from an old search result or another plumbing company’s promotional page that happens to use similar wording.

Review it in operation

Review unanswered questions in batches and add answers only after the business owner approves the underlying facts.

Check before you launch

• Make uncertainty an explicit response path and offer the relevant office contact rather than guessing from a similar business or old webpage.
• Capture the unanswered question, the approved information checked and a callback request only if the visitor wants staff follow-up.
• Ask about an unlisted holiday, an unsupported service and an invented promotion, checking that each remains clearly unconfirmed.
• Review unanswered questions in batches and add answers only after the business owner approves the underlying facts.

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