Setting Up the Customer Service AI Agent

Before you start

• Set up your Business Knowledge first. See Setting Up Business Knowledge for AI Agents.
• Add at least one sales channel and one business unit. A sales channel is a place where you take orders, such as your shop. A business unit is a kind of service you run, such as Laundry or Bag Repair. The test chat answers as one of them. See Setting Up a New POS Shop and Setting Up Your Business Unit.

Open the page

1. Click ⚙️ Settings.
2. Under AI Agents, click Customer Service Agent.

The first time you're here, a blue welcome box appears at the top: Try it in the test chat, then save. Nothing reaches customers until you add a WhatsApp number and turn it on. Setting it up is free.

It's there to reassure you: you can try things out freely. Nothing goes to customers while you set up. It only starts helping in your inbox after you turn it on, and the box goes away after your first save.

Reply style

Reply style controls how every draft sounds. It applies to all your WhatsApp numbers.

Tone

• Friendly: warm and approachable, conversational but helpful.
• Professional: polite, clear and business-like.
• Casual: relaxed and informal, like a friendly shop assistant.

Length

• Short: one or two short sentences when possible. Best for WhatsApp.
• Balanced: enough detail to help, without being wordy.
• Detailed: thorough, with every detail the customer needs.

Language

• Match customer: replies in the language of the customer's latest message. Choose this if your customers write in different languages.
• English: always replies in English.
• Chinese: always replies in Simplified Chinese.

Guidance

Guidance is your set of house rules for how the AI should reply. Think of it as the page in your staff handbook that teaches a new staff member to handle WhatsApp chats, how to greet customers, what to ask first, and what to avoid.

Type your house rules in the Guidance box, up to 2,000 characters, then click Save.

What to include

Examples you can adapt

Write clear rules

Guidance changes how replies sound, not what the AI is allowed to say. Prices and dates always come from your settings and Business Knowledge. Anything the AI can't confirm is left for your team.

Handover to your team

Some messages need a real person. The AI handles them in two ways.

• Always handed over: complaints, refund or compensation requests, customers asking for a person, and price negotiation. You can't turn these off. Your staff still get a draft, with an orange Needs a person warning, so they take extra care.
• Your own topics: anything you add under Also hand over, such as "Damaged or lost items". For these, the AI writes no draft and leaves the reply to your team. You can add up to 10.

To add your own topic:

1. Under Also hand over, type a topic of up to 80 characters.
2. Press Enter. Repeat for each topic.
3. Click Save at the top-right of the page.

Topics are matched by keyword, meaning one important word. If a customer's message mentions any main word of a topic, it goes to your team. For example, "Damaged or lost items" catches messages that mention "damaged" or "lost".

What happens when a chat is handed over

1. The customer isn't told anything. No message is sent.
2. Nobody gets a notification. The chat waits in your inbox like any other.
3. Your staff open the chat. For an always-handed-over topic, they see a draft with the orange Needs a person warning. For one of your own topics, there's no draft. A yellow bar shows AI needs your help with this conversation and the reason.
4. Your staff reply personally. A handover covers one message at a time. When the customer writes about something else, a draft appears as usual. For what staff see, see When to take extra care.

You may also see Staff notified on handoff and With automatic replies, the customer is told. These are only for automatic replies, which aren't available on your account yet. You can leave them as they are.

What it knows

This box shows where the AI gets its information. You don't set anything here.

• Prices, services, minimum orders and opening hours come from your EasyBiz settings, read fresh every time. Prices use your market's currency, such as S$ or RM.
• About your business, and everything else, comes from your Business Knowledge. The box shows how many entries you have, for example "12 entries".

To add or change entries, click Manage business knowledge.

Test chat

The test chat is a private practice chat on the right of the page. You type as if you were a customer, and the AI answers. It uses your latest changes, even ones you haven't saved. While you have unsaved changes, a box says Testing unsaved changes. Customers get them after you save. It never messages anyone and is free.

A line at the top tells you which kind of reply you're testing:

• Answers as the suggested replies your team sees on this number. You see what your staff will get.
• Answers as automatic replies would. You see this until you turn on Suggest replies.

Try it

1. Type a question your customers often ask, such as "How much to dry clean a suit?"
2. Send it.
3. Read the answer and the label under it.
4. Change a setting or a Business Knowledge entry.
5. Ask the same question again to compare.

To clear the chat, click ↺ Start a new chat.

What the labels mean

Every answer has one of these labels underneath:

Under each answer, Sources lists what the AI used, such as your price list or a knowledge entry. If an answer is wrong, it tells you which setting or entry to fix.

Answer as

Answer as appears above the chat only when there's more than one choice. It picks which shop and business unit, or which WhatsApp number, the test answers as. Choose the one your inbox answers for.

Questions you type here are not saved. To keep a question and check it again after every change, save it as a test question.

Test questions

Test questions are a saved list of up to 20 customer messages. After a change, you run them all again in one click. They use your unsaved changes, never send anything and are free.

Save a question on this page

1. Click ☰ Test questions. A panel opens on the right.
2. In Customer message to test, type a message the way a customer would.
3. Click Add. It's marked Not run yet.

The counter shows how many of the 20 you've used. To delete one, click ✕.

Save a real customer message from the inbox

1. In a WhatsApp chat with a draft, click ⋯ at the top-right of the reply box.
2. Click Save as test question.

Run your tests

1. Click ☰ Test questions.
2. Click Run tests. Each question shows the answer, label and sources.
3. After a change, click Run tests again. Changed answers show Changed since last run, with the old answer under Before.
4. When you're happy with the answers, click Save at the top-right of the page.

Your first 6 questions also appear as buttons above the typing box. Click one to ask it again.

Save

Click Save at the top-right of the page.

A short message confirms your changes are saved.

The first time you save, the message says Saved. Add a WhatsApp number to start suggesting replies. Nothing is wrong. Your settings are saved, but the AI won't help in your inbox until you turn it on. See Turn on suggested replies below.

After you save, Save is greyed out until you change something again.

Where it works

Saving this page doesn't switch the AI on. You do that in your Inbox settings. This box tells you what the AI is doing in your WhatsApp inbox right now. You'll see one of these messages:

• Off in your inbox. Turn it on in Inbox settings to suggest or send replies. The AI is set up but isn't helping yet. Your staff won't see any drafts.
• Your inbox: Suggest replies · answers for a shop and business unit, for example "Punggol Shop · Laundry". It's on. When a customer messages, your staff see a ready-made draft. They check it, edit it if needed, and send it. The draft uses that shop's prices and opening hours.
• Your WhatsApp numbers are set differently. You have more than one WhatsApp number, and they're not all on the same setting. Open Inbox settings and choose one option. It then applies to all of them.

Turn on suggested replies

1. In Where it works, click Change in Inbox settings.
2. Under Customer Service Agent, click Suggest replies.
3. If you have more than one shop or business unit, choose one under Answers for.

You'll see AI updated for this inbox. Drafts start with the next customer message. To pause them for everyone, come back and click Off. For what your staff see in each chat, see Use a suggestion.

Remove the Customer Service Agent

Remove it if you no longer want the AI in your WhatsApp inbox.

1. Scroll to the red Remove the Customer Service Agent box at the bottom of the page.
2. Click Remove.
3. Click Remove again to confirm, or Cancel to keep it.

What happens: all your WhatsApp numbers stop suggesting and replying straight away.

What stays: your past chats and your Business Knowledge.

To come back: set it up again on this page. You'll choose your reply style, Guidance and handover topics again.

FAQs

Does setting this up or testing it cost anything?

No. Setup, the test chat and test questions are free and never message customers. For suggested-reply pricing, see Before you start in Introduction to AI Agents.

The test chat says "Add a sales channel and a business unit…". What do I do?

The AI needs a shop and a service to answer as. Add both, then come back. See Setting Up a New POS Shop and Setting Up Your Business Unit.

Why is almost every chat handed to my team?

An Also hand over topic is probably too broad. Remove general words such as "order" or "price".

A test answer shows the wrong price. Do I fix it here?

No. Fix it in your price list. The AI reads your settings every time, and they win over Business Knowledge.

I saved, so why is nothing showing in my inbox?

Saving doesn't turn it on. Choose Suggest replies in Inbox settings. See Turn on suggested replies above.

Do my changes affect chats that are already open?

Yes, from the next draft. Messages already sent don't change.

What's next

Continue to Using AI Suggested Replies in WhatsApp.