Once you've added FAQs and Business Information and customised the instructions for the Agent mode(s) you plan on enabling, it's time to test your Phone Agent before letting it handle real calls.
Testing ensures the Agent behaves exactly as you've defined, gives a professional experience to callers, and helps you catch any gaps in your setup.
How to Test your Phone Agent
Each Phone Agent mode (Business Hours, After Hours, and Voicemail) has a Test Call function.
- Go to Account > Settings > ServiceM8 Phone > ServiceM8 Phone Agent > Settings.
- Next to the mode you want to test, click Test Call.
- Your phone will ring. Answer the call to begin a live test conversation with your configured Phone Agent.
- Pretend you are a client and run through each potential scenario you've defined in the instructions.
Note: It's normal to need several iterations to perfect your Agent's performance. Repeat the test as many times as needed, while updating your FAQs or mode-specific instructions, until you're satisfied with the responses.
What to test in each Phone Agent mode
Below are some scenarios and actions you should test in each mode:
- FAQs: Ask about your services, location & pricing, and check that your agent answers using the information contained in your FAQs.
- Quote request: Ask to get a new quote or estimate.
- Quote questions & clarifications: Ask questions about a quote you've received.
- New booking or service: Ask to book a new job.
- Existing jobs: Seek to clarify something about an existing job, or change a scheduled booking — keep in mind your agent does not have access to job information, but you can set how it handles enquiries about existing jobs e.g. by transferring the call or taking a message.
- Create Online Booking: Request a quote or service where the action you've set is for the agent to submit an Online Booking on the caller's behalf.
- SMS Link to Online Booking: Request a quote or service where the action you've set is for the agent to SMS a link to your Online Booking form.
- Calls requiring transfer: Ask questions where the action you've set is for the agent to transfer the call to a certain call group or staff member.
- Requests to transfer: Ask to speak to a specific staff member or role in the business.
- Callback request: Ask to leave a message for a specific staff member or role in the business to call you back.
- Sales call: Pretend to be a telemarketer or sales representative, and insist on speaking to the business owner.
- Record a message: Ask questions where the action you've set is for the agent to take a message.
- Urgent Job: Pretend you have a service emergency and request urgent assistance.
- Unknown question/scenario: Ask something not covered by your FAQs and agent instructions. Does your agent revert to a fallback action?
- Complaint: Pretend you want to make a complaint.
- Fallback: Act confused, upset or unintelligible.
If you intend to use more than one mode (Business Hours, After Hours and/or Voicemail), be sure to conduct the same Test Calls for each mode, as your actions and instructions likely differ based on the mode e.g. the way your agent handles a request for a quote may differ between Business Hours and After Hours modes.
Disclosing that Calls are Recorded
All calls answered by your ServiceM8 Phone Agent are recorded. This way you can monitor how your Agent is handling calls, and review specific call recordings or transcripts if needed. Even if you do not opt to record standard calls by default as part of your ServiceM8 Phone setup, calls answered by your ServiceM8 Phone Agent are still recorded.
The laws in your jurisdiction may require that you notify, or gain consent from, all parties to a call in order to record it. In this case we recommend that you use the Welcome Message for this requirement (you can set welcome messages in Settings > ServiceM8 Phone > Call Settings). In this case, an inbound caller could have an experience such as:
- Welcome Message: "Welcome to Smart Home Services. All calls are recorded."
- Phone Agent Greeting: "Smart Home Services, this is Kora. How can I help?"
Alternatively, if you do not record calls by default (in Settings > ServiceM8 Phone > Call Settings > Call Recording), you could disclose this in your Agent's greeting/s instead, such as:
- Phone Agent Greeting: "Smart Home Services, please note calls are recorded. I'm Kora, how can I help?"
Disclosing your Agent is AI
The laws in your jurisdiction may require that you notify the caller that they are interacting with an AI agent. If your local laws do not require this disclosure, you may still wish to let callers know they're speaking with an AI agent. If this the case for you, you can disclose this in your Welcome Message/s, or in your Agent's greeting/s (see "Disclosing that Call are Recorded" above for guidance).
Troubleshooting Common Issues
If your Phone Agent doesn’t behave the way you expect during testing, the reason is usually something small in your setup. Here are the most common issues and how to resolve them:
Transfer failures
- Make sure staff names, call group names, and phone numbers exactly match your ServiceM8 records. If some staff members have prefixes, be sure to update them e.g. change "Z Bob Smith" to "Bob Smith".
- Confirm phone numbers are listed in staff profiles.
FAQ problems
- Check for incomplete or missing information in your FAQs
- Update any outdated information
Going Live
Once testing is complete and you're confident in your Agent's performance:
- Enable the desired Agent mode using the ON/OFF toggle switch.
- Monitor the first few real calls closely.
- Review the call recordings, transcripts, and Inbox messages.
- Adjust instructions or FAQs as needed based on how your Agent is performing live.
- Continue to review and refine your settings regularly as your business changes.
Congratulations - your ServiceM8 Phone Agent is now live!