Customizing Agent Tone
Tone controls how your agent frames what it says. Voice is who is speaking; tone is how they speak. Both matter, and they are set separately.
The Four Tone Styles
In Dashboard → AI Agent Settings, the voice style options are:
- Professional — formal and polished. The safe default for most businesses.
- Friendly — warm and approachable. Good for consumer services where rapport drives conversion.
- Calm — peaceful and measured. Best where callers arrive stressed: medical, dental, emergency trades, legal.
- Formal — strict and authoritative. Suits regulated contexts and high-value B2B.
Matching Tone to Call Type
The right tone depends on why people call, not on how you would describe your brand:
- A burst pipe at 11pm needs Calm, not Friendly. Cheerfulness reads as tone-deaf during an emergency.
- A restaurant reservation line benefits from Friendly. Formal feels cold.
- A law firm intake line should be Professional or Formal. Warmth can undercut credibility on a first call.
💡 Tip: If your business handles both emergencies and routine enquiries, choose the tone that suits the emergency. A caller with a real problem is far less forgiving than one booking a routine appointment.
Tone and Prompt Work Together
Tone sets delivery. The system prompt sets content. If your prompt instructs the agent to be efficient and gather details fast, a Friendly tone will not make it chatty — it will make an efficient agent sound pleasant.
⚠ Note: When an agent feels wrong but you cannot identify why, the mismatch is usually between tone and prompt rather than either one alone. A warm tone reading a rigid script sounds insincere.
Testing Tone Properly
Tone differences are subtle in a single exchange and obvious across a whole call. Test by placing a full call for each candidate tone and listening to the recordings back to back.