Agents
Tone, voice and brand
How the agent is set up to sound like your organisation, in English and Arabic, on every channel, and how your team tests and approves it before customers hear it.
On this page
- What you set
- The same answer, in three brands
- How complaints are handled
- Which Arabic the agent speaks
- The agent says what it is
- The voice your callers hear
- Approved phrases and wording to avoid
- Tested with your team before go-live
- Changes are approved before they go live
- In practice
- What your team controls
- Related
A luxury developer and a budget airline should not sound the same. Your customers form a view of your organisation from how it speaks to them, and the agent speaks for you in every conversation it holds. Its tone is configured as part of building your agent: how formal, warm or brief it is, how it handles a complaint, which Arabic it speaks, and the voice your callers hear. Your team hears and reads it before any customer does.
What you set
| Setting | What it decides | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Formality | How formally the agent speaks and addresses customers | "Mr Al Mansoori" or "Khalid" |
| Warmth | How much acknowledgement and courtesy surrounds the answer | A short thank-you, or a fuller welcome for a returning guest |
| Length | How much the agent says at once | One line on WhatsApp, or a fuller explanation by email |
| Complaint handling | How it acknowledges a complaint, and what it may say | An apology for the experience, in the words your legal team approves |
| Arabic register | Whether replies are in formal Arabic or Gulf dialect, and where | Gulf dialect on calls, formal Arabic in written confirmations |
| Voice | The voice your callers hear in each language | A calm, formal voice in Arabic and a matching one in English |
| Approved phrases | Wording the agent always uses, and wording it never uses | Your greeting, your sign-off, the names of your products |
These settings apply across every channel, adapted to each. A brief, warm agent is brief and warm on a call and on WhatsApp, with shorter sentences on the call.
The same answer, in three brands
The facts in a reply come from your systems. The tone decides how they are delivered.
How complaints are handled
How the agent responds to a complaint is set with you, because the right response depends on your brand and your legal position. The agent acknowledges the complaint, records what the customer says in their own words, and does not argue. It then either resolves what it can within its limits or hands the conversation to your team, according to your rules.
The wording matters: an insurer's legal team may want the agent to apologise for the customer's experience without admitting fault. A hotel may want a fuller apology and an offer to have the duty manager call. That wording is agreed with you and used consistently. See Conversation design by situation.
Which Arabic the agent speaks
The agent understands Gulf, Egyptian, Levantine and Modern Standard Arabic, English, and many other languages, including Urdu, Russian, Chinese and Spanish, and customers who switch between Arabic and English within a sentence. You decide which register its Arabic replies use: Modern Standard Arabic (the formal Arabic used in writing and formal communication) or Gulf dialect (the Arabic people in the region speak day to day).
Many organisations use both, by channel or situation. Formal Arabic reads well in an email or a written confirmation. On a call or in a WhatsApp conversation, formal Arabic can sound stiff, and Gulf dialect sounds like your own team. See Supported languages and Arabic dialects.
The agent says what it is
The agent identifies itself as an AI agent, and offers a person whenever a customer asks for one. This is part of every deployment, whatever the tone. A customer who feels misled about who they are talking to is a bigger problem for your brand than one who knows and gets their answer.
Tone settings change how the agent introduces itself, not whether it does. A luxury brand may introduce it formally on behalf of the company. A low-cost airline may keep it to a few words.
The voice your callers hear
On calls, the voice is part of your brand. You choose from voices in each language, male and female, with different characters, from providers deployed in your region. A custom voice, built from a recording of a speaker you choose and with that speaker's written consent, is configured during implementation. See Voices and Models and providers.
Approved phrases and wording to avoid
Your team can set wording the agent always uses, such as your greeting and sign-off, and wording it never uses, such as terms your brand avoids or phrases that could read as a commitment. Where an answer must be word-perfect, such as a regulated statement, it comes from an approved response library, configured during implementation. See Knowledge and documents.
Tested with your team before go-live
Before any customer hears the agent, your team does. The people who own the brand and the conversations, such as marketing, customer experience and senior agents, listen to sample calls and read sample conversations across the situations your customers raise. They tell us where the tone is wrong, and we change it.
After go-live, tone is part of your quality standard, so every conversation is scored against it. See Quality review on every conversation.
Changes are approved before they go live
A change to tone, wording or voice is a change to how your organisation speaks to every customer. It is made through a documented change process: agreed with your team, tested, and approved before release. Every change to an agent is recorded and can be reversed. See How changes go live.
In practice
Qamar Stays, a hotel group in Saudi Arabia, runs two brands: resorts and city hotels.
- The marketing team sets two tones. The resorts are formal and warm. The city hotels are brief and friendly.
- For both, the agent speaks Gulf dialect on calls and WhatsApp, and formal Arabic in email confirmations. English is used whenever the guest writes or speaks in English.
- The marketing team listens to shortlisted voices and chooses a warm, calm Arabic voice for the resorts and a brighter one for the city hotels, with matching English voices.
- Before go-live, guest relations managers listen to sample calls. They ask for the resorts' greeting to use the guest's family name, and for complaints to end with an offer of a call from the duty manager.
- Some months later, the city hotels want a shorter sign-off. The change is tested, signed off by marketing, and goes live.
What your team controls
- How formal, warm and brief the agent is, per brand and per channel.
- How complaints are acknowledged, and the words used.
- The Arabic register for each channel and situation.
- The voice in each language.
- Wording the agent always uses, and wording it never uses.
Related
- Conversation design by situationAgents
- VoicesLanguages
- Supported languages and Arabic dialectsLanguages
- Knowledge and documentsAgents
- How changes go liveGovernance and control
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