# Give your WhatsApp assistant the right facts about your business

Version 1.1 · Kramaniti Kosh

> How to use this file: fill in the Working template section below. It opens in any text editor, or you can paste the whole file into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask it to help you fill it in for your business.

## Intended outcome

One checked sheet of your prices, timings, policies and the things your assistant must never promise, with a named owner and a review date, so that a WhatsApp assistant or any other chat assistant answers customers only from facts you have approved.

## Before you begin

- Your current price list, menu or rate card, and what each price includes
- Your timings, holiday list, address and the areas you deliver to or visit
- Your rules for returns, warranty, payment and bookings, written or as you usually apply them
- The questions customers ask most often, copied from a few weeks of real WhatsApp chats
- One person who will own the sheet, check every line and keep it up to date

## How to use

1. Fill in the sheet with the person who answers customers today. Copy prices and policies from what you charge and do now, not from memory or an old flyer. If something is not decided, write "not decided" instead of guessing.
2. Add the questions that should go to a person and the things the assistant must never say or promise. Then give the sheet to the assistant as its source for facts about your business. If you are switching on Meta's Business AI on WhatsApp, which can reply to customers in Indian languages and lets you take over a chat, add these facts wherever it asks for information about your business, and check that what it already shows matches the sheet.
3. Before customers see any replies, ask the assistant ten real questions from past chats and check each answer against the sheet. Update the sheet the same day a price, timing or policy changes, and check every line again on the review date.

## Working template

## Sheet details

Business:

Assistant or channel this sheet is for (for example WhatsApp Business AI, website chat):

Languages customers write in, and who checks replies in each one:

Sheet owner (the person who checks and updates it):

Backup when the owner is away:

Last checked on:

Next review date:

## Business basics

Business name as customers know it:

What you sell or do, in one or two plain lines:

What you do not sell or do:

Address and nearest landmark:

Map link:

Phone or WhatsApp number where a person answers:

Website or catalogue link:

## Prices and what is included

Write each price as you charge it today. Where the price depends on the job, write "price given by a person" instead of a range you have not checked.

Item or service 1:

- Price:
- What is included:
- What costs extra:
- Where this price comes from (price list, rate card, the owner):

Item or service 2:

- Price:
- What is included:
- What costs extra:
- Where this price comes from (price list, rate card, the owner):

Add more items the same way.

Taxes, delivery or other charges added to the bill:

Offers running now, with start and end dates, and who approved each one:

## Timings and holidays

Days and hours open:

Breaks or times when nobody answers:

Holidays and closed days coming up:

What customers are told when they message after hours:

## Location, delivery and visits

Areas you deliver to or visit:

Delivery or visit charges:

Who confirms a delivery or visit time, and how:

Parking, access or directions customers often ask about:

## Policies

Returns and exchanges:

Warranty or guarantee (what is covered, for how long, and what is not):

Payment (ways to pay, advance or part payment, credit):

Bookings and appointments (how to book, change or cancel):

Cancellations and refunds:

## Questions that go to a person

The assistant does not answer these. It tells the customer a person will reply. Who picks them up and how fast belongs in your handoff rules, not on this sheet.

- Complaints, refund requests and anything about a past order
- Custom orders, bulk orders and quotes
- Any question the sheet does not answer
- Add your own:

## Things the assistant must never promise or say

- Discounts, free items or offers that are not listed on this sheet
- Delivery, ready or appointment dates and times that a person has not confirmed
- Whether an item is in stock, unless the sheet says how stock is checked
- Health, medical, legal or safety advice
- Anything about another customer
- Prices for items or services that are not on this sheet
- Add your own:

## Change log

Write one entry each time a line on the sheet changes.

Date:

- What changed:
- Changed by:
- Checked by:

## Stop rules

- If the answer is not on this sheet, the assistant says a person will reply. It does not guess.
- Nothing goes on the sheet until the owner has checked it against what the business charges and does today.
- When a price, timing or policy changes, update the sheet the same day and add it to the change log.
- If the next review date has passed, the owner checks the whole sheet before anything new is added.
- The sheet holds facts only. Rules for when a person takes over a chat stay in your handoff rules.

## Demonstration

This is an illustrative scenario, not a client case study or a measured result. Do not reuse its details as facts about your work.

A sample family-run optician and eyewear store in Bengaluru sells frames, lenses, sunglasses and contact lenses. The father is the optometrist and does eye tests by appointment. His daughter runs the counter and the shop's WhatsApp, and wants to switch on an assistant to answer customers when the shop is busy.

### Sample inputs

Demonstration inputs only. No real prices, timings or stock are used. From the counter: frames and lenses are priced from the shop's printed list; eye tests are done by the father in the shop by appointment; glasses are ready once the lenses come back from the lab, which varies; the shop is closed on [weekly closed day]; unused frames can be exchanged within [days the owners set]; lens warranty comes from the lens maker; customers pay by UPI, card or cash, with an advance on prescription glasses. Questions from recent chats: "Do you have contact lenses?", "My eyes are red and itchy, which drops should I use?", "Can I get a discount if I buy two pairs?", "Will my glasses be ready by Friday?"

### Example output

#### Sheet details
[Fact within this demonstration] Sheet owner: the daughter. Backup: the father. Last checked: [date]. Next review: [date the owners set].

#### Prices and what is included
[Fact within this demonstration] Frames: [price from the shop's list]. Lenses: [price from the shop's list], fitting included. Eye test: [price or terms the owners decide]. Prescription glasses need an advance of [amount the owners set].

#### Things the assistant must never promise or say
[Fact within this demonstration] No advice about eye health, eye drops, medicines or whether someone needs a test. No discounts that are not on the sheet. No ready date for prescription glasses until the lab has confirmed it.

#### Today's questions checked against the sheet
[Inference] "Do you have contact lenses?": yes, the sheet lists them, and fitting is booked with the father. "Red and itchy eyes": no advice is given; the assistant sends the line the father approved, [approved line saying the shop cannot advise on eye health over chat and that a person will reply]. "Discount on two pairs": no such offer is on the sheet, so the assistant says a person will reply and promises nothing. "Ready by Friday": the date depends on the lab, so the assistant says the shop will confirm once the lenses arrive.

#### Stop rules applied
[Recommendation] The daughter reads the assistant's replies each day for the first two weeks and checks them against the sheet. The father checks every health-related line on the sheet before it goes live. This recommendation is not the business's decision.

## Quality check

Every price, timing and policy matches what the business charges and does today; unknown lines say "not decided" rather than a guess; the never-promise list covers discounts, dates, stock and health or safety advice; the sheet names an owner, a last checked date and a next review date; every change is in the change log; ten real questions were checked against the sheet before customers saw any replies.

## Limits and human review

The sheet gives the assistant approved facts to answer from; it does not make the assistant's replies correct or decide when a chat should go to a person. A named person checks the sheet before it is used and reads the assistant's replies regularly, most closely in the first weeks and after every change. The sheet does not replace your handoff rules: keep those in a separate plan, such as [Decide when a customer chat gets handed to a person](/kosh/customer-handoff-plan/). Check your chat tool's own settings and terms before switching it on. A filled template is not approval to switch on an assistant, quote prices or make offers. Keep consequential actions with the named human owner.

## Edition notes

New in Kosh at version 1.1. Provider-neutral Markdown instructions; no installation or platform compatibility is implied. Runtime behaviour has not been verified across AI providers. Reuse terms have not yet been published. Background reading: [Context Engineering Is Becoming the Agent Operating Layer](/insights/context-engineering-is-becoming-the-agent-operating-layer/). Setting up a chat assistant that answers from facts the business has checked, with a named person in charge of those facts, is Kramaniti's [Systems Engineering](/build/) work.