Start from how you already talk to customers
Read through real email replies or phone calls from your staff – the tone that already works there is the starting point, not a new style you invent.
Practical guide
How to write the right tone for your AI agent
An AI receptionist that sounds like a generic AI tool feels impersonal. This guide shows how to give your AI receptionist a tone of voice that feels like a natural part of your brand.
05 stepsA sequence to use before and after launch
The sequence
Work through the important decisions
Keep the scope narrow, test with real questions and expand when the workflow is reliable.
Decide formal or informal tone deliberately
A law firm and a hair salon likely need different degrees of formality – choose deliberately instead of letting the default setting decide.
Keep answers short by default
Long AI responses feel robotic. Aim for 2-3 sentences per answer as a baseline, with room to elaborate if the visitor asks further.
Test the tone on real colleagues
Have someone on the team who wasn't involved in the setup read through sample conversations and judge whether it "sounds like us".
Adjust based on real conversations
After launch, read through a sample of actual conversations each month and adjust the tone where it feels off.
Review before launch
Common pitfalls
- 01Leaving the default tone unadjusted, making the AI indistinguishable from any other AI tool.
- 02Making answers too long and formal, which feels heavy in a chat context.
- 03Never reading through actual conversations after launch to see how the tone actually lands.