Step-by-Step Guide to Create Effective AI Phone Calling Scripts on Callchimp.ai
Jan 13, 2025
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While the literary meaning of the word ‘script’ is ‘a text of the dialogue and action for a drama’, in the context of a telephonic conversation it doesn’t have a much different meaning. In simple words, a telephone script is a text which provides help and guidance to the creator while having a conversation. Script for a drama is very useful in guiding and directing the play. No drama can become successful among the audiences without a properly written and complete script. Similarly, a telephonic conversation for businesses also needs a script. Businesses need to communicate with customers on a regular basis. Even one telephonic conversation done poorly can adversely affect a business's reputation and public opinion. Thus, it becomes quite evident that a telephonic conversation, especially with regard to a business, has to have a well-written and complete script. Otherwise, the communication is liable to become ineffective and wasteful, as well as harmful to the business in the worst-case scenario.
AI Phone Calling Scripts and Limitations of LLMs
Artificial Intelligence(AI) Phone Calling Scripts are a little different to the scripts for manual telephonic conversations owing to the fact that AI calling scripts need to be properly structured, complete, unambiguous and branched as and when required. AI Phone calling scripts are made of LLM prompts in the same manner as a wall is made of bricks. Thus, we simply cannot give ambiguous and incomplete scripts for conversation to the AI Calling agent. Though, AI Chatbot’s are designed to be intelligent and smart, yet they tend to go astray in the absence of clear-cut directions and logical flow of commands.
Large Language Models(LLMs) are Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that are behind every AI Calling conversation that we do. LLMs like OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s PaLM 2, BARD and BERT and many other LLMs developed by different companies are at the core of every AI Calling conversation that takes place either on the internet or on a stand-alone machine. LLMs use machine learning programs to understand and generate human language. These are trained on a large amount of text data to learn patterns and rules of language. This training helps the LLMs to respond to user’s questions with relevant answers in human language. It is also important to know that different LLMs may use different types of machine learning algorithms and may be trained on different sets of data. Therefore, different LLMs may give out different responses to the same question. Even the same LLM can give out different responses at different times. This is because LLMs work by predicting the next word or phrase. These words or phrases are chosen randomly out of a given set of words or phrases. Thus, there may be different responses every time for the same question. These variations can be limited by providing proper prompts that limit different responses every time. This article is intended to help write such prompts along with the whole scripts which help in faster, consistent, invariable and efficient AI Calling.
LLM Prompting: Instructions Driving the AI Calling
An LLM prompt is an instruction that we give to an LLM to generate desired response/s from the AI Calling Agent. Every interaction with the AI Calling Agent is guided by the prompt/s that we give to the LLM. A well structured AI Phone Calling Script can have following four types of prompts.
1. Instruction:
It consists of the directions or commands that we give to the AI Agent to perform its role according to different cases. Instructions must be given using ‘action verbs’, otherwise LLM will not be able to know what to do. It's like forming if-then or if-then-else type of ‘Control Flow’ statements. These instructions can be chained or branched or a combination of both. Instructions can be with or without data as well. Instructions can be open-ended and close-ended as well.
Following are some examples of close-ended instructions to the AI Calling Agent:
Start the call by saying, “Hello, this is Lata, from Bharat Hyundai. How are you today?”
If the user responds positively to the question, say, “I’m reaching out to inform you about our latest offers on Hyundai vehicles.” Else If, the user sounds negative or not interested at any point, say, “Thanks for interacting with Bharat Hyundai today, have a great day, Goodbye”, and then end the call.
Greet the user by saying, "Hello {customer_name}, this is {agent_name} calling from {dealership_name}.
Following are some examples of open-ended instructions to the AI Calling Agent:
Write a poem from the perspective of a parrot in a cage.
Brainstorm five benefits of Internet-Of-Things from the perspective of an industrialist.
2. Context:
This consists of background information that helps the model understand the given instructions accordingly. Giving proper context details is important, otherwise the LLM might perform differently to what we want. Here is an example of context:
“You are a sales representative from Bharat Hyundai. Be professional and concise in your replies. You will never respond in more than 2 sentences. If the user interacts or requests for Hindi, interact in pure Devanagri. If the user interacts or requests for Telegu language, interact in pure Telegu. If the user interacts or requests for English language, interact in pure English. Do not say or confirm anything out of the script, answer questions from within the script only. Do not repeat the conversation from the start if you don't understand the user's response. Continue the conversation only from the current not understood response by asking the user to repeat their response again.”
3. Examples(Few-shot prompts):
These are optional when writing a prompt. Examples consisting of sample inputs and outputs can be given to elicit the expected response from the AI Calling Agent. Often called ‘few-shot prompts’ these are especially useful in guiding the AI Agent to produce outputs in a desired format or style. Following is an example of a few-shot prompt.
Write a short poem on ‘My school’ in the style of these examples:
Example 1:
Twinkle Twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are?
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Example 2:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
4. Data:
Data are facts or information that the AI Calling Agent needs to provide information or details regarding the services or products of any business on whose behalf it is being used. The following is an example of data to be given to the AI Calling Agent-
Once you have the answers to suggest an SUV, suggest an SUV according to following options:
"1. The Hyundai Venue, available in E, S, S+, SX, and SX (O) variants with fuel options like 1.2L Kappa Petrol, 1.0L Turbo GDi Petrol, and 1.5L U2 CRDi Diesel, paired with 5-speed manual, 6-speed iMT, and 7-speed DCT (petrol) or 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic (diesel) transmissions. It features an electric sunroof, wireless charger, 8-inch touchscreen, and LED headlamps, seating 5 passengers, and comes in colors like Polar White, Typhoon Silver, Phantom Black, Fiery Red, Denim Blue, and Titan Grey. Tire sizes include 195/65 R15 (E, S), 215/60 R16 (S+, SX), and 215/60 R17 (SX (O)).
2. The Hyundai Creta, offered in E, EX, S, SX, and SX (O) variants, is powered by 1.5L MPi Petrol, 1.4L Turbo GDi Petrol, and 1.5L U2 CRDi Diesel engines with 6-speed manual, IVT (petrol), 7-speed DCT (turbo petrol), and 6-speed automatic (diesel) transmissions. It seats 5 passengers and features a panoramic sunroof, Bose audio system, Blue-link, and ventilated seats, available in Polar White, Typhoon Silver, Phantom Black, Lava Orange, Deep Forest, Galaxy Blue, and Red Mulberry. Tire sizes include 205/65 R16 (E, EX), 215/60 R17 (S, SX), and 215/55 R18 (SX (O)).”
Thus, in essence, an Artificial Intelligence(AI) Phone Calling Script can be designed in four stages, each stage comprising of one type of prompt out of the total four types of prompts.
Some Basic Guidelines
While giving instructions for the AI Calling Agent, following basic guidelines are best to be followed.
Instructions should contain action verbs: Using direct commands or imperative forms of verbs are best suited for the job.
Don’t use jargon or slang: Use simple, short and error-free words and sentences for a prompt.
Avoid references to third parties or using pronouns: Removing the subject or any identifiers generally prevents the AI Agent from personifying or identifying the user correctly.
Use detailed chain-of-thought instructions: Don’t write incomplete and incoherent sentences as prompts. Don’t use filler words like Um, Ah, Well, You know, I think etc. as prompts.
Avoid using ambiguous words or sentences. Be specific: For example, don’t use such words or sentences as prompts which are illogical or have double meanings.
Prepare prompts by anticipating the user's responses in advance: It is best to imagine beforehand every type of responses from the users and prepare prompts for them in advance. Incorporate and test every possible scenario in the script beforehand.
End the script with a natural conclusion-mark: Like “Bye!” or “Good-bye!” or “End the call”.
Analyse call data to improve upon your scripts: Fine tuning the script needs analysis of the calls. Callchimp.ai provides audio recordings of each call in both text and audio form to help with call analysis at no extra cost. Callchimp.ai also includes a feature the “Audio Analyser” to help with deeper AI call analysis, which helps in gathering better and customised insights of each call.
Use close-ended questions to keep the conversation on track.
Afterthought
In today’s competitive and globalised market-place, running a business might not be a piece of cake for everyone, yet with a little effort and practice writing scripts for AI Calling is surely going to be a piece of cake for anyone.The above discussion may seem bit exhaustive and complicated to a layman, yet it is not all that complex to write an AI Calling Script. Hope the readers find the discussion helpful and sufficient for creating an AI Phone Calling Script.
For more information and help with creating ‘AI Phone Calling Scripts’ for your business kindly visit us at Callchimp.ai or mail us at hello@callchimp.ai.
