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Fin Guidance [beta]

How to use Fin Guidance to improve Fin's responses.

Julia Godinho avatar
Written by Julia Godinho
Updated yesterday

Fin Guidance lets you customize Fin’s responses to match your support policies and communication style. Whenever Fin sends a message to your customer, it will take your Guidance into account.


Get started

Go to AI & Automation > Fin AI Agent and find the new menu item called Guidance.

Creating guidance

To help get you started, we have created different categories of guidance:

  • Communication style: specific vocabulary and terminology Fin should use.

  • Context and clarification: follow-up questions Fin should ask, to ensure accurate answers.

  • Handover to team: moments when Fin should route customers straight to your team.

  • Everything else: anything that does not fit into the above categories.

You'll find examples of guidance below each category. You can also view our Fin Guidance best practices.

Each workspace is limited to 250 pieces of guidance. Each guidance can be up to 2500 characters in length.

Using attributes in guidance

User, company, or conversation attributes can be included in your guidance to tailor responses for specific customers. For example:

“If the customer’s {{Pricing Plan Name}} is "Pro", then always escalate the conversation to a member of the team.”

Here, the placeholder {{Pricing Plan Name}} will automatically populate with the customer’s actual pricing plan before Fin generates a response.

This enables you to adapt your guidance to each customer’s specific situation, such as their location, subscription tier or recent activity.

Channel specific guidance

Fin knows what channel it's using. To give Fin different guidance for different channels, you can write "If the channel is email, then do [Email Guidance]", or "If the channel is the Chat Messenger, then do [Messenger Guidance]". For example:

"If the customer is contacting us via email, avoid suggesting they reach out to us through email for further support. Instead, focus on addressing their query directly."

The channel names Fin uses are: Chat Messenger, Android, iOS, Email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and SMS.

Testing guidance

On the right hand side, you can use the Messenger preview to test your guidance to see how Fin would answer your customers’ questions. Whenever you update a piece of guidance, you can test it here without having to save or set it live.


FAQs

How does Fin Guidance work?

After Fin generates a response from the content and data that you have provided, our AI Engine checks whether the response follows your guidance:

  • If all guidance is followed, Fin’s response is sent as is.

  • If any guidance is not followed, Fin will adjust the response to comply with the guidance before sending.

Guidance can also use the following context to adjust Fin's response if these are referenced in the guidance prompts:

  1. The current date and time.

  2. The channel the conversation is using (Messenger chat, Android, iOS, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and SMS).

  3. Attributes that have been specifically referenced in the guidance.

  4. The conversation history.

  5. The language the customer is using in the conversation.

  6. The brand name and bot identity you have configured for your workspace.

Learn more about the technology behind Intercom's patented AI agent, Fin.

Can I create different guidance for different audiences?

Yes, you can tailor Fin’s responses for different customer segments by using user, company, or conversation attributes in your guidance.

For example:

  • 🛎 “If the customer’s {{Pricing Plan Name}} is "Pro", always escalate the conversation to a human.”

  • 🌍 “If the customer’s {{country}} is 'France', use French greetings and localized terminology.”

This allows you to personalize Fin’s behavior based on factors like subscription tier, location, or past interactions, ensuring responses feel relevant and specific to each audience.

How does using Fin Guidance impact Fin’s response time?

Using Fin Guidance adds a slight delay of a few seconds to Fin’s responses. This delay remains the same regardless of how much guidance you have - it’s the use of any guidance that introduces latency.

What can Fin Guidance not be used for?

Fin Guidance cannot:

  • Take actions on the conversation (other than handing over to the team). For example, guidance cannot be used to route handovers or escalations to a specific team inbox, tag conversations, update conversation attributes, mark conversations as priority or take any other actions. Instead, these should be configured via Fin AI Agent Simple Setup or Workflows.

  • Control which content sources Fin generates a response from for different types of users. If you want Fin AI Agent and Fin AI Copilot to use specific content when responding to customers or teammates, you can apply audience rules to the content in the Knowledge Hub. Learn how to manage knowledge audiences and content targeting for Fin.

How can I ensure my Guidance is written effectively?

  • Check your guidance wording by running it through a writing tool like Claude AI or ChatGPT to ensure clarity and ease of interpretation.

  • Test your guidance using the preview to see how Fin would answer related questions. Whenever you update your guidance, you can test it before you set it live.

How can I see when Fin has applied my Guidance?

You can track when Fin applies your guidance through the Inbox. The conversation events record which specific pieces of guidance were used as part of a response.

Coming soon: We'll be adding metrics to the Guidance page to show:

  • 📊 The number of conversations each piece of guidance was applied to.

  • ✅ The resolution and handover rates for those conversations.

Is Fin Guidance applied to Custom Answers?

No, Custom Answers are hardcoded responses and won’t be modified by Fin Guidance.


Best practices and examples

Best practices

Start by thinking of the outcome you want to achieve

If you have observed Fin’s response and want to influence it by providing guidance, think about the clear outcomes you’d like to see, and work backwards from this—making the guidance more tactical in order to achieve the desired outcome.

For example, if you have observed that Fin isn’t capturing the nuance between two different products you offer, guide Fin to clarify what type of product the customer is referring to before answering: “When a user is asking where they can find the “search” feature, first ask them what product they are using before answering the question. Wait for their answer to then provide specific instructions based on the product they have access to”.

Use simple and clear language

Write guidance that is precise and unambiguous by using simple and clear language. Vague guidance can lead to inconsistent or unpredictable responses. Think about writing guidance as if you are onboarding a new agent into your team and you are explaining the policies and procedures they should follow to provide excellent customer support.

Set context and give examples

Provide clear context about the specific use case or scenario the guidance is intended for. Be targeted and include concrete examples of ideal responses to illustrate the desired output. Using words such as “If”, “when” and “then”, help Fin understand when it should apply this guidance.

For example, if you want Fin to speak like a pirate, give it examples of things you would like it to say (or avoid saying): “When interacting with customers, use a friendly and approachable tone with a subtle touch of pirate flair. Incorporate pirate expressions sparingly (e.g., "Ahoy!" or "Aye!") to add character, but keep the conversation feeling natural and human. Always prioritize clarity and the customer's needs, ensuring that instructions and solutions are easy to follow.”

Create separate, focused guidance

Create standalone, single-purpose guidance. Each guidance should address a specific objective or context. Avoid mixing multiple, unrelated instructions in one guidance entry. The more focused and clear the guidance, the more accurately Fin can interpret and execute the intended behavior.

Keep refining your guidance

Treat guidance as a dynamic process. Start with some basic guidance, and refine it based on the results of your testing. Observe how Fin responds, identify areas for improvement, and make incremental adjustments to enhance accuracy, relevance, and effectiveness. It’s also important to ensure you don’t have any conflicting guidance, so ensure you regularly prune existing guidance.

Try passing your guidance to a writing tool such as Claude AI or ChatGPT to help ensure it's clearly written and easy for an AI model to interpret.

Guidance examples

Below you will find some examples of guidance. You can use these as inspiration or adapt these for your specific needs.

Communication style

Specific vocabulary and terminology Fin should use.

  • We offer Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans. They should be capitalized and referred to as “plans” rather than “subscriptions”.

  • Always answer in British English.

  • Use plain language, avoiding jargon or buzzwords. For example, use "easy" instead of "frictionless".

  • If the user is frustrated, show empathy and use calming language to let them know that you care about helping them out—for example, “I understand this is frustrating, and I apologize. I am going to work through this with you to find a suitable solution”. Feel free to use different variations of this example.

  • Answers should be always readable and concise: sentences should be short, there should be at most 1-2 sentences per paragraph and no more than 100 words per answer (unless absolutely necessary). Simply break paragraphs into sentences with a newline without other formatting or content changes. Note that this guideline only applies to regular textual paragraphs, it does NOT apply to code, bullet points, list, and other structured markdown.

  • Never ask the user to contact <company name> through email as they're already contacting <company name>'s customer support through the chat messenger. For example, remove passages such as "please email us at <company email>" from any AI message. In those cases, tell the user instead that if they need further help, they should request human assistance by clicking on "Talk to a person 👤".

  • We are currently in the holiday/new year period. End interactions with a brief, inclusive seasonal greeting that fits the customer's language and region when clear from the conversation. Keep greetings short and at the end of responses. Avoid holiday wishes when handling urgent issues or customer complaints.

Context and clarification

Follow-up questions Fin should ask, to ensure accurate answers.

  • If a user is having an issue completing a purchase, ask if they are trying to use bank transfer or a credit card.

  • If a user asks what features they have access to, first clarify which plan they are on.

  • If a user reports that they are seeing a 502 error, let them know that we are aware of the problem and are currently investigating as a matter of priority. They can follow for updates on: https://www.intercomstatus.com/

  • Do not assume what mobile app the user has. Always ask if they are an iOS or Android user when they report an error. Each app has a different subset of features, so it’s important to understand this first.

  • When a user reports a bug, first ask for the following information before continuing troubleshooting: 1) what device are you using? 2) URL where the bug is occurring; 3) when was the bug first noticed.

  • If the customer inquires about delivery options, check their {{country}} and provide a response that aligns with the delivery options available for that specific country.

Handover and escalation

Moments when Fin should route customers straight to your team.

  • If a user asks about cancelling their plan, escalate the conversation to a human.

  • If the user mentions any of the following tax-related terms, route to a human support agent: tax planning, tax consulting, tax advice.

  • There are some tasks that require an action from an agent; if a user mentions any of them, directly escalate the conversation: export analytics dashboard as a csv; generate code snippet for camera installation; update compliance document.

  • When a patient requests to book an appointment with Dr. Mills, direct them to an agent.

  • If the customer’s {{Pricing Plan Name}} is "Pro", then always escalate the conversation to a member of the team.


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