Setting up instructions for your assistant (system prompt)

Your assistant does exactly what you tell it to. How it greets callers, which details it captures and when it ends a conversation — you control all of that in your voice config. This guide shows which fields shape the behaviour and how to fill them in well.

In short: First store your business details under Settings (name, address, opening hours, timezone). Then set the Greeting Message in your voice config, optionally your own System Prompt with {{variables}}, and your Follow-up Questions. Greeting, farewell, language behaviour and date/time are added by fonea automatically.

What is a system prompt? (in plain terms)

Think of the system prompt as the onboarding of a new receptionist: you explain once how they should behave, which questions to ask and what to pay attention to — and from then on they do exactly that on *every* call, around the clock. There's nothing to program; you simply write down in plain language what your assistant should do.

First: store your business details

Before you fine-tune the prompt, fill in your business profile under Settings. Your assistant can use these details automatically during a call:

• Business Name, Business Description, Business Type
• Address, Phone, Website, Email
• Opening hours (one line per day)
• Timezone — controls which date and time your assistant knows (e.g. Europe/London)

The more complete the profile, the less you have to write into the prompt by hand.

The voice config fields

These fields in your voice config control how your assistant behaves.

Greeting Message

The first sentence callers hear. Example: *"Hello, thank you for calling. How can I help you today?"* Important: the greeting is spoken automatically at the start of every call. You don't need to repeat it in the system prompt.

Farewell message

An example of how the assistant says goodbye before hanging up — for instance *"Thank you for your call. Have a lovely day. Goodbye."* The assistant only hangs up once the caller's request has been fully handled.

System Prompt

Here you describe how your assistant behaves — tone, tasks, what to capture, when to transfer a call or end the conversation. The system prompt is a template with `{{variables}}` that is filled with real values at call time. If you leave the field empty, fonea uses a sensible default: answer in a friendly way, capture name, callback number and reason for calling, and stay in the caller's language.

Follow-up Questions

A list of questions the assistant asks proactively — stored separately per language. That way every important detail is captured (e.g. callback number, preferred time).

Variables: insert business details automatically

Instead of hard-coding details into the prompt, use placeholders in double curly braces. fonea replaces them with the current values at call time. That keeps the prompt correct even if your details change later.

Date, time and day of the week are set automatically at call time — correctly localised for your language and timezone. You don't have to maintain anything.

What fonea adds automatically

Some things you don't need to write yourself — fonea adds them on every call:

• The greeting is spoken at the start.
• The farewell is used at the end, and the assistant hangs up cleanly.
• The language behaviour per language — including the appropriate politeness conventions, such as formal address where a language expects it.
• Date, time and day of the week in your timezone.

So focus your system prompt on what makes your business unique: tasks, tone and the details you want captured.

Example: a simple system prompt

A good prompt consists of a few clear building blocks. It could look like this — with variables instead of fixed values:

• Role: "You are the friendly phone assistant of {{business_name}}. Speak calmly, naturally and professionally, and be polite with every caller."
• Context: "About the business: {{description}}. Address: {{address}}. Opening hours: {{opening_hours}}."
• Task: "Capture the caller's name and a callback number, briefly clarify their request, and answer questions about opening hours and location using these details. If you don't know something, say so honestly and offer a callback."
• Follow-up questions: "Where relevant, ask the stored questions: {{questions}}."

Write these four building blocks as one continuous text into the System Prompt field — done.

Tips for good instructions

• Short and specific. Clear, short instructions work more reliably than long texts.
• Say what should be captured. Name, callback number, request — name them explicitly.
• Use variables instead of fixed values. That keeps the prompt current when opening hours or your address change.
• Test with a test call. Play through typical situations and adjust the prompt until the conversation feels right.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to put the greeting into the system prompt?

No. The Greeting Message is spoken automatically at the start of every call. You don't need to mention it again in the prompt.

What happens if I leave the system prompt empty?

Then fonea uses a sensible default: answer in a friendly way, capture name, callback number and reason for calling, and stay in the caller's language.

How does the assistant know today's date?

Date, time and day of the week are set automatically on every call — matching the Timezone you stored in Settings.

Can I ask different questions per language?

Yes. Follow-up questions are stored per language, so each language can capture exactly the details you need.