Testing before you go live

When you finish this page you will have talked to your agent the way your customers will, on every channel you use, read back what happened, and ticked off the checks that matter before real customers are called or messaged. We suggest you set aside about an hour for a first full pass.

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The ways to test

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Talk to your agent with Preview

Preview is the quickest test: it runs in your browser and needs no phone. What Preview does and does not show:

• It is the real agent: its greeting, voice, instructions, knowledge and tools.
• It does not identify you as a customer. Store tools answer as they would for a guest: an order’s details are given only when you say its order number together with the billing email and postcode on that order. Test order look-up for a signed-in customer on your website instead (see below).
• We recommend testing in Voice at least once. Text shows what the agent says; only voice shows how it sounds, how quickly it answers and how it handles interruptions.

If it fails you see “Could not start the preview.”, “Could not connect.”, “Preview error.” or “Conversation ended:” with a reason. See Testing an agent with Preview.

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Test the website assistant

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In the widget editor

Open Website widgets and click the pencil on a widget. The Live preview on the right is the real widget, updated a moment after each change you make in the editor.

• It is a real conversation with your agent. Your browser asks for the microphone, and messages you type are really sent.
• Like a conversation on your website, it needs the widget switched on, your account active and on a paid plan, and it counts towards your daily conversation limit.
• Width (px) and Height (px) are not shown in the preview.
• The preview shows your changes before you save, but your website does not change until you click Save changes.

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On a copy of your site

If you have a staging copy of your store, we recommend trying the widget there before your live site:

1. Add the staging site’s address, starting with https://, on its own line in Allowed domains, and click Save changes. The widget only appears on the addresses listed there. (http:// is accepted only for localhost addresses on your own computer.)
2. Paste the snippet into the staging site or, on WordPress with the RuleInside plugin, paste the embed id into the plugin’s Widget ID field (WordPress admin, menu RuleInside).
3. Open the staging site as a shopper would and start a conversation.

The same snippet works on every address in Allowed domains. See Website assistant and WordPress plugin.

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As a signed-in customer and as a guest

Your assistant gives order details to a customer logged in to your store, about their own orders. Someone not logged in gets an order’s details only by giving its order number together with the billing email and postcode on that order; otherwise, general help. Try both:

• Signed in: log in to your store as a customer who has an order (a test account of your own is ideal) and ask about that order. In a voice conversation, a signed-in shopper your store recognises is greeted with the Returning-shopper greeting, as long as it mentions both AI and recording.
• As a guest: log out, ask the same question without giving the billing email and postcode, and check that no order details are given.

Order look-up needs your store connected under Connections.

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Call your own phone number

What you hear on a call is shaped by Turn taking, Call limits and Conversation behaviour in Agent settings.

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Place a campaign test call

A campaign can call your own phones before it calls anyone else. Test calls are for phone campaigns only. A test call is still checked against your store’s calling consent confirmation, your do-not-call list and opt-outs, the campaign’s calling hours and days, and your daily call limit. You then see “Test call placed to {count} number(s).” or “No test call was placed.” with the reason. A common one: you are testing outside the campaign’s calling hours. See Send test call.

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Send yourself a WhatsApp message

WhatsApp campaigns have no test call. To test a template, send it to your own number from WhatsApp send. Before you start, check that:

• your WhatsApp number is connected on Phone numbers (for a number our team connected for you, with Messaging enabled on and an agent assigned);
• the template is registered under WhatsApp templates with Kind set to Message and Enabled on;
• you are a saved contact, with your number in international format starting with +, and WhatsApp consent is recorded on your contact with Consent (see Contacts);
• an owner has confirmed Settings › Calling consent.

• A Marketing template is sent only inside the calling hours where you are. Outside them it waits as Queued.
• A number that is not a saved contact is refused, and the send log shows Suppressed with opt_out.
• If you reply STOP from your test phone, you opt yourself out of WhatsApp messages and calls from your store. Reply START to opt back in to WhatsApp messages (calls stay stopped).

See Sending a WhatsApp message.

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Pre-launch checklist

Work through this list before real customers can reach your agent.

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Reading a test conversation

Open Calls, choose the agent, and click the date of your test call. The call’s page shows, from top to bottom:

• Recording: listen to the greeting and the agent’s voice as a customer heard them.
• Details: the channel, the duration and the Result (Success or Failure).
• Summary and Data collected: what the agent understood and captured, for example a lead’s email.
• Evaluation: each check your agent runs, with its result and explanation, when your agent has any.
• Transcript: the whole conversation, message by message.

In the transcript, look for:

• Slow answers. The figure after an agent message’s time, such as ”· 1.41s”, is how long the agent took to respond. If answers feel slow, see Turn taking.
• Interruptions. interrupted marks a message that was cut off. If the agent stops when the caller says “ok”, add those words to Words that do not interrupt.
• Actions. Rows with a wrench icon are actions the agent took, such as looking up an order, with “ok” or “error”. Open one to see Request and Response.
• Knowledge look-ups. A row with a book icon shows the agent checked your knowledge. If it never checks a document you expected, see How the agent uses a document.

See Calls for every card and notice.

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A suggested way to roll out

You do not have to switch everything on at once. A careful order, which we recommend:

1. Website first. Try the widget on a staging copy, then add your live address to Allowed domains. To stop it at any time, switch Widget enabled off and click Save changes: your snippet does not need to change.
2. Your phone line. Assign the Inbound agent and read the Calls page every day for the first week.
3. A small campaign. Upload a short list of people who agreed to be called, launch, and read the launch result and every call before you reach a larger group. An uploaded list holds at most 1,000 rows, and a campaign reaches at most 5,000 contacts.
4. Automations last. Use Preview on a rule to see who it would reach (it never places a call), and keep one rule switched on at a time.
5. WhatsApp. Send a template to yourself, then to a small group.

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Common questions

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Next steps