Refinements — override AI answers with exact responses

What are Refinements?

Refinements let you define specific question-and-answer pairs that the AI uses instead of generating its own response. They're useful when you need a guaranteed, word-for-word answer for certain questions — such as your licence number, guarantee policy, or exact pricing.

Without refinements, the AI paraphrases information from your knowledge base, which may vary slightly. With refinements, you control the exact wording.

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Types of refinements

Exact match

The user's message must match your question exactly (case-insensitive). When it does, the AI skips its knowledge base entirely and returns your specified answer verbatim.

Use exact match for:

• Factual questions with a single correct answer: "Are you licensed?", "What's your ABN?", "Do you have a guarantee?"
• Legal or compliance statements that must not be paraphrased
• Specific prices you want quoted precisely

Soft match (non-exact)

The question-and-answer pair is injected into the AI's context as guidance. The AI will strongly prefer your answer but may adapt the phrasing to suit the conversation.

Use soft match for:

• Preferred phrasing for common questions where flexibility is acceptable
• Answers that work better when the AI adapts them to the conversation

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Adding a refinement

1. Go to Dashboard → Refinements
2. Click Add refinement (or Add from message on any conversation message)
3. Enter the Question — type it as a customer would ask it
4. Enter the Answer — exactly what you want the bot to say
5. Toggle Exact match on if this question has one precise answer
6. Set a Priority (lower = higher priority when multiple refinements match)
7. Click Save

Tips for writing good questions

• Use lowercase, no punctuation — the exact match comparison normalises both sides: are you licensed matches "Are you licensed?", "are you licensed", "ARE YOU LICENSED?"
• Think about how customers actually phrase things, not how you'd write a FAQ

Tips for writing good answers

• Write in first person as the business: "Yes, we're fully licensed — Lic. No. 395469C"
• Keep it concise — 1–3 sentences is ideal for chat
• Include a call-to-action if relevant: "Call us on 0480 020 798 to book"

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Managing refinements

• Active/inactive toggle — inactive refinements are ignored entirely (not injected into the AI at all)
• Priority — when multiple non-exact refinements match, lower priority numbers are processed first
• Add from message — in the Conversations view, click any user message to pre-fill the question field with that message text

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Example refinements for a plumbing business

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Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the knowledge base? The knowledge base (Sources) is trained on your website, documents, and text. The AI retrieves relevant chunks and paraphrases them. Refinements bypass this entirely for specific questions — they're like pinned answers.

What if both a refinement and knowledge base content match? Exact-match refinements always win — the knowledge base is not consulted. Soft refinements are injected alongside knowledge base context.

How many refinements can I add? Up to 50 active refinements per chatbot. Keep them focused on the questions that matter most.

Can I import refinements in bulk? Not yet — they must be added individually or via "Add from message" in the Conversations view.