The operational decision
Keep uncertainty honest without ending the conversation abruptly. An answering assistant needs a controlled set of office facts. More uploaded material is not automatically better: old instructions and internal documents can make a public answer less reliable.
Prepare the workflow
Prepare a short fallback that names the public office contact and avoids collecting a personal explanation of why the answer matters.
Example wording for approval
“I do not have a verified answer about that office detail. Please contact the practice directly; I can help you find its public contact information.”
Worked example
A visitor asks whether the fictional building has bicycle storage. The address and parking sheet say nothing about bicycles. The assistant should not infer that a car park includes bike racks or recommend leaving a bicycle near an entrance. It gives the public office-contact route and flags the missing public fact for review. If staff later confirm a rack location, that becomes a newly approved answer with its own source and check, not a remembered guess from the earlier call.
Handoff record
Record these task-specific fields: unknown topic, public route, proposed fact owner, review date.
Acceptance check
Ask about an unlisted amenity such as bicycle storage. The assistant should not infer its existence from the building or neighborhood.
Try Ava with your business’s public information ↗