Assistant personality, tone and behavior
Control your assistant's tone, persona, emojis, sales style, response length, languages, voice and what it may or must never do.
These settings decide how your assistant sounds and which boundaries it keeps.
Where to find them
Open Assistant > Assistant settings on the web (or Home > Timo card on mobile) and go to Personality & Behavior and Knowledge & Rules.
Communication style
| Setting | Options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tone | Friendly, Formal, Empathetic, Concise, Casual | Decides how the assistant sounds. Each option shows a short description (for example Friendly is "Warm, approachable, genuinely helpful"). Choose one. |
| Persona Type | Human-like or Bot-like | Human-like sounds like a team member; bot-like presents itself as an automated assistant. |
| Use Emojis | on or off | Allows emojis in replies. |
| Languages | free text, for example English, French, Spanish | Comma or pipe separated. The first language is the default. Up to 500 characters. |
| Voice Message Voice | Male or Female | The voice used when the assistant sends AI-generated voice message replies. |
Response settings
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Sales Style | Soft Sell, Balanced, Aggressive (default: Balanced) |
| Response Length | Short, Medium, Detailed |
How Sales Style works
Tone decides how your assistant speaks. Sales Style decides only how proactively it sells. Changing the Sales Style never changes the tone, and all three styles follow the same conversation habits: answer the question first, never pressure, never invent discounts or deadlines, accept "no" or "later" without another pitch, and keep support and general questions free of sales talk.
| Sales Style | What the assistant does |
|---|---|
| Soft Sell | Customer-led. It answers and informs. It suggests something only when the customer asks or clearly describes a need, and offers a next step only when the customer shows they are ready. |
| Balanced | Consultative. It recommends what fits the customer's need and offers a suitable next step (such as booking or ordering) when the topic is settled or the customer is ready. |
| Aggressive | Proactive. After answering, it gives a confident recommendation of the best fit and, at natural moments, proposes the booking or order. It still makes one suggestion per reply and stops after a refusal. |
The sales behavior is active for assistants that have a product catalog, booking or lead collection turned on. It reads the whole conversation, so it adapts to what the customer already said, asks a question only when the answer would change its recommendation, explains benefits before features, and moves straight to the next step when the customer is ready to buy or book. It also takes the channel into account: on Instagram it uses story, reel and comment context and can share relevant links or images, on WhatsApp it continues earlier conversations with returning customers, and on website chat it stays brief. Assistants without these features keep the general helpfulness rules and do not push offers.
Short replies suit Instagram and WhatsApp chat. Choose Detailed only when customers expect explanations (for example for education or technical services).
Boundaries
- Allowed Actions: things the assistant can do for customers (for example "answer questions about prices").
- Forbidden Actions: things it must never do or suggest (for example "give medical advice", "promise delivery dates").
- Fallback Response: what the assistant says when it does not have enough reliable information. Required.
- Escalation Keywords and Escalation Action: words that should trigger escalation, and what should happen. Pair this with human handoff.
Examples
Beauty salon: Tone Friendly, Persona Human-like, Emojis on, Response length Short, Sales style Soft Sell. Forbidden: "Do not quote prices for colouring services."
Law or finance service: Tone Formal, Emojis off, Response length Medium, Forbidden: "Do not give legal advice. Offer to book a consultation."
Tips
- Change one setting at a time and re-test using Assistant tests (the Conversation & security tests check tone, brevity and memory).
- Write forbidden actions as clear, short rules.
- Write a fallback that points customers to a next step, such as your phone number or a booking link.
Troubleshooting
- Replies are too long: set Response Length to Short and run a style test.
- The assistant answers in the wrong language: list the languages you support and put the main one first.
Limitations
- The assistant follows these instructions as guidance. Test important rules before relying on them.
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