Set subjects the assistant should not discuss

Some questions sit outside the kind of help your assistant should provide. Excluded subjects let you define those boundaries in clear business language so the assistant can decline or redirect instead of continuing into an inappropriate topic.

The wording needs care. A useful boundary should recognize different ways of asking the same thing without blocking ordinary questions that happen to use similar words.

In this article, you'll learn:

• How to add an excluded subject
• How to make the boundary precise
• How to test direct and indirect wording
• How to give visitors a useful next step

Add a subject#

Open Behaviour and add one recognizable topic at a time. Short, specific phrases are easier to test than long instructions.

1. Open Settings > General settings > Behaviour.
2. Find Excluded subjects.
3. Add a short, specific subject.
4. Repeat only for distinct boundaries.
5. Select Save changes.

The editor supports a limited set of unique subjects and treats differently capitalized copies as duplicates. If a subject is already present, improve its wording instead of creating a second version.

Make the boundary precise#

Name the disallowed activity, not a broad industry or customer topic. For example, excluding Personalized legal advice is more precise than excluding every question containing the word legal.

Overly broad subjects can block legitimate questions about your own published terms, privacy page, or contact process. Overly narrow wording can miss the same request expressed indirectly.

Test each subject#

Save the changes, then approach the same boundary from several directions. For every excluded subject, test:

1. a direct request;
2. an indirect or conversational version of the same request;
3. a nearby question that should still be answered;
4. a request for your own contact or handoff process.

The assistant should decline within the boundary without inventing an answer. Valid adjacent questions should continue to work. If too many legitimate questions are blocked, narrow the subject and repeat the same tests.

Provide a useful next step#

Declining a subject does not have to leave the visitor without direction. When appropriate, make sure they can reach an enabled contact path or human handoff for the kind of help your team can provide.

Keep the expectation realistic. Do not promise a response time unless your team has committed to it elsewhere.

Configure the capture form and routing outcome in Configure human handoff.