AI Tone Guide

Every time a customer texts your business and the AI replies, it follows the instructions in your tone guide. The guide tells the AI things like:

• How formal or casual to be
• Words or phrases to use (or avoid)
• How long responses should be
• Whether to use emojis, exclamation marks, etc.
• How to handle tricky situations like complaints or refund requests

The tone guide is separate from your knowledge base. The knowledge base tells the AI what to say (facts about your business). The tone guide tells it how to say it.

Mahana comes with a default tone guide designed for small, customer-facing businesses like studios, shops, and salons. The default style is:

• Casual and friendly — like a real person texting, not a corporate bot
• Short and direct — answers the question without over-explaining
• No emojis, no bullet points, no corporate jargon
• Includes one helpful follow-up detail, then stops

This works well for most businesses out of the box. You can customize it whenever you want from the Settings page.

You don't need to be technical — just write clear, specific rules the way you'd explain them to a person. Here are some tips:

• Write simple rules. Use short, direct sentences. "Never offer discounts" is better than a paragraph explaining your discount policy.
• Give examples. Show the AI what a good response looks like. For instance: "If someone asks about parking, say: there's a free lot behind the building on Oak Street."
• Say what NOT to do. If there are things the AI should never say or promise, spell them out. For example: "Never promise same-day appointments" or "Don't mention competitor businesses."
• Match your business style. A yoga studio might want a warm, encouraging tone. A law office might want something more professional. Write the tone guide to match how you'd want your best employee to text a customer.

• Don't write a novel. Keep the tone guide under the 3,000 character limit. The longer it is, the harder it is for the AI to follow everything consistently. A focused set of 10-15 rules works better than 50 vague ones.
• Don't contradict yourself. If one rule says "be casual" and another says "always use formal language," the AI won't know which to follow. Read through your rules and make sure they agree with each other.
• Don't put facts in the tone guide. Business hours, pricing, class schedules — that belongs in your knowledge base. The tone guide is for how the AI communicates, not what information it shares.

Here are a few examples of rules and how they change the AI's behavior: