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Creating Your First Agent

Let's build your first AI agent step by step. This guide assumes you're completely new to Optimly and want to create a customer service agent for your business.

Before You Start​

What you'll need:

  • An Optimly account (sign up free)
  • 10-15 minutes of your time
  • Some basic information about your business (we'll help you with this)

What you'll have at the end:

  • A working AI agent that knows about your business
  • A chat widget on your website
  • The ability to capture leads and answer customer questions 24/7

Step 1: Plan Your Agent​

Before creating your agent, think about these questions:

What should your agent do?​

  • Answer questions about your products/services?
  • Capture leads from interested visitors?
  • Book appointments for consultations?
  • Provide support for existing customers?
  • All of the above?

What personality should it have?​

  • Professional and formal?
  • Friendly and casual?
  • Helpful and informative?
  • Enthusiastic about your products?

What does it need to know?​

  • Your company information (what you do, who you serve)
  • Your products or services (features, pricing, benefits)
  • Common customer questions and answers
  • Your contact information and business hours

💡 Don't worry if you don't have all this ready - you can always add more later!

Step 2: Create the Agent​

  1. Log into your Optimly dashboard at app.optimly.io

  2. Click "Create Agent" (big blue button on your dashboard)

  3. Fill in the basic information:

    • Agent Name: Something descriptive like "Customer Support Assistant" or "Sales Helper"
    • Description: What this agent will do (e.g., "Helps visitors learn about our services and book consultations")

  4. Set the personality by writing a brief prompt:

    You are a helpful and friendly customer service representative for [Your Company Name]. 
    You are knowledgeable about our products/services and always try to be helpful. 
    You speak in a professional but warm tone. If you don't know something, 
    you offer to connect the customer with a human team member.

  5. Click "Create Agent"

Your agent is now created! But it doesn't know anything about your business yet. Let's fix that.

Step 3: Teach Your Agent About Your Business​

Your agent needs knowledge to be helpful. Here are the easiest ways to add it:

If you have any of these, upload them:

  • Company brochure or one-pager
  • FAQ document
  • Product/service descriptions
  • Pricing sheets
  • Company policies

How to upload:

  1. Click on your agent
  2. Go to "Knowledge" tab
  3. Click "Add Knowledge Source"
  4. Drag and drop your files or click to browse
  5. Wait for processing (1-2 minutes)

Option B: Add Your Website​

Let your agent learn from your existing website:

  1. In Knowledge tab, click "Add Website"
  2. Enter your website URL (e.g., https://yourcompany.com)
  3. Choose "Crawl entire site" or select specific pages
  4. Click "Import"

Option C: Write Custom Information​

Add information manually:

  1. Click "Add Text Source"
  2. Give it a name like "Company Overview"
  3. Write or paste information like: 
    Company: [Your Company Name]
    Services: [What you offer]
    Pricing: [Your rates or packages]
    Contact: [Phone, email, address]
    Hours: [When you're available]
  4. Save

💡 Start with the most important info - you can always add more knowledge sources later.

Step 4: Test Your Agent​

Before putting your agent live, let's make sure it works:

  1. Click "Test Agent" in your agent dashboard

  2. Try these sample questions:

    • "What services do you offer?"
    • "How much does it cost?"
    • "How can I contact you?"
    • "What are your business hours?"
    • "Can I schedule a meeting?"

  3. Check the responses:

    • Are they accurate?
    • Are they helpful?
    • Do they sound natural?
    • Is the tone what you want?

  4. If something's wrong:

    • Add more knowledge if the agent doesn't know enough
    • Edit the agent prompt if the tone is off
    • Try different questions to test various scenarios

Tools make your agent more powerful. Here are the most useful ones:

Lead Capture Form​

Automatically collect contact info from interested visitors:

  1. Go to "Tools" tab in your agent
  2. Toggle on "Lead Form"
  3. Customize the fields you want to collect
  4. Save

Appointment Scheduling​

Let customers book meetings directly:

  1. Enable "Appointment Scheduling"
  2. Connect your calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.)
  3. Set your availability
  4. Save

Email Handoff​

Transfer complex conversations to your email:

  1. Enable "Email Handoff"
  2. Add your support email address
  3. Save

Step 6: Deploy Your Agent​

Now let's get your agent talking to real customers:

  1. Click the "⋯" menu on your agent card
  2. Select "Embed on website"
  3. Choose "Chat Bubble" (appears as a floating button)
  4. Customize the appearance:
    • Position (bottom-right is most common)
    • Colors to match your brand
    • Welcome message
  5. Copy the code snippet
  6. Paste it before </body> on your website
  7. Save and publish your site

You can also share a direct link to test your agent:

  1. Go to "Share" tab
  2. Copy the public link
  3. Share it with colleagues or test it yourself

Step 7: Monitor and Improve​

Congratulations! Your agent is now live. Here's how to keep improving it:

Check Performance Daily​

  • View conversations to see what customers are asking
  • Monitor response quality - are answers helpful?
  • Track leads captured and appointments booked

Common Improvements​

  • Add more knowledge based on questions the agent can't answer
  • Refine the personality if responses don't match your brand voice
  • Update business information when things change
  • Add new tools as your needs grow

Weekly Tasks​

  • Review conversation logs for patterns
  • Update knowledge base with new FAQs
  • Optimize underperforming responses

What's Next?​

Now that you have a working agent, you might want to:

🚀 Scale Up​

  • Create specialized agents for different purposes (sales, support, booking)
  • Connect multiple channels (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram)
  • Integrate with your CRM using our API

📊 Analyze Performance​

  • Study conversation analytics to understand customer behavior
  • Track conversion rates from visitor to lead to customer
  • Identify popular topics and expand your knowledge base

🔧 Advanced Features​

  • Set up automated follow-ups for captured leads
  • Create custom responses for specific scenarios
  • Build complex conversation flows for different user types

Need Help?​

🎥 Visual Learner?​

Watch our step-by-step video tutorial: YouTube Guide

💬 Questions?​

📚 Want to Learn More?​

Success! 🎉​

You now have an AI agent that can:

  • ✅ Answer customer questions 24/7
  • ✅ Capture leads automatically
  • ✅ Book appointments without human intervention
  • ✅ Provide consistent, helpful responses
  • ✅ Scale to handle unlimited conversations

Your agent will get smarter over time as you add more knowledge and refine its responses based on real customer interactions.

Welcome to the future of customer service! 🚀