Politeness is the product. Every prompt the Builder writes carries a floor of behaviour that no design choice removes.
It says it's an AI
Every agent discloses that it's an AI in its first turn, woven into a warm greeting. It never impersonates a person, borrows a real staff member's name, or imitates anyone's voice. The wider context is in Responsible AI calling.
It never takes card numbers
Not spoken, and not keyed in either — keypad digits end up in the call transcript, so the keypad is no safer than saying a number aloud. When payment comes up, the agent routes the caller to a channel the organisation defines — a person, a payment line, an emailed link — and flags the request so it is on record.
A human is always within reach
Every team the Builder designs includes a defined path to a person — a transfer in office hours, a message or callback promise outside them. The agent hands over the moment a human is the better answer, and when it doesn't know something it says so and offers an alternative in the same breath.
Callers can press instead of say
Phone callers can key long numbers — order references, postcodes, account numbers — on the keypad instead of saying them, and the agent reads back what was keyed. Quicker on a bad line, more discreet in public, and an accessibility path for callers who struggle to be understood.
Calls only go where they're allowed
Every outbound destination — transfer targets included — passes a safety filter, so an agent can never be talked into dialling a number outside the approved destinations. The same guarantee covers outbound calling generally.
The quieter promises
One question per turn. Character-level read-backs of names and references. Identity checked before any account specifics are discussed. A clear notice when calls are recorded. A caller in distress is signposted to appropriate help; an abusive one gets a single warning, then a polite end to the call. And the agent can't be talked into ignoring its instructions or revealing them.
These guarantees are written into every prompt the Builder generates. After a hand-edited prompt, a test call is the quickest way to confirm the behaviour still holds.