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Verizon Business Assistant (VBA) User Guide

    Product Overview
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      The Verizon Business Assistant (BA) is an SMS-based customer engagement chatbot powered by generative AI. The Business Assistant allows customers to text your business to ask questions that they otherwise would need to call in to ask or search your website to find. The Business Assistant will respond automatically using a knowledge base of information that you create, and it will escalate to a representative of your business (Live Agent) when it does not know. The Business Assistant saves you time by automating customer interactions, and gives consumers an additional channel of communication to engage with your business.

       

    Getting Started

      First Steps
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      To get started with your Business Assistant, follow the below steps (which are also included in the Welcome email you receive upon ordering).

      1. Sign into your account > My Business
      2. Navigate to Business Assistant by clicking Manage > Product Portals > Business Assistant.
      3. Your browser will then be brought to the Business Assistant dashboard.
      4. Click on Manage Business Assistant Lines. You will need to add at least one Live Agent (also known as Team Members) on this page before continuing with setup.
      5. Return to the Business Assistant dashboard and click on the Manage Business Assistant Services link to be taken to the Management Portal and complete the onboarding experience.

      When you access the Management Portal for the first time, you will be taken through a guided setup designed to introduce you to your new Business Assistant, add Live Agents, configure default settings, and establish an initial database of knowledge. You can test your Business Assistant at any time within the Management Portal, or by texting the Business Assistant phone number from an SMS capable device.

      As part of the initial Business Assistant setup, you will be asked to provide:

      • Business address
      • Business hours
      • Business description (AI can help you write this)
      • Business Assistant bot personality
      • Adding at least one Live Agent
      • Initial Business Assistant knowledge base

      Some settings can be configured directly within My Business (see below for full list), while most settings and functionality can be configured by going to the Management Portal via the "Manage Business Assistant Services" link in My Business. This will open up a new tab in your browser and take you to a portal where you will manage the bulk of your Business Assistant's functionality.

       

      My Business vs. Management Portal
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      There are two places where you will manage the setting and functionality of your Business Assistant, My Business and the Business Assistant Management Portal. My Business is Verizon's standard management platform where you manage your other Verizon services such as Wireless Lines, One Talk, Business Internet, etc. You will access the Business Assistant My Business page by clicking on the Business Assistant link on the "Product Portals" page. There are a few settings such as entering in Live Agent phone numbers and establishing Call Forwarding that will need to be set within My Business.

      The majority of Business Assistant management will happen within the Business Assistant Management Portal, which is accessed from the Business Assistant homepage within My Business. Clicking this will open a new tab and take you to the Management Portal. Within the Management Portal, you will manage things such as:

      • The knowledge base of your Business Assistant
      • Which Live Agents are active
      • Business Assistant availability hours
      • Business Assistant default messages (greeting, escalation, etc.)
      • Business Assistant Reporting

      You will be able to add Business Assistant Users who can log into the Business Assistant Management Portal directly, without needing access to My Business.

       

      Navigating the Management Portal User Interface
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      Navigating the Business Assistant Management Portal's interface is a little different than a traditional software application. Instead of needing to click through menus to get to where you want to go, you are able to simply tell the Business Assistant where you want to go, and it will take you there. For example, you can type "Take me to knowledge management" and it will take you to the Knowledge Management interface. Or, you could type "Show me my Business Assistant analytics" and it will take you to the Reporting page. From this same page, you can also ask the Business Assistant how to do something, such as "How do I change the availability of my Live Agents?" and the Business Assistant will give you instructions.

      As an alternative, you have the traditional option to open a side panel with a list of pages that you can click on to navigate. Below is a list of pages within the Business Assistant Management Portal that you can access to manage different aspects of your Business Assistant.

      • Knowledge Management
      • User Management
      • Customize Business Assistant
      • Reporting
      • Generate QR Code
      • Get Support

       

    Using the Business Assistant Management Portal

      Managing Knowledge
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      The information that your Business Assistant uses to answer customer inquiries is stored as "Knowledge" in the form of Question and Answer pairs. The onboarding process will walk you through the various options to create knowledge:

      • Uploading a PDF
      • Uploading a web page
      • Generating suggested knowledge
      • Manually adding a Q&A pair
      • Capturing knowledge after a Live Agent interaction

      You can add, edit, or delete knowledge at any time, as well as suspend specific Q&A pairs that need further approval or that might not be relevant at the time (i.e., seasonal information). When you add a Q&A pair, it will show as "Approved". "Approved" Q&A pairs are not yet trained into the model (i.e., the Business Assistant will not use the information in its answers). In order to train "Approved" Q&A pairs, you must click the "Train Me" button at the bottom right of the screen. This will train all "Approved" Q&A pairs to the model and they will show up as "Trained".

      If an approved User of the Business Assistant who is not the Super Admin creates a Q&A pair, it will show up as "Approved" until the Super Admin trains the new Q&A pairs into the knowledge base.

      In order to organize your list of Q&A pairs, you can create and apply "Categories" to each Q&A pair. This allows you to group them by topic as well as filter for specific "Categories" when you are looking for something specific.

       

      Managing Live Agents
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      You will add Live Agents at any time within the My Business Business Assistant page. You will simply click on "Manage Business Assistant Lines", which will bring up the Business Assistant Line Management page. From here, you can add new Agent phone numbers, as well as edit existing Agent phone numbers. When a Live Agent is added, they will get a notification sent via SMS to their phone number.

      Live Agents that you add within the Business Assistant My Business page will be reflected in the Business Assistant Management Portal, where you can configure settings, set Live Agent availability, and view Live Agent activity. Once a Live Agent phone number is added in My Business, they will not automatically begin receiving escalated messages. You will first need to make the Live Agent "Active".

       

      Managing Users
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      In addition to Live Agents, the Super Admin will have the ability to add Users for the Business Assistant Management Portal. These Users will be given login credentials to access the Management Portal directly without having to go through My Business. These Users may or may not also be Live Agents. You can manage Users at any time by clicking on the User Management skill within the Business Assistant Management Portal.

       

      Configuring Default Settings
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      Within the Business Assistant Management Portal, you will be able to customize your Business Assistant so that it behaves exactly as you intend it to. There are many default settings that can be changed, but some that you might want to customize when setting up your Business Assistant include:

      • Customizing the "Welcome" message that customers receive when messaging your Business Assistant.
      • Customizing the "Wait" message that customers receive when a question needs to be escalated to a Live Agent.
      • Changing your Business Assistant's "personality".
      • Changing how quickly the Business Assistant should respond to incoming messages.
      • Toggling on the option to send real-time transcripts of Business Assistant AI interactions to Live Agents so that conversations can be monitored and Live Agents can intervene if needed.

       

      Reporting
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      Your Business Assistant comes with a suite of light analytics capabilities so that you can ensure your Business Assistant is working efficiently and as intended. To access Reporting, you can click on the Reporting skill within the Business Assistant Management Portal or ask the Business Assistant to take you to the reporting dashboard. Reporting is broken down into the following pages:

      • Customer Interactions
      • Agent Performance
      • Business Assistant Performance
      • Weekly Insights

      Customer Interactions will give you metrics such as the number of customer sessions and messages sent, daily trends, the percentage of questions answered by the Business Assistant vs. Live Agents, and overall response rates.

      Agent Performance gives you metrics on the performance of your Live Agents such as the distribution of escalations between Live Agents, the amount of escalations, and the average response times by Live Agent.

      The Business Assistant Performance page will show you metrics related to successful answer rates, how many questions the Business Assistant is able to answer automatically, and trends to ensure your Business Assistant is continuously getting smarter.

      Weekly Insights gives you a brief overview of the previous three sections, highlighting the most important metrics to give you a snapshot of how your Business Assistant and Live Agents are performing.

       

    Using My Business

      Adding / Deleting Live Agents
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      In order to add and delete Live Agents, you must use the "Manage Business Assistant Lines" page within My Business. This page will bring up a list of any Live Agents you currently have established for your Business Assistant, as well as the option to add additional Live Agents. You can also delete or edit existing Live Agents.

      To add a Live Agent, you will need to click "Add New Agent" and enter the phone number of the Live Agent. Please note that the phone number of Live Agents must be a Verizon Wireless number, this can be either a business or consumer number.

       

      Setting Up Call Forwarding
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      To set up your call forwarding number, go to the "Manage Business Assistant Lines" page accessed from the My Business Business Assistant homepage. Here you will see the option to add a Call Forwarding number for your Business Assistant, this is the number that voice calls made to your Business Assistant number will be forwarded to. This essentially allows your Business Assistant to act as both a messaging and voice line for your business. The call forwarding number can be any standard 10-digit phone number.

       

    Best Practices

       
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      Below you will find a list of best practices regarding how to get the most value out of your Business Assistant.

       

      General Best Practices
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      • Setup a call forward number.
      • Add relevant, new knowledge to the Business Assistant immediately when a question is escalated to a Live Agent.
      • When adding knowledge, ensure the question statement is repeated in the answer. (i.e., Q: "What are your hours?"; A: "Our hours are 8 AM - 5 PM Monday-Friday.")
      • Organize Knowledge by categories to better manage Q&A pairs
      • Review Knowledge periodically, sorted from oldest to newest, to ensure all of your Knowledge is still relevant.

       

      Knowledge Creation (Q&A Pair) Best Practices
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      1. Restate the Question in the Answer
        1. Why? This improves retrieval accuracy by aligning the phrasing of the answer with potential customer question variations.
        2. Best Practice: Always frame the response in a way that answers the inferred meaning of the question explicitly.
        3. Example:
          1. Question: "What are your hours of operation?"
          2. Answer: "Our hours of operation are Monday to Friday, 9AM to 5PM"
        4. This supports variations such as:
          1. "What time do you open?"
          2. "Are you open today?"
          3. "What is your schedule?"
      2. Avoid Redundancy and Overlapping Knowledge
        1. Why? Repeating similar information in multiple entries can confuse the AI Agent and reduce response quality.
        2. Best Practice: Ensure each piece of knowledge is unique, authoritative, and covers only one specific topic.
        3. Example:
          1. Have a single entry for "What is the return policy?" that fully addresses all aspects of the return policy.
          2. Do not duplicate return policy details in an entry about product warranty.
      3. Use Small Answers for each Knowledge Item (Q&A pair)
        1. Why? Smaller, self-contained pieces of knowledge improve retrieval precision and allow the AI Agent to find the most relevant knowledge.
        2. Best Practice: Break down broad topics into distinct subtopics or use cases.
        3. Example:
          1. Instead of a single article titled "Shipping and Return Policy", create:
            1. "What are the shipping options?"
            2. "What is the return policy?"
            3. "How long does the shipping take?"
      4. Include Explicit Keywords and Synonyms in the Answer
        1. Why? This ensures that the AI Agent can map customer questions to the correct knowledge entry.
        2. Best Practice: Anticipate variations in phrasing and embed synonyms in the answer naturally.
        3. Example:
          1. Question: "How do I reset my password?"
          2. Answer: "To reset your password, go to the login page, click on 'Forgot password', and follow the instructions to receive a password reset link."
        4. This approach supports variations such as:
          1. "How do I recover my password?"
          2. "I forgot my login credentials."
      5. Use Clear and Concise Language
        1. Why? Simplicity ensures the knowledge is easy to understand and aligns with AI Agent training on conversational language.
        2. Best Practice: Avoid jargon or overly complex phrasing.
          1. Instead of: "Our operational hours are as follows…"
          2. Use: "We are open Monday to Friday from 9AM to 5PM."
      6. Regularly Audit and Update Knowledge
        1. Why? Outdated or inconsistent information can erode trust and reduce effectiveness of your Business Assistant.
        2. Best Practice: Schedule periodic reviews and implement feedback loops.
          1. For example, use Business Assistant performance reporting to monitor which questions customers frequently ask but aren't answered well.

       

    Getting Support

       
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      You have several options to get customer support when issues arise or you need help accomplishing a task. These are described below:

       

      In-App Support Skill
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      The In-App Support skill is a customer support chatbot that can help answer your questions about Business Assistant directly in the Business Assistant Management Portal. This support bot is built as a Business Assistant bot, so you can interact with it just as if you were talking to your own Business Assistant bot. The Business Assistant Support Bot can help with issues such as:

      • Helping you navigate the Management Portal and My Business Business Assistant pages
      • Helping with Knowledge management
      • Helping with Live Agent management
      • Helping with User management
      • Explaining the Reporting skill and what each graph means
      • Best practices regarding how to use your Business Assistant

       

      User / Admin Guides
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      You can refer to the User and Admin Guides that are saved within the Business Assistant Support pages on Verizon's website. You can access these pages from the My Business Business Assistant homepage. Support articles that might be helpful include:

      • User Guide
      • FAQs

       

      Calling Customer Support
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      If the two options above do not get you the help you need, especially if there seems to be a technical problem with your Business Assistant, you can call Verizon Support directly at 800-922-0204 or for more information go to https://www.verizon.com/business/support/contact-us/. A Customer Support representative will gather information about your issue and work to resolve it as soon as possible.

       

    FAQs

      Is there a limit to the number of text messages that my Business Assistant can send and receive?
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      No, there is no limit to the number of text messages that can be sent and received by the Business Assistant in any given time period.

       

      User Management

      Can I add Users to manage my Business Assistant?
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      You can share access to your Business Assistant(s) with other people by adding users. If you're using the same user email address for multiple Business Assistants, after logging in they will see the list of available Business Assistants.

       

      Can I give a User admin rights to manage other Users?
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      Only the Business Owner / Super Admin has access to the User Management Skill and this access cannot be shared or provided to others. Other users have the ability only to update their personal information such as name and email address through the Profile Page and their status "Available/Unavailable" if they are an agent.

       

      Is there a limit to the number of Users that can be added to a Business Assistant?
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      No, there is no limit to the number of Users that can be added to a Business Assistant.

       

      Knowledge Management

      Is there a limit to the number of Q&A pairs I can train into the knowledge base?
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      Yes, there is an aggregate cap and a monthly cap on the Q&A pairs that can be added. For each Verizon Business Assistant line, you can have up to a maximum of 200 trained Q&A pairs active at any one time. Each month, you can generate and add up to 30 Q&A pairs from a pdf or webpage, and up to 10 Q&A pairs from A (the monthly cap resets on the first of each month). Additionally, during initial onboarding and setup, you can upload up to 6 Q&A pairs generated from webpages or pdfs and up to 6 Q&A pairs generated from AI.

       

      I have a lot of Q&A pairs and have trouble keeping track. How can I organize my Q&A pairs better?
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      You can organize your Q&A pairs by creating "Categories" and assigning Q&A pairs to specific Categories. You can also utilize the "Search" function to search for specific Q&A pairs.

       

      Reporting

      How do I access the reporting and analytics information for my Business Assistant?
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      You can access the Reporting Skill by either clicking on the Skill in the Skill menu, or by asking the Business Assistant to take you to the Reporting Skill.

       

      Can I customize what I see in the reporting and analytics page?
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      No, you cannot currently customize the reporting and analytics page.