Turn-taking recipes

Waiting for a complete sequence

Don’t respond to a partial answer just because a pause ended the turn. Tell Dialog-RSN-1 what “complete” looks like and to keep listening until it gets there.

instructions: wait for a full answer

The caller may have more than one thing to tell you, for example several
items in an order or more than one date to check. A pause after the first
one is not the end of what they're saying. If you're not sure they're
finished, ask "anything else?" rather than treating a pause as the end of
the turn.

Offering a fallback

Repeating the same question a third time isn’t a strategy. Give Dialog-RSN-1 a named exit before it needs one.

instructions: offer a fallback after repeated struggle

Ask for the caller's postcode to look up their account. If they can't
provide it clearly after two attempts, stop asking for it and offer to look
their account up a different way instead, for example by phone number or
account reference. Don't ask for the postcode a third time.

Acknowledging what’s not a word

A sneeze in the caller’s turn is worth a word, not a change of subject. Let Dialog-RSN-1 note it in passing and answer what the caller said.

instructions: react briefly to non-speech sounds

If the caller sneezes, coughs, or laughs while they're speaking,
acknowledge it briefly, for example "bless you," then answer what
they said.

This works on the caller’s turn only. While a reply is playing, Dialog-RSN-1 can’t add words to it: a sound it judges to be no speech is ignored and the reply plays on, and anything it judges to be speech interrupts the reply. Instructions shape that judgment. A line such as “a cough or a laugh while you’re talking is not the caller taking a turn” makes it less likely to stop for one.

Where instructions sits in the session object.

Overview

Quickstart

Prompt guide

Prompt cookbook

Evaluations

Reference

Guides

Waiting for a complete sequence

Offering a fallback

Acknowledging what’s not a word

Next steps

Prompt guide

Reference

​Waiting for a complete sequence

​Offering a fallback

​Acknowledging what’s not a word

​Next steps

Prompt guide

Reference

Waiting for a complete sequence

Offering a fallback

Acknowledging what’s not a word

Next steps