When your business changes its hours, prices, or service area, update the sources your website agent uses and test the resulting answers. Start with a source inventory, resolve conflicting facts, name an owner, set the effective date, replace superseded knowledge, and record the questions that still need a clear answer.

ChatMob describes adding website pages, files, and FAQs, testing the agent before publishing, and updating sources as your business changes. The checklist below is a recommended maintenance process built around those capabilities. It does not assume that changing a website automatically refreshes every source the agent uses.

Why this workflow matters

When a business changes hours, pricing, service areas or policies, a site and document based agent needs a controlled update to avoid giving customers stale or conflicting answers. Uncontrolled updates cause two common problems: an agent answering from an older copy of a page that still exists on your site, and the agent combining facts from multiple unsynchronized documents. Both cause confusion and extra work for staff who must correct or follow up on returns and complaints.

This article focuses on the recurring maintenance job: keeping the agent's inputs in sync with business reality. It is not a general troubleshooting guide about hallucinations or integrations that act on external apps. It assumes you or someone on your team can edit website pages or replace files that the agent uses.

When to run a maintenance cycle

Trigger the workflow for any of these events:

  • Public hours or holiday hours change for a location.
  • Pricing changes for one or more services.
  • A service area is added or removed.
  • New legal or policy text that affects customer-facing responses.
  • A paid campaign begins or an existing campaign changes landing page offers.
  • A new document, FAQ or landing page is added that the agent should use.

Also schedule a regular review cadence. A monthly quick check is practical for most small businesses. If you run frequent promotions or multiple locations, shorten the cadence to weekly.

Step 1. Source inventory and mapping (30 to 90 minutes)

What you do

  • Make a list of every source the agent is configured to use. Include full URLs for web pages and file names for uploaded documents and FAQs. Note the content owner and the date last changed.
  • For each source note the facts the agent can extract: hours, prices, service area, booking instructions, cancellation policy, and any special promotions.

How to build the inventory

Use a simple spreadsheet or text document with these columns:

  • Source ID: a short slug, e.g., site-hours-home-page
  • Source type: website page, PDF, FAQ upload, CSV, other
  • Full path or filename: e.g., https://example.com/hours
  • Extracted facts: hours, prices, service_areas, cancellation_policy, promotion
  • Current owner: name or team email
  • Last updated on: date
  • Live on site? yes/no
  • Agent included? yes/no
  • Conflict flag: yes/no
  • Priority: high/medium/low

Hypothetical inventory row

Why include conflict flags

Conflict flags help you identify disagreements to resolve. They tell you where two or more sources claim different hours, prices or areas. A single conflict flag next to a high priority source should be the top item you resolve.

Step 2. Identify and resolve conflicts (15 to 60 minutes)

What counts as a conflict

  • Two website pages list different opening hours for the same location.
  • A PDF menu lists a different price than the online price.
  • A campaign landing page promises a discount not mentioned on the service page.

Resolve conflicts

  • Use the business process or authority chart to decide which source is authoritative for each fact. Usually the canonical website location page or a central pricing page is authoritative. If a promotional page overrides prices for a limited time, mark it as authoritative only between stated dates.
  • If two pages are both accepted as official, add a short note that the agent should prefer one page when answering a specific kind of question. For example: "prefer pricing-page for price questions unless campaign-banner is active between 2026-09-01 and 2026-09-07."

Document decisions in the inventory. Each resolved conflict entry should include the chosen authoritative source, justification, assigned owner and effective date.

Step 3. Choose an owner and set an effective date (10 to 30 minutes)

Owner

  • Pick one person or role to own the change. The owner is responsible for updating content, uploading new files, retiring old files, and running the post-update tests.
  • Use functional ownership rather than a single person where possible, e.g., "Marketing" or "Ops Manager." That reduces risk if the named person is unavailable.

Effective date

  • Every change should have an effective date. If the change is immediate, use "effective now" plus the timestamp. For promotional changes, set the start and end dates explicitly.
  • Effective dates help you run tests under the correct assumptions. If a new price is effective tomorrow, you should not publish the updated source to the agent until that date unless you version the change and keep the previous source active for current customers.

Step 4. Retire or version superseded uploads (10 to 45 minutes)

Why retire

Old files and pages can preserve facts that are no longer current. Retiring or archiving superseded sources avoids an agent pulling facts from both old and new locations.

How to retire safely

  • Replace the old text on the live page with a short notice such as "This page has moved" and point to the canonical page. Keep any historical copy your business needs in its approved record system, separate from the current customer-facing information.
  • If the agent uses uploaded files, use the supported source-management controls to replace or exclude superseded knowledge. If you cannot determine whether an old source is still included, resolve that with the product support team before relying on the new answer.
  • If you cannot remove the old page immediately, change the agent configuration so the agent no longer includes that URL in its sources until you can remove it.

Step 5. Prepare and upload the approved knowledge (15 to 90 minutes)

What to upload

  • Canonical location pages with hours and booking instructions.
  • A short, clear FAQ with direct Q and A pairs for common campaign questions.
  • A one-page pricing summary if your site has many product pages and you want consistent answers.

Writing for a knowledge-grounded agent

  • Write concise Q and A pairs for common customer questions. For example, instead of a paragraph that mentions several hours, write a single table of hours and a short answer: "What are your hours at the Downtown location? Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 9am-3pm, Sun closed."
  • Prefer explicit values and plain language. Avoid ambiguous phrases like "open most weekdays" or "seasonal hours apply" without dates.
  • If you need the agent to give conditional answers, include explicit conditions. For example provide: "Between 2026-12-24 and 2026-12-26, hours are 9am-1pm."

Upload checklist

  • Name the file with a clear slug the agent will read, e.g., downtown-hours-2026-12.
  • Record the change, owner, and effective date in your internal inventory. In customer-facing content, state the effective date when it affects the answer, without exposing internal editing notes.
  • Confirm the agent configuration includes the new source and excludes retired sources. ChatMob supports adding website pages, files and FAQs and testing answers before publishing; follow your agent's upload flow as described in the ChatMob documentation on the ChatMob site.

Step 6. Test answer variants before you publish (20 to 90 minutes)

Why test

Testing shows how the agent responds to the questions you check. It can reveal a stale source, an unclear condition, or a missing answer before visitors encounter it. Passing those tests does not guarantee that every future response will be correct.

What to test

  • Request the same fact in multiple ways. For example: "What time do you open today?" "When is the Downtown location open?" "Are you open on Labor Day?"
  • Test edge cases, such as "Are you open on the following holiday?" and regional phrasing such as "Do you do in-home service in ZIP code 97205?"
  • Test follow-up behavior. If a visitor asks a follow-up question the agent should supply a short answer and a clear next step. For example: "How long is a standard appointment?" followed by "Do I need to book online?" should produce consistent cross-references.

Testing method

  • Create a test script based on the most common visitor intents and the conflicts you resolved. Run each test and record the agent's answer text exactly.
  • Use at least three paraphrases for each fact. Example paraphrases for store hours: "hours today", "when do you open", "what are your hours on Saturday?"
  • For each test, mark whether the answer is correct, partially correct, or incorrect. Note which source the agent cited if your platform shows source attribution.

Hypothetical tests and expected answers; use your own approved business facts

  • Test: "How much for a basic inspection?" Expected: "Our standard inspection is $95. Effective 2026-09-15. Book online or call." If a promotional landing page temporarily changes price, confirm the agent only cites that price if the current date is within the promotion window.
  • Test: "Do you serve Springfield?" Expected: "We serve the locations listed on our service-area page. Please share the location you need us to check." If the agent answers with a different set of ZIP codes or vague wording, mark for correction.

Limit tests to published scope

Remember not to expose internal or draft content. Run tests in a test environment or the agent's preview mode when possible. ChatMob indicates you can "Test answers from your content before you publish" ChatMob site.

Step 7. Log remaining gaps and edge cases (10 to 30 minutes)

What is a gap

Gaps are questions your tests reveal that have no authoritative source or where customer-facing language is ambiguous. Keep a short log with entries like:

  • Question phrasing: "Do you offer weekend emergency service?"
  • Current agent answer: "Contact support for details."
  • Why gap exists: No page states explicitly whether weekend emergency service is offered.
  • Recommended owner: Operations
  • Priority: medium
  • Suggested content fix: Add bullet to service page clarifying whether weekend emergency service is offered and any surcharge.

How to use the gap log

  • Batch medium and low priority gaps into the next content sprint.
  • Treat high priority gaps as immediate fixes and assign a single owner with a due date.

Edge cases and examples

  • Overlapping promotions. If two promotions run on the same product, record precedence and effective dates. If precedence is ambiguous, the agent should refer to a human, e.g., "Please contact us for current promotion details." Avoid letting agents guess.
  • Location renames. If a branch is renamed, keep the old name live only for redirects. Explain the old and new location names in the approved source and test questions using both names.
  • Time zone confusion. Always record time zone with hours. For example: "Hours listed are Pacific Time."

Safety note about automation

Do not rely on an automatic crawler or an unsupervised retraining process to keep facts correct unless your vendor explicitly documents those capabilities. For ChatMob, the platform emphasizes that you provide website pages, files and FAQs and test answers before publishing ChatMob site. Treat automatic syncing as an optional enhancement you must verify, not as a substitute for the owner-controlled process described here.

Quality assurance worksheet (ready to copy)

Use this worksheet as a checklist and record. Copy into a spreadsheet.

Columns:

  • ID
  • Source type
  • Full path
  • Extracted fact (hours/prices/service areas)
  • Conflict flag
  • Chosen authoritative source
  • Owner
  • Effective date
  • Action taken (update/retire/version)
  • Test paraphrases (list)
  • Test result (pass/partial/fail)
  • Notes / Gap ID

Hypothetical filled row, not an observed result:

  • ID: price-basic-inspection-2026-09
  • Source type: web page
  • Full path: https://example.com/services/inspection
  • Extracted fact: basic inspection $95
  • Conflict flag: yes (promo page shows $79)
  • Chosen authoritative source: services/inspection (marketing confirmed official price change effective 2026-09-15)
  • Owner: [email protected]
  • Effective date: 2026-09-15
  • Action taken: uploaded pricing-summary-2026-09 and retired promo page after 2026-09-15
  • Test paraphrases: "inspection price", "how much inspection costs", "inspection rate"
  • Test result: pass
  • Notes: gap logged for coupon stacking rules (#gap-12)

Testing scenarios and acceptance criteria

For each high priority fact, create acceptance criteria the agent must meet. Examples:

  • Hours acceptance criteria: For three paraphrases about hours, the agent returns the exact schedule and cites the location hours page or policy page as the source.
  • Price acceptance criteria: For price queries, the agent returns the exact price and indicates effective date when the price will change.
  • Service area acceptance criteria: For customers asking about specific ZIP codes, the agent answers from the supported service-area information or explains that the team needs to check the location. A promised follow-up must match your actual process.

Roll back plan

If a published update breaks answers during a live campaign, have a rollback plan:

  • Use a previously checked source only if its facts remain current. Do not restore an old price or schedule simply because that source once worked.
  • Use the controls supported by your setup to pause affected answers or direct visitors to an available contact route while the incorrect information is corrected.

Monitoring and follow-up

After publishing updates, plan a short monitoring window:

  • Hour 0 to 4: check live conversations for incorrect answers flagged by humans.
  • Day 1: rerun the full test script and confirm answers.
  • Day 7: review the gap log and prioritize fixes.

Automate simple checks where possible. For example, store test paraphrases in a simple automation that runs nightly and reports mismatches. If your platform provides answer attribution, include the source URL in monitoring logs so you can trace back incorrect answers quickly.

Limitations and common pitfalls

  • Multiple live copies of a page. If your CMS keeps multiple versions accessible under different URLs, the agent may read both. Always confirm the agent only includes canonical URLs.
  • Content fragmentation. Too many small documents increase the chance of conflicting facts. Consolidate common facts into a single pricing summary or a central FAQ page where possible.
  • Relying on staff memory. Without assigned ownership, small changes made by different teams will lead to conflicts. Use a single owner per fact.
  • Source access and updates. Verify what your configured agent includes after each change. An edited file on your computer does not establish that the agent is using that version.

Decide whether a change is ready

Before making updated knowledge available to visitors, ask someone who did not prepare it to try a few realistic questions. Give them the approved facts so they can judge the answer. Include one question that the sources cannot answer. The useful response to that question should explain the limit or provide an available next step, rather than fill the gap with a guess.

Check a short conversation as well as isolated questions. A visitor might name a location in the first message and ask about Saturday hours in the next. They might ask for a price, then ask whether a temporary offer applies. Keep the expected conditions in the test record so the reviewer can see what makes an answer complete.

When a test fails, identify whether the source is wrong, ambiguous, missing, or not being used as expected. Correcting the source is different from repeatedly changing the question until the answer looks right. Keep the failed phrasing and repeat it after the repair. This gives the next content owner a useful example to include in future checks.

Start with the next fact that changes

Pick one important fact, find every source that states it, and name the person who will keep it current. Record the effective date and test several ways a visitor might ask about it. Then keep the successful and failed questions with the change record so the next update starts with useful evidence.

You can review ChatMob's product features to see how business content, agent testing, conversations, and collected leads fit together. The product gives you a way to provide information and check answers; your team still needs to decide which facts are correct and when they take effect. If you are choosing a setup for your website, compare ChatMob plans.