One agent on your website, your NetShow page and your lobby

Hosted by Mr. NetShow.

Most businesses end up with a different helper in every place. A form on the website. A message on the phone line. A sign by the front desk. Each one says something slightly different, and each one has to be kept up to date on its own.

A NetShow agent works the other way round. You shape one agent, with one face, one voice and one name. Then you put that same agent in the places your customers already are. This post walks each of those places, as our Live Avatars page lists them under "Where the avatar lives".

Why one agent beats four helpers

When your hours change, you change them once. When you write a new rule, such as always handing a complaint to a person, you write it once. Every visitor, wherever they meet your agent, meets the same one.

That starts in the agent editor. It is one page per agent, with its words, its knowledge and its channels in tabs. The Knowledge Text box holds what it answers from: your services page, your opening hours, your returns policy. The Soul MD box holds what it must never do. Our guide on shaping what your agent knows walks both.

Place one: our pages, and your own NetShow page

Open the Live Avatars page and you are greeted before you read a word. The page says it plainly: "Mrs. NetShow greets you on this page. Your avatar gets its own NetShow page the same way."

Your own page comes with publishing. A new agent is private. On its Deploy page, the card headed Visibility has one button, Publish agent. Press it and the page confirms: "Your hosted share link is ready to use right now." That link is your agent's own page. You can send it to a customer, print it on a card or put it in your email signature.

Publishing is not a one-way door. The button becomes Make private, which is the whole of the undo.

Place two: your own website

This is the place most owners start with, because it is where strangers already arrive. Your agent can greet the people who visit your own website. It takes one tag pasted into your site and one proof that the site is yours.

On your site, a panel docks at the bottom right with your agent's face, and the greeting appears as a caption straight away. Browsers keep a page silent until the visitor taps or presses a key, so the greeting is spoken out loud from their first tap. The browser asks the visitor's permission before the agent can hear them, and it listens only if they allow it.

You do not have to do this part alone. The Live Avatars page says of your website: "Done for you by our team: we put your avatar on your site with you and check it works." If you would rather do it yourself, our step-by-step guide at the end of this post walks it.

Place three: a screen in your lobby

The third place is a room, not a page. The Live Avatars page lists "A lobby screen or kiosk": full screen on a TV, a kiosk or a projector.

Think of a waiting room, a showroom or a front desk at a busy hour. The same agent that answers on your website stands on the screen and greets whoever walks in. The face is drawn by the viewer's own browser instead of streamed from a server, so there is no per-minute meter on it. A screen that runs all day does not run up a bill for the face.

Place four: inside the NetShow Harness

The last place is behind the scenes. On the Live Avatars page: "Your avatar becomes the coordinator your other agents answer to."

Our Harness guide puts it in three words: one face, many brains. The agent you talk to keeps its face, its voice and its name. It leads the work, and it is the one your visitors meet. The Harness is what lets that one agent use more than one AI brain behind the scenes. Your visitors never have to know. They still meet the agent they met yesterday.

Where to start

Start where your customers already are. For most businesses that is the website, then the share link, then the lobby. Teach the agent first, test it with the Talk button in the agent editor, and only then open the doors. Nobody else can reach a private agent, so that is the safe place to get it wrong a few times.

FAQ

Do I have to set up a separate agent for each place?

No. You shape one agent in the agent editor. Publishing it switches on both its share link and the embed code for your website, and the tag on your site carries your agent's name so the chat looks your agent up by it.

Where do I choose my agent's voice?

Once, on the agent. In the agent editor, the Realtime Voice menu on the Realtime tab is the voice your agent speaks with in a spoken conversation. The NetShow voice is included with every avatar.

Can I take my agent off my website later?

Yes. On the embed page, press the × beside the address in the list. The chat on that site stops answering, and removing the tag from your site takes the bubble away as well.

Does a lobby screen cost more because it runs all day?

Not for the face. It is drawn by the viewer's own browser, so there is no per-minute meter on it. What your agent thinks and says runs on your plan, shown plainly on the plans page.

Put it on your website first

Your website is where most strangers first meet your business, so it is the best first place for your agent. Our step-by-step guide walks the embed page that hands you everything you need. You copy one tag and paste it into your site, then publish a small text file that proves the site is yours. It then shows where the Speak first on this site switch appears, and how to take the agent off again. It takes about five minutes to read.