📝 Overview
Your AI Receptionist is the face of your business online; available 24/7 to greet visitors, answer questions, capture leads, and book appointments. This article walks you through configuring your receptionist's identity, enabling channels, and setting up what it can do.
📍 Configuring Your AI Receptionist
Log in and go to AI > Workforce to find your Chat Receptionist settings.
🤖 Setting Up Your Receptionist's Identity
Select the Chat Receptionist Configure button
Next, you'll see these options:
Name
Give your receptionist a name that your visitors will see in the chat widget (e.g., "Chat Receptionist," "Sarah," "Support Team"). You can change this anytime.
Avatar
Choose a photo or persona from a large library — people, animated characters, or even animals. The avatar displays to visitors in the web chat. You can change it anytime; a browser refresh may be needed to see the update.
Autonomy Level
Select how independently your receptionist acts:
Level 1: Suggestive
Lightweight guidance, no action taken.
Provides helpful suggestions or content recommendations, but never takes action on its own. Designed to support human decision-making, not replace it.
Level 2: Assistive
On-demand support for single tasks.
Helps complete straightforward actions, with just a click. Always initiated by a human.
Level 3: Autonomous
Handles routine workflows.
Acts automatically when triggered, and can manage more advanced tasks with no human action needed.
Level 4: Agentic
Fully autonomous agent.
Plans and executes complex, multi-step workflows independently. Runs autonomously or can achieve long-term outcomes without human involvement.
Enabling Channels - Triggers
Select the Manage button within the Triggers section to select which channels your business needs, and the receptionist will monitor and respond across all of them.
Web Chat — The widget on your Facebook and/or Instagram profiles (enabled by default)
Email — Can reply to emails sent to your support address
SMS — Text message conversations (requires registration; see below)
📞 Phone & SMS Handling
Configure dedicated or shared phone numbers with flexible call routing: automated messages, SMS follow-ups, or human transfer. Enable automated SMS replies after US compliance registration.
Adding a Phone Number
Each receptionist can have its own dedicated phone number, or you can layer it onto your existing business line using conditional call-forwarding (star codes so callers can reach the AI after-hours or on missed calls).
When a Call is Received
Choose what happens:
End the call and play a message — Text-to-speech message to the caller
Follow up with SMS — Send an automated text to the caller
Let it ring through — Route to a human (no automation)
When SMS is Received
Enable the receptionist to reply to text messages automatically.
Registering for SMS
SMS in the US requires business registration for compliance with telecom regulations.
Before you can send or receive SMS:
Go to Administration > Phone number settings.
Look for SMS Registration.
Complete the registration form (your business details, use case, etc.).
Wait for approval (typically a few business days).
Once approved, SMS channels will be fully enabled.
⚠️ Please Note: SMS is off by default until you complete registration and it's approved.
⚡ Training Your Receptionist: Capabilities
A "capability" is a skill you give your receptionist; something it can do when visitors ask. Each capability has:
A Name (e.g., "Capture Leads," "Book Appointment")
A Description (how the receptionist knows when to use it)
A Prompt (plain-English instructions)
Tools/Functions (the API integrations that actually carry out the task)
To view and edit capabilities:
Go to AI > Capabilities.
Browse the library of available capabilities, then click on a capability to open its prompt and tools.
💡 Pro Tip: Most day-to-day tuning happens in the Prompt - you can edit it in plain English to refine how the receptionist behaves (e.g., "Always ask for the customer's preferred service first" or "Offer 1–3 appointment slots and list them explicitly").
Only edit Tools (the API plumbing) if you're comfortable with technical configuration; typically that's handled during onboarding.
Common Capabilities Included
Capture Leads — Collect contact information (name, email, phone)
Verify Location — Ask which location the visitor wants
Search Service — Help visitors find the right service
Contact Lookup — Look up staff members and their details
Appointment Booking — Offer available times and complete the booking
Appointment Management — Manage existing bookings (enable carefully)
📚 Building Your AI Knowledge Base
Your receptionist can answer questions using your own business information — your services, pricing, staff, hours, FAQs, and more.
To add knowledge:
Go to AI > AI Knowledge Base.
Create a Knowledge Collection by clicking Add Source.
Add your business information — copy and paste from your website, write from scratch, or upload documents.
Save.
The receptionist will now reference this knowledge when answering visitor questions, giving accurate, personalized responses.
🧠 Example: If your knowledge base includes "We offer hair cuts ($35), color ($80), and styling ($45)," your receptionist can tell visitors about pricing without you updating a configuration every time prices change.
🎯 Testing Your Receptionist
Before going live:
Test in each enabled language.
Simulate a lead capture (provide name, email, phone).
Walk through a complete appointment booking (confirm the receptionist asks for location, service, time, and staff).
Check that leads land in your CRM correctly.
If using API-based booking, use "no-op" (test) mode first so appointments aren't actually created.