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The AI receptionist answers your business number like a person at the front desk: it greets callers, answers questions about your business, takes messages and passes callers on when they need someone. This guide gives Northwind’s receptionist the hours of each café, sends the number’s calls to it, and tries it with a practice call from the browser.

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Check what it knows

1

Open the receptionist

Click Communications in the left rail, then Agent at the top, then AI agent.
The Communications tabs with the Agent menu open: Your communications agent's memory, and AI agent, outlined

AI agent, in the Agent menu

2

Read what it tells callers

Under Profile and About your business, check its Name, its Instructions and About the business. On a call, the receptionist reads only the “About the business” part of About your business, so everything a caller may ask about belongs there: what you sell, where you are, your prices.
3

Add your opening hours

Click Open About your business, then Edit. Under About the business, add your hours, one line per location, and click Save. Without them, the receptionist looks for hours on your website, and with several locations on one page it can give the wrong one.
The About your business editor: under About the business, Our cafés and their hours, with Alberta Arts District, Division Street and Pearl District, each with its weekday, Saturday and Sunday hours, outlined

Each café's hours, under About the business

4

Check it is switched on

Back on AI agent, under Status, Enable AI receptionist must be ticked. Untick it and the receptionist’s calls go to voicemail instead.
Status: Enable AI receptionist, ticked, To have the AI answer a number, open it on the Numbers page and set Inbound routes to AI receptionist, outlined, and the Simulate call button outlined

Switched on, with Simulate call next to it

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Send your number’s calls to it

1

Edit the number

Click Routing at the top, then Numbers. Before you change anything, note what Routes to says for your number, so you can set it back. Then click the pencil at the end of its row.
2

Choose AI receptionist

Set Inbound routes to to AI receptionist, and keep AI receptionist under Which AI persona?: it greets every caller and handles the call the way you set it up on the AI agent page. Then click Save changes.
Inbound routes to AI receptionist, outlined, and Which AI persona? AI receptionist, outlined, with the note: The AI receptionist greets callers and handles each call the way you set it up on the AI receptionist page. Sales AI and Helpdesk AI answer the call themselves, without the receptionist first

Calls go to the AI receptionist

3

Check the route

Routes to on the number’s row reads AI receptionist.
The Numbers table with Main Number and Routes to AI receptionist, outlined. The number's last four digits are blurred

The number's calls now go to the receptionist

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Try it with a practice call

1

Start a practice call

On AI agent, click Simulate call. Under Who do you want to talk to?, choose Receptionist, then click Start call, and allow your microphone if the browser asks. It is a test call: nobody’s phone rings, even if you ask for a person.
Simulate call: Talk to your AI as a caller would, Who do you want to talk to? with Receptionist outlined, A test call ends after 5 minutes, and the Start call button outlined

A practice call with the receptionist

2

Talk to it

Speak as a caller would. What you say and what it answers are written out as you go. Here the caller asked when the Pearl District café opens on Saturday, and the receptionist answered from the hours added above.If the box says it isn’t picking up your microphone, choose your microphone in the list under it.
3

Hang up

Click the red button. The call also ends when you say goodbye, or after five minutes.
The conversation: Hi, thanks for calling; the caller's question, what time does your Pearl District cafe open on Saturday; and the answer, For our Pearl District café, it opens at 8 in the morning on Saturdays, outlined; and the red hang-up button outlined

The right answer, and the red button to hang up

Listen to each answer. If it says something your business doesn’t do, or doesn’t know something it should, fix it in About the business or the receptionist’s instructions, save, and try again: a practice call uses your last saved settings.

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Good to know

  • Practice calls aren’t billed. Calls the receptionist answers for real are call minutes like any other call, with no separate charge for the AI: see the Pricing box on the AI agent page.
  • Calls it answers for real are listed under Calls.
  • Business hours, further down the AI agent page, sets when your line counts as open, so after-hours calls can be handled differently. It is one schedule for the whole line; the hours callers ask about belong in About the business.
  • Setting the route back. In Edit number, every ring group is listed under Which ring group?, with a person’s own ring group under One person’s phones. See Phone numbers.
  • More: AI voice agent and Ask the Phone Assistant to Check Your Setup.