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Free setup kit · checklist

How to set up an AI receptionist

Stand up answering on a trial line before the shop number moves. The job is to capture the work and send urgent calls to a person, using rules you typed in.

Updated (America/New_York). A checklist, not a price check and not a call result.

Quick answer

Write what the phone must do, put hours, service area, urgent rules, and booking rules on a trial line, then read your trade's call scripts into that line. Forward the main number only after urgent and ordinary calls land in different places.

Checklist

  1. Step 1

    Write the job before you open a vendor page

    Decide what the phone must do this month: answer, capture the address and a callback number, book a window, or transfer to a person. If you cannot name which of those you want, you are not ready to compare plans. The pricing table and the cost guide come after that sentence is written.

  2. Step 2

    Mark urgent situations apart from ordinary ones

    Open the call scripts for your trade and mark which situations must reach a person the same day and which can take an open calendar slot. Do not let the agent invent an arrival time the shop has not promised.

  3. Step 3

    Type your own rules into the trial

    Greeting, hours, service area, the services you actually sell, and the prices you are willing to say out loud. If a figure was not one you entered, the agent should offer a visit or a callback instead of a number. AI, a live answering service, or a hire is a cost comparison, not a quality rank.

  4. Step 4

    Set the safety line and the transfer

    Where a trade has a hazard call, the first instruction is the safety line, then the address. Confirm a warm transfer or a text to the on-call phone, and confirm what happens when the agent does not understand the caller. Practice that path on the trial number before any other path.

  5. Step 5

    Connect booking only where the vendor says it exists

    A calendar or field-service booking belongs in the flow only when that product's own page says the connection exists. Read the tool page here, then the vendor page. Summaries should land in a text or email a person actually reads the same day.

  6. Step 6

    Practice, then forward the main number

    Call the trial number and read the scripts for your trade. The pass rule on each script is the bar. This directory has not call-tested any product. Forward the business number only after an urgent practice call and an ordinary practice call land in different places. The 30-day plan puts this work in week 2.

Pages to open with this

By trade

Each trade page uses the situations already written for that trade. It does not add a second copy of the caller lines.

If you want someone else to configure the receptionist, done-for-you setup is a separate paid service. This checklist stays free either way.

Some directory pages linked from this kit include affiliate links. Those pages say so next to the link, and the link uses rel="sponsored". Vendors can also pay for a labeled placement or a faster listing check. Neither one changes list order. Disclosures · Advertise

FAQ

How do I set up an AI receptionist for a home-service company?

Put hours, service area, urgent rules, and booking rules on a trial line, practice the call scripts for your trade, and forward the main number only after urgent and ordinary calls split. Trade-specific steps are linked from the setup kit home.

Are there call results for these products?

No. Round 1 has not started, so nothing is scored. The pass rules on the call-script pages are the bar you can use yourself. They are not grades.

Should I forward my main number on day one?

No. Forward it after you have placed an urgent practice call and an ordinary practice call and they landed in different places.

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