An AI receptionist is only as useful as what it knows. Out of the box it can take a message. Give it a good business profile and it can answer most of the calls you get without you doing anything. Here is how to write one that works, based on what we see in real transcripts.
Start with the questions callers actually ask
Before you type anything, think about last week's calls. For most small businesses the same handful of questions make up the bulk of them:
- Are you open now, and what are your hours?
- Do you cover my suburb?
- Roughly what does it cost?
- Where are you?
- Can I book?
- Is this an emergency and what do I do?
Everything in your profile should exist to answer one of those.
Description: two sentences, plain words
Write what you do the way you would say it to a neighbour. "We are a family plumbing business covering the Inner West and Canterbury-Bankstown. We do blocked drains, hot water, leaks and bathroom renovations." That is all the assistant needs to answer "Do you do hot water?" and "Do you come out to Ashfield?"
Avoid marketing language. "Premium end-to-end solutions" tells a caller nothing and the assistant cannot use it.
Hours: be exact, and say what happens after
Enter your real hours for each day, including days you are closed. The assistant knows the current time, so it can tell a caller at 6pm that you closed at 5 and reopen at 7:30am. Add an after-hours note if it changes what you do: "Emergency callouts available 24/7" or "Messages left after hours are returned the next morning."
If you close for public holidays, mark it. Nothing undermines trust like an assistant cheerfully confirming you are open on Good Friday.
Services and prices: decide your policy
You have two options, and both are fine.
Quote from a list. Enter your common jobs and prices: "Callout $120 including first hour", "Hot water system replacement from $1,400", "Bathroom renovation from $15,000". The assistant quotes exactly what you wrote and nothing else.
Prices on request. Tick the box and the assistant says you will give a price once you have the details, then collects them. Good for anything where the range is wide.
Do not do a half version where you give some prices and hope it will infer the rest. It will not guess, which is correct, but callers will feel the gap.
Service area: name suburbs, not radiuses
"Within 25km of Parramatta" means nothing to a caller in Blacktown. "Parramatta, Blacktown, Penrith, the Hills and everywhere between" does. List the areas people actually say.
FAQs: the questions you are sick of answering
Every business has five or six. Write the question the way callers ask it and the answer the way you say it.
- "Do you do weekends?" "Saturday mornings by appointment, not Sundays."
- "Is there parking?" "There is free parking behind the building, enter from Smith Lane."
- "Do you take Afterpay?" "No, but we take card and bank transfer, and we invoice on completion."
The assistant uses these word for word, so write them as you would want them said.
Contacts: who gets the urgent calls
Add anyone the assistant should mention or transfer to. "If it is urgent, Dave on 04xx" becomes a live transfer or a recommendation depending on how you set it. Mark the one person who should receive urgent transfers; the assistant should not be handing callers around.
Caller handling: VIPs, blocks and sales calls
Add the numbers that always matter (your biggest client, your partner, the school) so their calls are flagged urgent regardless of what they say. Add the numbers that never matter so they are quietly ignored. Decide how to treat sales calls: take a short message, or politely decline.
Away mode and summary settings
Going on leave? Switch on away mode with a return date and the assistant tells callers. Want the office to get summaries too? Add the addresses. On the SMS plan, set quiet hours so a 2am call waits until 7.
Import, then edit
If you have a website, most of this can be drafted from it in one click, then tidied. Read what came back before saving; websites are often out of date and the assistant will repeat whatever it is given.
The two-minute check
After saving, read the "what your assistant knows" preview out loud. If it sounds like something you would say to a customer, you are done. If it sounds like a brochure, cut it until it does not.
The AfterTone dashboard has all of these fields, with website import and an AI tidy-up button. Start free.