Set up your business

Sign in

The app runs in your web browser, on a computer or a phone. On an iPhone, open it in Safari, choose Share, then Add to Home Screen.

To switch business or sign out, choose your email in Settings, under Plan and account (the row reads Account when your email isn’t shown); its line reads Switch business or sign out.

On a phone, Use on the web in Settings opens the same app in your browser.

On an Android phone, you can also install the app if we sent it to you. Getting it from your phone’s app store is planned.

Your business facts

Open Business in the app, choose Business details, and fill in:

• Business name.
• How customers reach you: We go to customers if you travel to them, or Customers come to us if they visit you.
• Service area: shows only when you go to customers. Choose it, then under Add a place type a ZIP code, town, county or state and choose Add. Callers outside these places can’t book, and your receptionist offers to take a message. To work within some miles of a ZIP code instead, use Distance, and to skip a place use Leave out. Choose Save on that page.

Then choose Services and prices and Add a service for each job you do. Each can have a price and its own length. Callers hear a price only when it says Your receptionist can say it when asked. Prices are optional, and price notes you write are said on calls too. Choose Appointment rules to set your Standard visit.

The first thing callers hear is your greeting. Open Business and choose Greeting under Your receptionist.

To keep your receptionist from agreeing to work you don’t take, choose What we don’t do and add each job or request, such as “Roof repairs” or “Quotes over the phone”. When a caller asks for one, your receptionist says in one sentence that you don’t do it and offers to take a message, or first names your services if you choose Say what we do instead. It’s told never to book or quote what’s on the list.

Short on time? Choose Import from your website at the top of Business, type your website’s address and choose Read my website. We read your home page and up to three pages it links to, then suggest services, hours, service area and answers for you to review. Untick what you don’t want, change anything you like, then save. Nothing changes until you save, and saving puts the import on calls.

Then choose Save.

Hours, appointments and questions

To set when you’re open, open Business in the app and choose Hours:

1. Choose Time zone and pick the one your business is in.
2. Switch on each day you’re open and type when you open and close. For a break in the day, choose Add opening.
3. Choose Save.

For hours past midnight, close at 11:59 PM and open the next day at 12:00 AM.

To set what callers can book, choose Appointment rules:

1. Under Standard visit, set the name and length of what callers book when a service has no length of its own.
2. Set the Minimum notice, How far ahead callers can book, and the Time between appointments.
3. Choose Save.

Under Canceling and moving by phone, you can switch on Let callers cancel by phone. A caller can then cancel an appointment the receptionist booked for them, from the same number, when their phone company fully verified it.

With it on, you can also switch on Let callers move by phone: a caller can move such an appointment to another open time, and your receptionist reads both times back first. Cancellation notice sets how close to the start a caller can still cancel or move.

To add holidays and other days you’re closed, choose Hours, then Add closure. Type the first day, and the last day for more than one day.

To add the questions callers ask, choose Frequently asked questions, then Add question, and type the question and the answer you approve. Choose Save.

Your receptionist

Open Business in the app. Under Your receptionist:

• Name: optional. Your receptionist may give it when it greets callers or is asked, and it always says it’s an AI.
• Voice: the voice callers hear. Press play beside a voice to hear a short sample; make a test call to hear it on a real call.
• Pronunciation, on the same page as Voice: for a word it says wrong, such as your name or street, choose Add pronunciation and type the word and how to say it.
• Greeting: the first thing callers hear.
• How it answers, with Which calls come here inside it: choose the calls your forwarding sends, such as Every call or After hours only. When you’re closed, your receptionist tells callers so and when you open again. When calls come here because nobody answered, it says nobody can come to the phone right now.

Choose Save. If you change which calls come here, change your forwarding to match and check it again.

Save puts changes on calls

In Business, change what you need and choose Save. Your receptionist uses it on new calls right away. Until you add your services and where you work (or, if customers come to you, save your business details), a save is kept but calls don’t use it yet: the app says so when you save.

If earlier changes are still waiting, the app asks Use these changes on calls? and lists them. Choose Use on calls to put them on calls, or Cancel to keep them saved for later.

A call that’s already going keeps the facts it started with.

Teach your receptionist

Your receptionist knows what you give it under Business in the app:

• Business details: your name, how customers reach you and, if you go to customers, your Service area. Services and prices: your jobs and their prices.
• Hours, with the days you’re closed, and Appointment rules for what callers can book.
• Frequently asked questions: the questions callers ask, with the answers you approve.
• Voice, Name, Greeting and How it answers, under Your receptionist.

It uses what you save. Changes you saved but did not put on calls change nothing until you choose Use on calls.

What it couldn't answer on Home lists the questions of the last 7 days. Choose Teach beside one to give the answer.

It’s told not to make up prices. How a call goes says what it does when it can’t answer.

If it said something wrong, see The receptionist said something wrong.

Your plan

Open Settings and choose Plan to see your plan or free trial and, where plans are offered, the plans you can choose and what each costs.

Choose or manage your plan in the web app or the app where it’s offered. Subscribe now starts your plan now and charges the first month today; the trial button, which reads “Start free trial”, starts the free trial and charges nothing today. Either one opens a secure payment page in your browser, and the app never sees your card. Your plan appears once the payment is confirmed.

Your first month is free. Choose a plan and add a payment method to start. Nothing is charged until your trial ends, and we remind you 7 days and 3 days before. Cancel any time before then and you pay nothing. Each business gets one free trial.

Once you have a plan, choose Manage subscription to change or cancel it, on a secure page as well. If a payment fails, that same place shows Update payment method instead.

During a trial, where it’s offered, Start the paid plan now ends the trial and charges your card at once; your plan then renews monthly from today.

If we set up a free trial for your business, nothing is charged. Until it starts, the plan screen says we’re setting it up: there’s nothing to choose or pay, and it tells you there when it starts. Then it says “Free until” and the day it ends. Before that day, the owner’s Home says when it ends and that nothing has been charged. When it ends, calls are not answered. If the plan screen offers plans, choose one to answer them again; if it doesn’t, we’ll be in touch about what comes next.

The plan screen's This period card shows the minutes used and left, and any extra minutes with their approximate cost.

Notifications

Open Settings in the app and choose Notifications to turn them on for this phone and for your email, and to choose which calls you hear about.

Every switch, the quiet hours and the daily and weekly reports are on Notifications.