An AI receptionist setup checklist: 15 things to have ready

Before an AI receptionist answers its first customer, have fifteen things ready: your service list with prices and durations, hours per location, five core policies, your twenty most common questions with approved answers, a list of topics it must never answer, escalation keywords, a named person for handoffs, a texting number, consent wording, a tone paragraph, and a plan for the first supervised week. Most businesses can gather all of it in an afternoon.

What it will say

1. Services, prices and durations. One line each. Where a price depends on a visit, write a starting price and say so.
2. Hours for each location, including holidays you already know about.
3. Five core policies: cancellation, late arrival, deposits, payment methods, and what to bring.
4. Your twenty most common questions, in your customers' words, with the answer you would give. Pull them from last month's texts and voicemails, not from memory.
5. Where to book. The link to your booking page, written as a fact the AI can quote.

What it must not say

6. A list of topics it never answers. Medical, legal and financial judgement, anything about another customer, and prices that depend on seeing the job.
7. Escalation keywords. Words that send a conversation straight to a person: emergency, gas, flood, bleeding, lawsuit, complaint, refund. Add your industry's own.
8. The handoff wording. One or two sentences in your voice: who will reply and roughly when.

Who picks up

9. A named owner for handed-off conversations, per location if you have more than one, and a backup for their days off.
10. Your team's roles. Who can approve AI drafts, who can edit knowledge, who only reads.

How it reaches people

11. A texting number that is registered for business messaging. See choosing a business texting number.
12. Consent wording for reminders, shown as an unticked box at booking.
13. Your website chat placement, if you use web chat.

How it sounds, and how you will check

14. A tone paragraph. Three or four sentences: warm or brisk, first names or not, exclamation marks or not.
15. A supervised first week. Approval mode on, one person reading drafts, and a daily look at the questions it could not answer.

The order to do it in

Start with 1 to 5, because they make up most of what customers ask. Then 6 to 8, because they are what protects you. The rest can be finished in the first week. Do not wait for perfection: the gaps log after five days will tell you exactly what is missing, in customers' words.

Frequently asked questions

How long does this take?

For a single-location business, an afternoon for items 1 to 10, and a week of supervised replies to find what you missed.

What if my prices change often?

Keep them in one place and give one person the job of updating it the same day. A stale price is the most common wrong answer an AI gives.

Do I need all fifteen before going live?

Items 1, 4, 6, 7 and 15 are the minimum. Going live without a list of things it must not answer is the one shortcut not to take.

What Frontiva does here

Frontiva's knowledge holds items 1 to 5 as structured facts and approved FAQs, seeded from your industry template, and the AI agents settings hold escalation keywords, tone and the approval mode for your first week. For the wider picture, read how to train an AI receptionist on your business.