Get set up, get unstuck, or get a person.
Everything here is about the product as it works today. If your question is not answered, the last section on this page shows how to reach a person.
Getting started, in five steps
- 1
Sign up and pick your industry
One owner account per business. Use the name on your signage, since customers see it on your booking page. Your industry template seeds starter services, knowledge, qualifying questions and an agent tone, all editable.
Start here - 2
Add your locations
Each branch gets its own address, phone and timezone, and its own public booking page. Appointments are booked in the branch's timezone, so get this right before anything else.
- 3
Teach it about your business
Load your services, prices, hours and policies into Knowledge, then write and approve your FAQs. The AI answers only from what you approve and logs, with a count, every question it could not answer.
- 4
Connect your channels
Connect your email mailbox over IMAP and SMTP, connect SMS through your own Twilio account, and add the website chat widget with one script tag. Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp are wired and waiting on Meta's app review for self-serve connection.
- 5
Add your team, then go live
Invite a manager for each branch and the people who take bookings. Run the readiness suite, keep approval mode on for the first weeks, and widen the agent's autonomy once you have watched it work.
Questions we hear most
How do I add a team member or a branch manager?
In the app, open Team and choose Add team member. Enter their name, email and role. If the role is Manager you also choose the branch they will run; a manager sees only that branch. They get an email with a link to join, and appear under Waiting to join until they accept. From there you can resend the link or revoke it.
The invitation email has not arrived. What should I check?
Ask them to check spam first. On the Team page, under Waiting to join, choose Resend to send a fresh link; the old one stops working. If your account was set up without email delivery, the Team page shows the link for you to share directly instead.
Can a business have more than one owner?
No. Each business has exactly one owner, who holds the billing relationship. For a second person with full access, give them the Admin role, which has every permission except ownership.
What can a branch manager see?
Their own branch: its locations, calendar, staff rotas, time off and overview figures. Anything at another branch is not visible to them. Inbox, contacts and leads are shared across the business.
Why does the calendar show a different branch than I expected?
The branch switcher in the sidebar controls which branch the calendar, staff and overview show, and it is remembered per device. Choose the branch you want there; the topbar shows which one is active.
How do I change my business name or logo?
Settings, then Business for the name, industry, website and phone. Settings, then Branding for the logo, which appears on your booking page, on the sign-in screen for your team, and in the emails Frontiva sends on your behalf.
Does the AI ever make up an answer?
It answers only from the facts and FAQs you approved. When a question does not match, it does not guess: the question is logged as a knowledge gap for you to fill. Checks for prompt injection and sensitive topics run before any answer is looked up, and the escalation keywords you set hand a conversation to a person.
How do appointment reminders and text messages comply with US rules?
Reminders go only to customers who ticked the consent box when booking, and the exact wording they agreed to is saved on their contact. STOP, START and HELP are handled automatically without the AI, reminders wait out quiet hours, and marketing messages are not sent at all yet. Our guides cover A2P 10DLC registration and consent wording. None of this is legal advice; have counsel review your setup.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Contacts export as CSV from the contacts screen, and every analytics screen exports the CSV behind the numbers you see. Your data is yours to take with you.
How do I reach a person?
Email hello@frontivatech.com or use the contact form. Replies come from a person, usually within one business day.
Guides for the parts that need care
What your AI should refuse to answer
An AI front desk that answers everything is a liability. Which questions it must hand to a human, why a confident wrong answer is the failure mode that matters, and how to test yours in an afternoon.
Read the guideSMS automation that customers do not block
Which texts a business may automate and which it may not, why the quiet hours you set are measured against the wrong clock in most systems, what a sensible frequency cap looks like, and the four numbers that tell you it is going wrong.
Read the guideAsking for reviews without annoying anyone, or breaking the law
When to ask, how often is too often, why the channel you ask on is a legal question rather than a preference, and the difference between asking for reviews and monitoring them.
Read the guideAI appointment booking: what has to be true before you turn it on
An AI that books appointments is only as good as the availability it reads. The five things that have to be right first, why double-booking is a data problem rather than an AI problem, and how to tell whether a vendor has solved it.
Read the guideFixing your speed to lead: measuring it honestly, then actually changing it
How to measure the time between an enquiry arriving and a human-quality reply, why the number most businesses quote is wrong, and the five changes that move it, in the order they pay off.
Read the guideHow to evaluate an AI receptionist: what it should do, what it costs, and where it fails
The questions that separate an AI receptionist from a chatbot with a nicer greeting: what it is allowed to say, what happens when it does not know, what it actually costs once messaging is counted, and the failures worth planning for.
Read the guideConnecting a business mailbox to a shared inbox
What you need from your mail provider, what changes in the mailbox after you connect it (and what does not), how threading and folders work, and the mistakes that cause duplicate or missing mail.
Read the guideWhat your software vendor should tell you about card payments
The questions worth asking any vendor that takes your card: where the number goes, what they store, what happens when a payment fails, and what a payment link should say before you click it.
Read the guideChoosing a business texting number: local, toll-free, or the one you already have
Whether to text from a local 10-digit number, a toll-free number, or text-enable the number already on your signage, and what each one costs you in registration time, throughput, and answer rate.
Read the guideSetting up missed-call text-back without annoying anyone
What a missed-call text should say, how fast it has to arrive, what to do after hours, and the compliance question everybody gets wrong, plus an honest note on what Frontiva can do today.
Read the guideA2P 10DLC registration: a practical guide for small businesses
What A2P 10DLC registration is, why your business texts get blocked without it, what you need to gather, and roughly how long each step takes.
Read the guideTalk to a person
Email hello@frontivatech.com or send a message through the contact form. A person replies, usually within one business day.
Contact formIs something down?
The status page shows the current state of the app, the API and messaging channels, and any incident in progress.
System statusLearn the thing before the tool
The blog and glossary cover what makes automated customer messaging work, including the compliance parts vendors leave out.
Resources