An AI receptionist answers from what you give it. Point it at your website and it will learn a lot on its own, but websites are written to win customers, not to answer the phone. They rarely say where to park, what happens if you're 15 minutes late, or who handles billing questions. An hour spent filling those gaps before real callers reach the agent is the best hour you'll put into the whole setup. This is the checklist we'd use.
Start with the calls you already get
Before you write anything, list the last 20 things people called about. Ask whoever answers your phone, skim your voicemails, and look at the questions that arrive by email. That list, not your brochure, is the agenda. If "Do you take walk-ins?" is asked five times a day, it needs a clear answer on day one, even if it's nowhere on your website.
The checklist
The basics every caller needs
- Your business name the way you say it on the phone, plus any old name people still use.
- Your address, with the landmark, parking and which door to use.
- Hours for each location or department, including lunch closures and this year's holiday hours.
- Your main phone, email and website, and any other number people ask for.
- How to pay, and the link to your payment page if you have one.
What you do, and what you don't
List your services in the words customers use, not your internal names. Then list what you don't do. "We don't prepare corporate returns" or "We don't service diesel engines" saves a wasted call and a wasted transfer. Add your service area if you have one.
Prices, or how pricing works
Give the agent real numbers where you're happy to quote them: a standard oil change, a basic individual return, a permit fee. Where you're not, give it the rule instead, such as "We quote repairs after a diagnostic, and the diagnostic fee is credited toward the repair." If you never want prices quoted, say so as an instruction (more on where below).
Policies people ask about
Cancellations and no-shows, late arrivals, refunds, warranties, deposits, payment plans. Add what to bring to an appointment and any documents people need. These are the awkward questions staff answer from memory, which is exactly why they're usually missing from the website.
People and departments
Who handles what, using the words callers use ("billing," "service," "the permits office"). Decide which requests always go to a person, and to whom.
Booking rules
Your appointment types, how long each takes, any buffer between them, and the days and hours you'll take bookings.
Links worth texting
Anything that's easier to read than to hear: your intake form, document upload page, payment page, application forms, directions. The agent can text a link to the caller during the call, so collect these in one place.
What always needs a person
Emergencies, complaints, anything about a specific customer's account, and professional advice you'd never give on a first call. Write these down as rules, not facts.
Where each piece goes in ModPhone
Here's where each item lives in the app. The features page has the wider overview.
| What | Where | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Your website | Agent > Knowledge > Web URLs | Reads up to 30 pages per address you add and turns them into short facts. You can edit, delete or add facts. |
| Price lists, policies, handbooks | Agent > Knowledge > Documents | PDF, Word or plain text, up to 10MB each. Or sync a Google Drive or OneDrive folder, which re-syncs about every 6 hours. |
| Answers you want in your exact words | Agent > Knowledge > FAQs | Your agent prefers an FAQ answer over anything else it knows. |
| Rules for how the agent behaves | Agent > Config > Core Instructions | One rule per line, such as "Do not quote repair prices." |
| Temporary notices | Agent > Config > Supplemental Company Information | Takes priority over everything else. Remove it when it stops being true. |
| Who to transfer to | Agent > Transfers | A main number plus departments with their own numbers. |
| What can be booked, and when | Appointments > Configuration | Appointment types, lengths, buffers and booking hours. |
Keep facts and rules apart. "We open at 8" is a fact and belongs in knowledge. "Always collect the caller's name before transferring" is a rule and belongs in Core Instructions.
When a caller asks something that isn't in your knowledge, the agent can look it up on the websites you've added, and only those. If it still can't find the answer, it tells the caller it doesn't have that information rather than guessing.
Write for the ear
Your agent reads your knowledge out loud, so write the way you'd say it on the phone.
- One fact per sentence. "We're open Monday to Friday, 8 to 5" beats a paragraph about your history with the hours buried in it.
- Spell out ranges. Write "Monday to Friday" and "8 to 5," not "M-F" and "8-5."
- Be specific. "A standard oil change takes about 30 minutes and needs no appointment before 10" is useful. "Fast, friendly service" is not.
- Say what you don't do, plainly.
- Delete what's out of date. When two facts disagree, such as last year's holiday hours and this year's, the agent may pick either one.
- Don't add the same fact three ways. It uses up space and adds nothing.
What to leave out
Anything you wouldn't want read to a stranger. The simple rule: anything the agent knows, it may say to a caller. Keep out client records, account balances, internal notes, staff home numbers and anything covered by a confidentiality duty. The agent's job is to know your business, not your customers' private details.
Test it like a customer
Before you forward a single real call, test it. During setup you can chat with your agent and make demo calls in your browser (10 a day, up to 10 minutes each), and once you have a number you can call it from your cell.
Work through your list of 20 questions. When an answer is wrong, fix it at the source: open the fact or document it came from and edit it, or add an FAQ. Changes apply from the next call. Then ask again. When the answers hold up, forward your business number, starting with missed calls only.
Keep it current
Knowledge goes stale quietly. A light routine keeps it right:
- Each week, skim calls where the agent said it didn't have the answer. They show up in the Needs attention list as unresolved questions, and each one is a fact to add.
- Before a holiday, a closure or a busy season, add a line to Supplemental Company Information, and take it out afterwards.
- After you change your website, re-scan it. Facts you added yourself and facts you edited are kept; only the untouched ones are replaced.
- Watch the limits: up to 200 documents and 600,000 characters of knowledge per phone number. Quality beats quantity, and trimming stale content improves answers.
Common questions
How do I train an AI receptionist on my business?
You give it your information: your website, your documents and your most common questions with their answers. In ModPhone you add your website address and it reads the site into facts you can review and edit, then you upload documents, add FAQs and write a few rules for how it should behave. Test it by asking the questions your customers ask and correcting what comes back wrong.
What happens when an AI receptionist doesn't know the answer?
A properly set up AI receptionist says it doesn't have that information instead of guessing. ModPhone first checks your knowledge, then the websites you've added, and if it still can't find an answer it tells the caller so. The call then shows up in your Needs attention list so you can add the missing fact.
Can an AI receptionist read my PDFs and documents?
Yes. ModPhone reads PDF, Word and plain text files up to 10MB each, and can keep a Google Drive or OneDrive folder in sync so your agent picks up changes to price lists and policies without re-uploading. You can open any document and edit the text the agent uses.
How long does it take to set up an AI receptionist?
With ModPhone, you can start a demo from your website in about 30 seconds and be live on a real number in about 10 minutes. Plan an extra hour to fill the gaps on this checklist and test it before you forward your main line.
How often should I update my AI receptionist?
Update it whenever something callers ask about changes, such as hours, prices, staff or policies, and review unanswered questions once a week. Use Supplemental Company Information for short-term notices like a closure, and remove them when they stop being true.
Your next step
This week, write down the last 20 questions your office was asked by phone and check each one against your agent. If you haven't built an agent yet, try the demo on your own website and see what it learns in the first minute.