Setting up the AI Receptionist takes about 15 minutes. By the end you'll have a phone number that answers 24/7 and books jobs into dispatch.
Before you start
Have these ready:
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name | What the receptionist should call herself ("Jessica," "Maya," "Run a Call team"). |
| Business hours | You can override per-day. |
| Service area description | Plain-English — counties, cities, distance from shop. Goes into the business-fact FAQ for the AI to quote ("We service Cuyahoga and Geauga counties only"). |
| Job types | What customers should be able to book through her. |
Pick a phone number
The receptionist needs a number to answer. You manage numbers under Settings → Phone → Numbers.
| Option | When |
|---|---|
| Get a new number | Run a Call provisions a local or toll-free number in seconds. Pick the area code you want. |
| Port your existing number | Keep the number you've used for years. Porting takes 5–10 business days; until it's complete, both your old carrier and Run a Call ring in parallel. See Porting your existing number. |
Confirm your E911 address before going live — the address 911 dispatches to from this number.
Configure the receptionist
The receptionist's personality, voice, greeting, and business facts all live on one page: Settings → Voice.
| Setting | Options | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Free text — what the receptionist calls herself | Jessica |
| Voice | 9 voice options; preview each | Friendly female / Quick male / etc. |
| Tone preset | Friendly helper / Professional receptionist / Quick efficient | Friendly helper for residential |
| Greeting | Free text — the opening line | "Thanks for calling Acme Heating, this is Jessica. How can we help today?" |
| Business facts (FAQ) | Free-text answers the receptionist quotes — service area, hours, what you do and don't service, payment policy | "We service Cuyahoga and Geauga counties only. We don't service mobile homes." |
Changes here are rate-limited to 10 per month — every change effectively re-tunes the AI's instructions. Make adjustments deliberately. See Customizing the AI Receptionist.
There's no rules editor or call-routing tree. The receptionist runs from your settings + business-fact FAQ on every call. If you want certain calls handled differently (existing customer, billing question, after-hours emergency), describe that policy in the FAQ — the AI follows it conversationally.
Test before going live
Place a real call to the number yourself or hand it to a teammate. Walk through a normal booking — pretend you have a broken furnace at your home address — and confirm the AI books the right thing.
Listen to the transcript afterward in Phone inbox or /voice/[call id]. The first 2-3 real calls will surface 1-2 tweaks you'll want to make to the greeting or FAQ.
Go live
The receptionist starts answering as soon as you've subscribed and finished the Voice setup wizard. Inbound calls to the configured number route through the AI.
A transcript and summary land in your Phone inbox after every call. If something looks off in the first day or two, tweak the greeting or business-fact FAQ and the changes take effect on the next call — no redeploy.