Decide whether you want help with all incoming enquiries, calls that your team cannot pick up, or calls outside opening hours. The routing options available depend on your phone provider and setup; an AI service alone does not change those settings.
Start with a narrow job, such as answering opening-hours questions and collecting new-enquiry details. Add more actions after that workflow works reliably.
Business basics: opening hours, locations, service areas and the services you actually offer.
Approved answers: what prices or policies it may explain, what it must not guess, and who handles exceptions.
Intake details: the caller’s name, preferred contact route, reason for calling and the minimum information your team needs.
Next steps: which message, link or CRM action is appropriate, and what to say if that action cannot be completed.
Human follow-up: who owns unresolved enquiries and what response expectation the AI is allowed to give.
Ask a common question with a known answer, then ask something absent from your business information. Check that the second answer does not invent a policy.
Give a name, phone number or email that is easy to mishear. Correct it and confirm the final details are right.
Interrupt, change your request or ask to speak to a person. Check that the conversation stays useful and explains the available next step.
Request an appointment. Confirm whether the result is only an enquiry, a booking link or an actual confirmed booking in a tested connected system.
Try the configured follow-up and check the destination. A promise to send something is not proof that it arrived.
An AI receptionist should not guess when a caller needs a decision outside its instructions. Agree how those enquiries reach your team, and test what callers hear when that person is unavailable.
For Hello Noreen, calls stop being answered when the available balance is exhausted. Monitor usage and choose a manual top-up or opt-in automatic top-up if appropriate. Keep the phone provider’s rollback instructions so you can restore your previous routing.