AI Receptionist help center

How the receptionist works, what it can and can't do, and how to get the most out of it. See plans

Getting started

Create a business, then work through the onboarding checklist: business profile, services, hours, knowledge, greeting, notifications, a simulator test, and finally connecting a number. Industry templates (dental, law, plumbing/HVAC, salon/spa, real estate, auto repair) prefill common services and starter FAQs — template FAQs and policies are saved as drafts and never answer callers until you approve them.

What the receptionist will — and won't — say

The receptionist answers questions only from knowledge entries that are both approved and marked caller-facing, plus your services and structured hours. Entries marked internal are never spoken to callers. If a caller asks something it has no approved answer for, it says so, offers to take a message, and adds the question to your follow-up queue. It never invents prices: a service's price is only quoted if you entered it and switched on "publish price".

Strict vs. Balanced answers

In Strict mode (the default) the receptionist answers only from your business's information. In Balanced mode it may also answer clearly general questions (for example, what a service category generally involves), labeled as general information. Business facts — your prices, hours, policies — always come from your approved information in both modes.

Hours, holidays, and time zones

Hours are structured: set open/close times per weekday (a second interval covers a lunch closure), and add date overrides for holidays or special hours. The receptionist computes "are we open now" from your business time zone, including daylight-saving changes, and appointment availability comes from those same hours plus existing bookings and your services' durations and buffers.

Appointments

On plans with booking, the receptionist offers real open slots, reads the appointment back for confirmation, and only then books it. Appointments can be requested, confirmed, cancelled, rescheduled, completed, or marked no-show from the Appointments page. Cancelling or rescheduling by phone works when the caller's number matches the booking.

Messages, follow-ups, and notifications

Every message, unanswered question, failed transfer, and appointment request lands in the Messages & follow-up queue, where you can assign it to a team member and track it to completion. Email notifications are deliberately brief — they name the event and link to your account, but never include caller message content or phone numbers.

Plans, minutes, and overage

Each answered live call bills its duration rounded up to the next whole minute (an answered call bills at least one minute). Simulated calls never bill. Calls are never cut off for usage: minutes beyond your plan are charged at your plan's overage rate, estimated live on the Billing & usage page. You can set usage alerts (75/90/100% by default) and each alert is sent once per billing period. If a subscription lapses, your businesses and records are kept — access resumes when the subscription is active again.

Phone numbers and live calls

Live answering needs a connected number through CertSight's telephony provider. The Phone page shows your exact state: provider not configured, number not connected, or connected. If the provider isn't configured yet, setup, the simulator, and all records still work — the page will simply say live calls aren't active. Transferring a call to a person works only when you've set a transfer number and transfer rules are included in your plan; if a transfer fails, the caller is offered a message and the attempt is flagged urgent in your queue.

Recording and AI disclosure

You control whether calls are recorded (where the provider supports it) and the exact disclosure lines callers hear. By default the receptionist tells callers they're speaking with an AI assistant. Recording is off by default; if you enable it, the recording notice is part of the greeting.

Emergencies

If a caller describes an emergency, the receptionist tells them to hang up and call 911 immediately, before anything else. It does not ask follow-up questions, give medical advice, or try to assess the situation. The call is marked as an emergency, added to your follow-up queue, and you're notified right away (urgent notifications ignore digest and quiet-hours settings).

Your data

Each business's data is visible only to its team members. Owners can export calls, messages, and appointments as CSV, and can delete a business and its associated data from the Business page. Platform administrators at CertSight can see account-level usage for support and safety.

Still need help?

Workspace users can send a support request from the Business page of their workspace; it goes to the CertSight team with your business attached.