AI receptionist

Settings › AI receptionist sets up the AI that answers your phone, gives the caller an estimate, and puts the lead in your list. If it isn't on for your company yet, the page shows Turn on the AI Receptionist:

1. A card on file — calls are paid by the minute from your prepaid AI balance, which tops up from this card. Add a card opens Balance & Usage.
2. Turn it on — Turn on (company admins only; everyone else reads Ask your admin).
3. Get its phone number — the page opens on Phone number: pick a new local number. The AI receptionist always gets a new number of its own; your texting number stays for texts.

Before you start

Anyone who can open Settings can change it; Thinking and buying or releasing the number are for company admins. Everything waits for Save at the bottom (Cancel puts back what was saved), except buying the AI's number, which is its own confirmed step because it costs money. Calls are paid from your AI receptionist balance.

The places on the page

Overview — the switch (It is on / It is off), the AI's number with Call it now to test, and the latest Calls, Leads and what was Charged.

Voice & name — her Name, the Day message (pre-filled with the recommended greeting; Use the recommended greeting puts it back), the Voice cards with Listen, Speaking speed, Thinking, the Night message and Tone, and What callers are told (the recording notice and its words, Record calls, Say it's a virtual assistant). More in Voice, speed and thinking.

Hours — Business hours and Holidays (outside them she uses the night message and doesn't transfer), and If she can't answer: the number calls ring when she's switched off or the balance is empty.

Transfers & callbacks — Your main number, Who the AI can transfer calls to (people and departments, each with a direct number and what Callers may also say), Sales Call Routing, When to transfer (Wait Before Attempting Another Transfer, Assign Call-Back Tasks To) and Hot leads: Offer a live transfer to sales.

Knowledge — Frequently asked questions in your words (Import from Customer Experience FAQ brings in your customer FAQ), Documents (price sheets, policies, service areas; text files under 200 KB), and What makes you different and Anything else, in plain words.

Estimates & leads — Give the estimated cost, email for an estimate, the booking-link text, real arrival windows, long distance, hot leads and claims. Sales playbook — your team's words.

Give the estimated cost

In Estimates & leads › The estimate, Give the estimated cost decides whether callers with a local move hear a price on the phone:

• Range — she gives the estimate with its basis: the movers, the truck, the hourly rate, the hours and the range.
• Never — she still asks everything and makes the estimate in MoveBoard, but never says a figure: not the first estimate, not after a change, not when the caller asks "how much?", not when she sums up. She says the estimate is ready and a moving specialist will go over the price. With Text the online booking link on, the caller gets the estimate by text, so they see the price in writing.

Long-distance moves follow Long distance › Give a price instead. If your company had Give the estimated cost turned off in the older AI receptionist settings, it starts on Never.

Phone number — get the AI a new local number of its own. It is always a new number: a number your company already has, like your texting number, can't be used for the AI receptionist, so texts and calls each keep their own number. Search by Area code, or by City and State. If an area code has numbers but none in the city or state you typed, you get all of that area code's numbers and a line saying so. An empty list says what was searched, and it means the phone company has none there right now: stock changes during the day, so a busy area code can be worth another try later or a nearby one.

Calls — the latest calls, each with its summary, transcript, recording and cost.

What the phone AI reads from your settings

The AI receptionist answers from your own settings, so keep them right (some of these come with the newest version of the AI receptionist, which MoveBoard support turns on):

• Arrival windows — it checks the move date on your calendar the moment the caller gives it. A full day is said once, right then, in one short sentence with up to two of the nearest open dates (no times yet); if the caller keeps their own date, it keeps it and doesn't bring it up again, and your office follows up. After the estimate it offers two of your real windows from Settings › Sales › Arrival windows (for example 8–10 AM or 12–3 PM) that are still open that day. It never offers the whole working day; with no windows set, it says the office sets the time when they book.
• Moving days — "Do you move on Sundays?" is answered from your price calendar (blocked days and holidays), not from your office hours.
• Trucks — "What truck are you sending?" is answered from Settings › Dispatch › Trucks (capacity) and the length under Trips › Trailers & settings (or the truck's name, like 26 Ft. Truck), with the size the move's cubic feet needs.
• Box delivery — when Box delivery is on, it tells callers they can order boxes, delivered, from their online account or your website.
• Parking permits — a city's permit fee in your answers is only quoted for that city; for other towns it says the office will arrange it.

During the call it:

• opens with "What's the size of your move?" and works out the kind of job from the answer;
• asks how far the truck parks from the door at each address before the estimate (then, "just to fine-tune it", only heavy or special items);
• confirms the number before it texts the estimate link, then asks the last name, and only then the email;
• offers unpacking whenever the caller wants packing, and updates the estimate for anything added after the first one (saying the new figure only when Give the estimated cost is Range);
• marks COI requested on the address that needs a certificate, and notes a parking permit on that address only (for example Parking permit needed at the delivery, Newton 02460).

Speaking speed (in the Voice card) sets how fast it talks; 0.9 is a little slower than the voice's own pace.

What happens next

Each call the AI takes makes or updates a lead, shown in AI leads. The same knowledge answers the website chat, if you turn it on in Floating menu & chat.