Set up the AI Receptionist¶

Configure your AI-powered virtual receptionist to answer calls, route callers to the right department, and take messages when nobody's available.

Who this is for: admins

Before you start¶

Admin access to your Phonovo portal.
AI Receptionist is a premium add-on. If the page shows a message saying it isn't enabled for your account, ask your administrator or contact Phonovo support.
The extensions, ring groups, or queues you want each department to reach already set up, see Create an extension and assign it to a user.
A list of email addresses that should receive a copy of any message the receptionist takes.

Steps¶

In the sidebar, under Communication, select AI Receptionist. Select Setup to configure it, Messages to read messages, or Calls to review calls. Each tab is described below.
Under Business Identity, enter your Business Name (the receptionist greets callers using this) and a Receptionist Name (defaults to "Sophie"). Choose a Voice from the available options, then pick a Greeting Style: Formal, Friendly, or Custom. If you choose Custom, write your own greeting in the text box that appears.
Under Departments, select Add Department for each team or person the receptionist should be able to transfer callers to. For each row, enter a Name (for example, "Sales"), choose a Type (Extension, Ring Group, or Queue), enter the matching Destination (an extension number, for example), and optionally a Description to help the AI decide when to use it. Select the trash icon on a row to remove it. If you leave this empty, the receptionist will only try to transfer callers by matching a person's name.
Under Business Hours, set an opening and closing time for each day of the week, or tick Closed for days you're not open. Underneath, choose an After-Hours Action: Take a message, Take message then transfer, or Transfer directly. If you choose either transfer option, enter an After-Hours Destination (an extension number or phone number).
Under Custom Instructions (collapsed by default, select it to expand), you can add free-text guidance for the receptionist, such as always asking for a callback number, or noting an upcoming closure. This is limited to 2,000 characters.
Under Fallback & Delivery (also collapsed by default), enter a Fallback Destination to transfer to if the receptionist can't help the caller. Add one or more Message Delivery Emails by typing an address and selecting Add (or pressing Enter). A copy of every message taken is emailed to each address listed, either on its own or within a call summary if enabled. Toggle In-App Notifications on to also see a notification in the portal whenever a message is taken.
When you've made changes, a bar appears at the bottom of the page. Select Save Changes to apply them, or Cancel to discard them and reload the saved configuration.

Call summary emails¶

In Setup > Fallback & Delivery, tick Email a summary of every call, then select Save Changes. It is unticked by default. Add at least one address under Message Delivery Emails first. Summaries go to every address in that list.

You receive one email per call, including any message or callback request taken. While this option is on, those details are included in the summary instead of a separate message email. The email includes the caller, call time and length, what happened, a summary and a link to the call in the Calls tab. It does not include the transcript. Caller numbers use UK national format, for example 07700 900123.

Calls where the caller never spoke and calls from blocked numbers are skipped. Emergency calls are marked. Summary emails for test calls are labelled Test call. If the summary has not gone out once the call has ended and about 10 minutes have passed since the message was taken, the message is sent on its own within a few minutes. If the end of the call is not recorded, it is sent after about 30 minutes. If it still cannot be emailed after two hours, it stays in the Messages or Callbacks tab.

Business information¶

In Setup, open Business information and add your address, areas you cover, services, prices, parking and access details, and other useful facts. Add up to 15 frequently asked questions with their answers. The character counters show how much space remains. Use Save Changes to save these with your other settings.

The receptionist answers questions about your company only from these facts and your custom instructions. If an answer is missing, it will say it is not sure and offer to take a message. Keep prices current and review your answers when services or access arrangements change. For long entries, the last FAQs may not fit into the information supplied for a call, so put essential facts first.

Knowledge¶

Open the Knowledge tab to give your receptionist more company information, such as service descriptions, access instructions, policies or answers to common questions. Add pasted text with a clear title, or a URL for one of your own published web pages. Adding a single page does not import the rest of your website. To read several pages together, use Import your website, described below.

You can save up to 50 sources and 200,000 characters in total. The source list shows each source's status and size. Pages are read in the background. If a page fails, check that it is publicly available and try refreshing it. Refresh a page whenever you change its published content. Rename, disable or delete sources when they are no longer useful. Deletion asks for confirmation. Disabled sources still count towards your limits.

Use Test a question to check what the receptionist can find. Search returns short passages from enabled, ready sources. If nothing matches, the receptionist should say it is unsure and offer to take a message. Clear, specific text helps it answer reliably. Add only information you want callers to hear.

Changes and question testing require update permission. People with read permission can view the source list. Company knowledge is retained until you delete it or the company is removed; caller erasure does not remove it.

Import your website¶

Open the Knowledge tab and find Import your website. You can also reach it from Setup > Business information by selecting Fill this in from your website. This link is only shown if you have permission to update the receptionist, which is also required to import and save suggestions. Enter your company's website address, for example https://www.example.co.uk, then select Import website.

The import reads up to 25 pages of your own public website and respects the site's robots.txt, which tells automated tools which pages they may read. Pages blocked by those rules are not read. It adds readable pages to Knowledge and suggests business information and answers to common questions. It does not fill in opening hours: check and set these yourself under Business Hours.

Your company can have up to 50 sources and 200,000 characters across all Knowledge sources, including disabled sources. If either limit is reached, the import stops adding pages and shows how many were skipped. Pages already added remain in Knowledge. Delete sources you no longer need to make room, then try the import again. Pages may also be skipped if the import takes too long.

When Ready to review appears, check each suggested detail and answer. Edit the draft where needed. Each field has two options: Use this to accept the suggestion or Keep mine to keep your saved information. For frequently asked questions, choose Replace my questions to replace your saved questions with the draft questions, or Keep mine to retain them. Existing information is kept by default; suggestions for empty fields are selected by default. Select Save to apply your chosen business information. You will see Business information saved when it succeeds. Suggested business information does not go live until you review it and click Save. Imported knowledge pages are added before this review and can already be used to answer callers. Discard leaves your saved business information unchanged but does not remove imported pages. Review the source list and disable or delete any pages you do not want callers to hear.

To update your receptionist after changing your website, import the same website again. This replaces only pages from earlier imports of that website. Pasted text, pages added individually and imports from other websites are kept. Review the new suggestions and select Save again if you want to apply them.

If an import cannot finish, you may see one of these messages:

Message	What to do
An import is already running for your company.	Wait for it to finish before starting another.
Your company has reached today's import limit. Try again tomorrow.	Wait until tomorrow before importing again.
Enter your website address, for example https://www.example.co.uk.	Check the address and include https://.
We could not reach that website. Check the address and that it is public.	Check that the address opens without signing in.
We could not find any readable pages on that website.	Check that the website has public text pages and that robots.txt allows them to be read.
The import stopped before it finished. Please try again.	Start the import again.
Save your receptionist setup first, then come back to save these suggestions.	Open Setup, save your receptionist settings, then return to Knowledge to save the suggestions.
This import is no longer ready to review. Reload the Knowledge tab and try again.	Reload the tab to see the latest import.
Unable to load or update the website import. Please try again.	Try again; contact Phonovo support if the problem continues.
We added your pages but could not draft your business information. You can fill it in yourself.	Review Knowledge and enter your business information manually in Setup.
We could not find business information on your website. You can fill it in yourself.	Enter the missing business information manually in Setup.

Read the messages it takes¶

On the AI Receptionist page, select the Messages tab (it shows a red badge with the number of unread messages, if any).
Select a message's row to expand it and read the details the caller gave.
Select Mark all read to clear the unread badge, or mark an individual message as read by opening it.

Review calls¶

Select the Calls tab to see calls and minutes this month, calls in the last 30 days, and counts by outcome for the last 30 days. Test calls appear in the table with a Test badge but are excluded from the statistics.

Search by phone number, or enter at least four digits to find part of a number. You can also filter by outcome and date range. Use Previous and Next to move through 25 calls at a time. Dates and times use UK time, and phone numbers appear in national format, for example 07700 900123.

Select a call to read its summary, the timeline of what happened, the end reason and the transcript. Select Close or press Escape to return to the table.

Test calls¶

To try your receptionist, dial *900 from one of your company's phones. The call is shown with a Test badge automatically.

You can mark or unmark any call from its details in the Calls tab. Select Mark as test call or Not a test call. You need permission to update the receptionist.

Test calls are left out of the Calls statistics, are not remembered as a returning caller, send no owner text and are not logged to your CRM. An emergency on a test call is still flagged but sends no alert. Call summary emails are still sent for test calls and are labelled Test call, subject to the usual summary settings and exclusions described above.

Messages and callbacks taken on a test call are still emailed and shown in the portal as usual.

Marking or unmarking a call changes its badge, statistics and returning-caller memory from now on. It does not undo anything already sent, including texts, CRM call logs or summary emails.

Callbacks¶

When a caller asks to be rung back, your receptionist records their name, best number, preferred time and reason. Open the Callbacks tab to see requests, with the newest first. Choose Open, Done or All to filter the list.

Users with permission to update the receptionist can select Mark done once a request has been handled, or Reopen if more follow-up is needed. An amber Overdue marker appears on open requests after 24 hours. A preferred time records the caller's wishes; your receptionist never promises a callback time.

Callbacks are kept until done. Once done, they follow your data retention setting, measured from when they were requested. Erasing a caller also removes their callback requests.

Text alerts¶

In Setup > Fallback & Delivery, choose Text alerts and add up to three UK mobile numbers. Choose Off, Calls that need action, or Every call, then save your changes. We text a short summary to these numbers. Callers are never texted.

Calls that need action include messages, callback requests, booked meetings and possible emergency calls. Test calls do not send texts. Your company can receive up to 50 texts per UK calendar day across all chosen numbers. Text delivery must be enabled for your account by the platform administrator.

Colleagues now see the caller's name on their phone when the receptionist puts an identified caller through, with the caller's company when provided. Callers who prefer to leave a voicemail can also be sent to a colleague's voicemail when that colleague has voicemail enabled.

Send receptionist calls to your CRM¶

When your company has an active CRM connection that logs calls, finished receptionist calls also appear as inbound call logs. The caller's number must match an existing CRM contact, and the call is linked to that contact. Numbers with no matching contact are skipped, just like ordinary calls, so no CRM call log is created. Test calls are excluded.

The call log includes the caller number, start time and duration, with the usual inbound call title. If your CRM sharing settings allow summaries, it includes a summary starting with "AI receptionist: Message taken" (or "Transferred", "Meeting booked" or the other call outcome), followed by the call summary. Receptionist transcripts and recording links are never sent.

To switch this off, open AI Receptionist, select Setup, clear Log receptionist calls in CRM, then choose Save Changes. You need permission to update receptionist settings. The option appears when your company has a CRM connection. You can switch it back on using the same option.

Erasing a caller in Phonovo or automatically deleting old receptionist calls does not delete CRM call logs. Your company manages those copies in its own CRM, including any erasure requests. See Connect a CRM for connection and sharing settings.

Returning callers¶

In AI Receptionist > Setup, turn on Recognise returning callers to give the receptionist a short note about the caller's most recent finished call to your company. This is off by default. Only calls within your data retention period are used; test calls are excluded. Withheld numbers receive no note.

Caller ID can be faked, so the receptionist never repeats details from earlier calls or confirms a name from the note. It uses the context to understand what the caller may want and avoid asking for things twice. It only mentions an earlier call if the caller does. If someone asks about an earlier message or callback, it says that it has been passed to the team.

Save your changes after changing the setting.

Block nuisance callers¶

In Setup, use Blocked numbers to add a number, for example 07700 900123. You can block up to 500 numbers for your company. Choose Remove and confirm to allow a number again. Changing the list requires permission to update the receptionist.

In Calls, open a call, select Mark as spam, then confirm Block number. The detail shows Blocked after the number is blocked. Calls with withheld or missing numbers cannot be blocked this way.

Blocked callers hear "Sorry, we can't take your call" and the receptionist ends the call immediately. These calls can appear in Calls, and a brief connection can still count towards your receptionist minutes.

For unsolicited sales calls, the receptionist politely says the business is not interested, offers to take a short message, and ends the call. It also ends recorded messages and calls where nobody speaks for 10 seconds.

Blocked numbers stay in place when old calls are deleted automatically. Erase a caller removes both the caller's data and the block on their number.

Data retention¶

In the Setup tab, set Data retention (days) to a whole number from 7 to 365. The default is 90 days. Select Save Changes to apply it.

Calls, transcripts, read messages and done callbacks older than this are deleted automatically. Unread messages are kept until read, and open callbacks are kept until done.

Erase a caller's data¶

If you have permission to update the receptionist, select Erase a caller in the Calls tab. Enter the caller's phone number, for example 07700 900123, and tick the confirmation checkbox before selecting Permanently erase.

This permanently deletes calls, transcripts, messages, callback requests and related records for that number from your company, including unread messages. It cannot be undone. The result shows how many records were deleted. If you see a message saying there have been too many requests, try again later.

Users with read-only access can review calls but cannot change retention or erase caller data.

Transfers and voicemail¶

Colleagues see the caller's name on their phone when the receptionist puts an identified caller through, with the caller's company when provided. Callers who prefer to leave a voicemail can also be sent to a colleague's voicemail when that colleague has voicemail enabled.

Ask Olivia

You can also ask Olivia, the in-portal assistant, to walk you through this.

Transfer destination checks¶

The receptionist connects callers only to verified company extensions and department destinations saved in its settings. It refuses feature codes and numbers suggested by a caller. If the company directory is unavailable, it keeps the caller with the receptionist so they can leave a message. External transfers use only the saved After hours or Fallback destination.

Olivia also checks destination ownership when changing forwarding or call handling rules. To use an external number through an AI action, an admin must first save it as the company’s receptionist fallback or after-hours destination. Ordinary outbound calling restrictions still apply.