What to tell an AI receptionist on day one

Daygent reads your website and builds most of what it needs on its own. The businesses that get the most out of it spend ten more minutes filling in the things a website never says out loud.

The things your website doesn't say

• What you charge to turn up, and what that covers
• How far you'll travel before it stops being worth it
• Which jobs you'd rather not take
• What counts as an emergency, and what that costs out of hours
• Who to put straight through, and who to take a message from

That last one matters more than people expect. A receptionist who knows a landlord with four properties is worth interrupting you for is worth considerably more than one who treats every call the same.

Write it the way you'd say it

Don't write policy. Write the sentence you'd actually say to a new employee on their first morning: 'we don't do Sundays unless it's flooding, and if it is flooding it's time and a half.' That is exactly the kind of instruction it handles well.

Write it the way you'd tell a new starter, not the way you'd write a terms page.

Then listen to it

Place a test call and ask the awkward questions — the price you don't like quoting, the job you'd rather refuse. You'll learn more in two minutes of listening than in an hour of editing settings.