How an AI receptionist works, from your website to your first call

You enter your business website at vocenya.com. Vocenya reads it and builds a draft receptionist in about 20 seconds: your business name, services, hours, service area and the answers to common questions.

You can hear it right away. Vocenya calls your phone so you can talk to your receptionist the way a customer would, before you sign up for anything.

If your website is thin or out of date, that is fine. You will add notes in the next step.

Nothing goes live at this stage. It is a draft for you to check.

Before your receptionist takes a real call, you review everything it knows and edit anything that is wrong or missing. Common changes include:

• Adding services, prices or policies that are not on your website.
• Setting the questions it asks, like address, type of job or insurance.
• Choosing business-hours and after-hours call flows.
• Deciding when calls transfer to you, your team or a GH Live agent.
• Choosing whether it says it is a virtual assistant upfront or only when asked.
• Picking a voice, or recording your own.

You can also connect Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Acuity Scheduling, Jobber or Housecall Pro so it can book appointments, or ServiceTitan so new callers land in your Bookings queue.

You keep the number your customers already know and set it to forward to Vocenya. Most phone carriers let you forward all calls, only unanswered calls, or calls after a set number of rings.

That gives you choices:

• Forward all calls so the AI answers everything.
• Forward unanswered calls so your team answers first and the AI catches the rest.
• Forward after hours so the AI covers nights and weekends.

If you prefer a new number, Starter and above include one local number.

Your carrier can tell you the exact forwarding steps for your line.

Say an auto shop forwards its shop number to Vocenya. The AI answers. If it can't help, it says "I'll connect you now" and rings you.

Transfers should ring:

• Your cell phone. You press 1 to take the caller.
• The Vocenya app on your phone.
• Another line, like an office phone that does not forward to Vocenya.
• Our GH Live team, an add-on, if you want trained people to answer for you.

Not the shop number you forward to Vocenya: that would send the call straight back.

Vocenya protects against this for you. It won't let you pick your forwarded number as the transfer number. If a transfer ever comes back anyway, the AI takes a message instead of answering its own transfer, and you get a heads-up in your setup so you can fix it.

With unanswered calls only, your team answers first and the AI catches what they miss. Transfers still go to a cell phone or the app.

Putting callers through to your own people is included on plans with transfers; on other plans the AI takes a message.

Your AI receptionist answers in your business name. It talks with the caller in natural speech, in the caller’s own language (English and Spanish on the Value plan and in HIPAA mode, many more on Studio voices; see the languages page), and answers their questions from what you set up.

During the call, it captures the caller’s name, number, address, reason and urgency. If your calendar is connected, it books the appointment. If the caller needs a person, it warm transfers them.

The moment the call ends, you get a summary by email and app notification. Depending on your plan, you can also read the transcript and play the recording.

Nothing gets lost in a voicemail box.

Yes. During setup, or later in your settings, you can give your receptionist your own voice instead of a stock one. Read a short script out loud in your browser for about one to two minutes, or upload a recording you already have. Vocenya makes an AI copy of your voice in minutes.

Before it answers a call, you hear a preview of your voice greeting a caller. If it does not sound right, record again. You can switch back to a stock voice or delete your voice at any time.

A few things to know:

• Consent: you confirm the voice is your own, or that you have the speaker’s written permission to use it.
• Recordings: the raw recordings are deleted once your voice is created.
• Disclosure: callers still hear the virtual assistant disclosure you set up. Your voice changes how the receptionist sounds, not what it tells callers about itself.
• Plans: included on plans with Studio voices and available as an add-on on Value. It is not available for accounts in HIPAA mode.

The AI receptionist is where most businesses start, and it is one of several AI agents. They all answer from the knowledge you just reviewed, so there is nothing to set up twice:

• The chat and text agent answers visitors on your website.
• The follow-up agent makes reminder calls before appointments and calls new leads.
• The support email agent handles customer email; its page shows whether email answering is live yet.

When you need a person rather than AI, transfers and chats go to your team or GH Live, and Vocenya Talent can match a skilled person to your business. Tell us about the job.

The receptionist itself is ready in about 20 seconds. How long the rest takes is up to you: some owners review a few answers and forward their number the same day, and others spend more time adding detailed notes and booking rules.

Every plan has a 14-day free trial, there is no contract, and you can cancel any time. You can keep improving your receptionist after it goes live by editing its knowledge whenever something changes.

If you get stuck, start a chat with us and we will help you finish setup.