Fifteen minutes with this worksheet is the difference between an AI receptionist that fits your business and one that annoys your callers. Fill it in first — whether you build with us or anyone else.
Most AI-receptionist projects fail for one boring reason: nobody wrote down how the phone is actually answered today. Do that first and the build becomes simple — the assistant just follows your real rules. Print this, fill it in, and you'll have everything a good build needs.
List the calls you actually get, most common first. Aim for your top 6–8.
| Call type / reason | How often | How it's handled now |
|---|---|---|
Examples: new enquiry / booking · reschedule or cancel · price question · existing customer · supplier or spam · emergency.
For each call type above, decide what the AI should do end-to-end, and what it must hand to a human.
| AI can fully handle | Must go to a human (and how fast) |
|---|---|
Where should a booking land, and what does the AI need to check first?
Calendar / booking system the AI should write into:
Information needed before booking (name, service, address, etc.):
CRM / spreadsheet where every lead should be logged:
The guardrails. Be specific — this is what keeps the AI on-brand and safe.
Always mention (e.g. opening hours, a current offer, a disclaimer):
Never say / never promise (e.g. medical advice, discounts, guarantees):
Write the exact questions and the exact answers. This becomes the AI's knowledge — and doubles as FAQ content for your website.
What happens on evenings, weekends, and when the line is already busy?
After-hours behaviour (book / take a message / emergency routing):
Emergency or urgent calls should be routed to:
The exact words or situations where the AI must stop and get a human immediately.
Done? You now have a call-flow spec most agencies would charge to produce. Build from it yourself, or send it to us and we'll turn it into a working AI receptionist that answers, books and knows when to hand over.
Fill it in, then let's build it — a chat or voice AI receptionist that follows your exact rules and escalates the moment it should.