Setting up an AI receptionist is about fifteen minutes of decisions, not a project. There is nothing to install, no hardware, and nobody to train. What takes the time is deciding what the receptionist should know and what should happen to each kind of call, and most of that you already know by heart. This guide walks through the setup in the order it happens on MairyAI, with the mistakes to avoid at each step.

Before you start, have five things at hand: your website address, the number your customers call today, your hours and service area, your prices or the rule you use to quote them, and the name of the person who takes an emergency after hours.

Step 1: Start the trial

The free trial needs an email address and nothing else: no card, 14 days, 50 minutes of real calls. Your dashboard opens as soon as you verify the email. Everything below happens in that dashboard, and everything you set during the trial carries over if you keep the service.

Step 2: Choose the number

You have two choices, and neither changes your phone system. Forward the number your customers already know, which you do at your existing phone company with a setting that takes a minute, or start on a new business number that MairyAI puts in place with you. Forwarding is the usual choice for an established business; a new number suits a business that wants to try the receptionist on one line, such as the after-hours line or the number on a new ad, before moving the main line over.

The mistake at this step is forwarding the main line before the details in Step 3 are in. Do the forwarding last.

Step 3: Tell your Voice Agent the business

MairyAI reads your website first and drafts what can be found there: services, hours, service area, the way you describe the business. Your job is to check each item and fill the gaps, which is faster than typing from a blank page. The details that matter most, in order:

  • Services. What you do and, just as important, what you do not, so a caller asking for something you do not offer is told plainly instead of booked.
  • Prices. Either the price list or the rule for quoting: a flat service-call fee, a range, or "the technician quotes on site." Your Voice Agent says exactly what you wrote and nothing more.
  • Hours and service area. Where you go and when, so a caller outside the area is told before a time is offered.
  • The questions callers always ask. Whether you work weekends, whether estimates are free, which brands you service, what to do before the technician arrives. Every one you answer here is a call that ends without a message for you.
  • What counts as an emergency. For a plumber, a burst pipe; for an HVAC company, no heat in January; for an electrician, a burning smell. Name them, because Step 5 depends on the list.

Step 4: Connect the calendar

Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook, or use the built-in calendar if you do not keep one. Then define the appointment types your Voice Agent may book: the name of each, how long it takes, and how much notice you need. Name the members of your team who take appointments, with the hours each one works. From then on your Voice Agent books into free time only, against a named person, and never offers a slot that is not really open. The integrations page lists what connects.

The mistake here is an appointment type with no length or notice. A "service call" with no duration gets booked back to back, and no notice means a caller at 8:55 a.m. can book 9:00.

Step 5: Set the rules for calls that need a person

Three rules cover almost everything.

  • Transfer. Which calls go through to a person, to which number, and at which hours. A named customer asking for the owner; a supplier; a complaint. During the transfer, the reason for the call is already captured.
  • Emergencies, by time of day. For the emergencies you listed in Step 3, decide what happens at 2 p.m. and what happens at 2 a.m.: transfer to the on-call number, book the first slot in the morning, or take a message. Each kind of call can have a different rule at a different hour.
  • Everything else. When a caller asks something outside what you provided, your Voice Agent takes a message or transfers the call rather than guessing, under the rule you set here. The written record tells you what was asked so you can add the answer in Step 3 for next time.

Write the rules before the first real call, not after. They are what make the rest of the calls safe to hand over.

Step 6: The greeting

The greeting is yours to word, with one part that is fixed: the first sentence states that the caller is speaking with an AI assistant and that the call is recorded. MairyAI never switches that off, and callers stay on the line when the voice is natural and the answers are right. Keep the rest short: the business name, and the question that gets the call moving. How the receptionist sounds, the voice and how talkative or formal the delivery is, is also set here. Read the recording disclosure if you want the reasoning in full.

Step 7: Make the first test call

Call the number yourself, from a phone that is not the forwarded line. Ask the questions a real customer asks, including one you deliberately did not answer in Step 3, and book an appointment. Then open the call in the dashboard and read what came back: the recording, the transcript, the summary of what the caller wanted and how urgent it was, the appointment in the calendar, and the confirmation email the caller received. If anything is wrong, it is in Step 3 or Step 4, and the fix takes a minute.

Now forward the main line.

Step 8: Let real callers in for two weeks

The trial is 50 minutes of real calls, which for most small businesses is a couple of weeks of the calls you would otherwise have missed. Read the records every day or two. Each one tells you one of three things: the call was handled, and you did nothing; the caller asked something new, and you add the answer; or a rule needs changing, and you change it. By the end of the two weeks the receptionist knows the business the way a good hire would after a month, and you have heard your own customers' reactions rather than a demo.

What you did not need

No new phone system or handsets. No training session. No script, in the old sense, because your Voice Agent answers from your details rather than reading lines. No card for the trial. And no setup fee: setup is included on every plan, and the plans are on the pricing page.

The mistakes that cost the most

  • Forwarding the main line before the details and the calendar are in, so the first real callers reach a receptionist that knows nothing.
  • Skipping the emergency rule, so the 2 a.m. burst pipe is handled like a 2 p.m. quote.
  • Appointment types with no length or notice.
  • Leaving prices blank when you have a rule you could write down, so every price question becomes a message.
  • Not reading the records in the first week, which is when a few minutes of additions turn a decent receptionist into one that sounds like your business.

If you want to know what the service costs before you start, the guide to what an AI receptionist costs covers the plans and the calculation. If your business is a trade, the pages for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and the rest list the calls each trade gets and the rules that fit them.