An AI receptionist like Tactly does not guess. It answers callers only from your knowledge base and the notes you write for it. That is a safety feature, because it means it will never promise a price you do not charge or a time you do not have. It also means the notes are where most of the work is. Good notes make it sound like someone who has worked your front desk for years. Thin notes make it take a lot of messages.
The good news is that you already know what goes in them. You answer the same questions every week. The job is to write those answers down once.
Start with the questions you hear most
Before you write anything, spend a day noticing your calls. What do people ask in the first ten seconds? For most small businesses the list is short:
- Are you open, and when?
- Do you come out to my area?
- Do you do this particular job?
- Roughly what does it cost?
- When can you fit me in?
Each of those deserves a clear, plain answer in your notes. If you only write five things, write those five.
Hours, in a way a caller would ask about them
Your business hours are set in the dashboard, and that is what decides when calls are treated as after hours. Your notes can add the human detail around them. Do you close early on Fridays? Is the showroom open on Saturdays even though the crew is not? Do you shut for a week in August? Write it the way you would say it to a customer.
Your service area, spelled out
This is the single most useful thing to write for any business that travels. List towns by name and add zip codes if your area has fuzzy edges. Then add the places you will not go, and why if it helps. "We do not go north of the river" is the kind of sentence that saves you a wasted drive.
What you do, and what you do not
A list of services is a start, but the line you do not cross matters just as much. A dental office might write that it does not offer implants. A plumbing shop might say it does residential only. An auto shop might say it does not work on diesels. When a caller asks about something you refuse, your receptionist can say so kindly and quickly, and nobody books a visit that ends in "sorry, we don't do that".
Prices: share only what you would say on the phone
If you are comfortable quoting a trip fee, a consultation fee or a starting price, write it down exactly. If a price depends on seeing the job, leave it out. Tactly will tell the caller it does not have that figure and take a message, which is the honest answer and the one you would give yourself.
Avoid vague ranges you would not stand behind. A number in your notes is a number your receptionist will repeat to strangers.
What should become a message
Some calls should always come to you. Say so. Common examples:
- Requests for a quote on a larger project
- Questions about an order or job already in progress
- Complaints, or anything that sounds unhappy
- Anything clinical, legal or financial that needs a professional
Writing "take a message for anything about an existing job" gives the receptionist a clear rule instead of leaving it to judgement it does not have.
Safety lines
Anyone describing an emergency is told to hang up and call 911. That is built in. If your trade has its own safety advice, add it: leave the house if you smell gas, turn off the water at the main, stay away from a sparking outlet. Keep it short and practical.
What to leave out
Notes are not a place for internal policy, staff names you do not want shared, or anything that changes daily. Live availability comes from your calendar, not your notes, so do not write "we have openings Tuesday". It will be wrong by Wednesday.
Also leave out anything you are not sure of. A guess in the notes becomes a confident wrong answer on the phone.
Test it like a customer would
Test calls from your own phone are free, so use them. Call and ask your five common questions. Then ask something awkward: a service you do not offer, a town just outside your area, a price you left out on purpose. Listen for answers that are too vague or too confident. Read the summary that lands in your inbox afterwards, and check that it says what you would want to know.
Then edit. Changes apply from the next call, so a few rounds of call, listen, adjust is all it takes.
Revisit them every season
Businesses change. You add a service, drop a town, raise a fee. Put a reminder in your calendar to reread your notes every few months. Ten minutes of tidying keeps your receptionist sounding like it knows the business, because it does.