What the AI Needs to Know Before It Answers

An AI receptionist is only as good as the facts you give it. Hours, prices, service area, booking rules and the questions callers actually ask. Most go-live problems trace back to something nobody wrote down. This checklist is the list of things to write down.

Tick each item once the fact is written in a document you can hand to your provider. Ticks are saved in this browser.

AI Receptionist Knowledge Base Checklist

Write it down before the first call is forwarded.

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Your ticks are saved in this browser, so you can work through the list over several sessions.

01Hours and location

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The real hours, not the intended ones.

Opening hours for each day of the week, including early closes and lunch breaksList each day separately. Include the last appointment time if it differs from closing.
Public holiday and seasonal closures with dates and the reopening dateChristmas, Easter and long weekends. Say what an urgent caller should do in between.
Street address, parking and public transport notesCallers ask where to park more often than most businesses expect.
Service area as a list of suburbs or postcodes, plus any travel-fee zonesPostcodes are less ambiguous than suburb names.
What to say to a caller outside the service areaA polite decline, or a referral, or take details for a case-by-case decision.

02Services and prices

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What you do, what you do not, and what may be quoted.

Full list of services, in the words callers use for themCallers say "leaking tap", not "plumbing maintenance".
List of services you do not offer and where to refer those callersA clean decline saves everyone time.
Fixed prices the AI may state, with exact wordingConsultation fees, call-out fees, standard service prices.
Prices to give as a range, and the words to useFor example, a from-price with a note that a firm quote follows.
Prices the AI must not quote and who handles themAnything that depends on inspection, scope or a written quote.
Payment methods, deposits, surcharges and health fund or insurance claimingInclude whether card details may be taken on the phone. Usually the answer is no.

03Booking rules

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The rules the practice manager knows and nobody wrote down.

Appointment or job types and how long each takesIncluding the longer first visit for a new customer or patient.
Which staff or practitioners handle which types, and on which daysAlso who is not to be booked without a person confirming.
Information to collect from a new customer before bookingName, mobile, email, address, reason for visit, referral if needed.
Cancellation, rescheduling and no-show rules the caller must be toldThe exact wording, since this is a term the caller is agreeing to.
How far ahead bookings may be made and how same-day requests are handledWhether the AI books same-day or takes details for a person to confirm.

04Caller questions and escalation

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What callers ask, and when the AI hands over.

The twenty most common caller questions and the answer you want given to eachPull them from a normal week of calls. Keep answers short.
Definition of urgent for your business, in plain words with examplesA burst pipe, a pet in distress, a locked-out tenant. Not a quote request.
Named escalation contact with mobile number, and a backupA person, not a department. Test that both numbers answer after hours.
What the AI does when it does not know the answerTake details for a callback, transfer, or say it cannot help with that.
Where messages and bookings are delivered and who checks themEmail, SMS, calendar. Someone must watch the destination after hours.

05What never to say

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The lines the AI must not cross.

No clinical, legal or financial advice: take details and refer to a personWrite the exact deflection wording for your industry.
No guarantees of outcomes, timeframes or availability it has not confirmedThe AI should only promise what it can see in the calendar or the rules.
No confirming to a third party that someone is a customer, patient or clientA caller asking about someone else gets a polite refusal and an offer to pass a message.
No reading back personal details to a caller who has not been verifiedDecide how a caller is verified before the AI discloses anything. The Australian Privacy Principles apply to what you disclose.
No comments on competitors, complaints or disputes: take details and escalateA complaint is always a handover to a named person.

Review my knowledge base with me

A general checklist. Industry rules for health, legal and financial businesses add further restrictions on what may be said on the phone. Confirm your own obligations and ask your provider to show you how each rule is enforced.

Why the Facts Matter More Than the Voice

Callers forgive a slightly synthetic voice. They do not forgive being told the wrong opening hours or quoted a price you do not honour.

Every gap becomes a guess

If the AI has not been told whether you service a suburb, it has to say it does not know, ask for a callback, or guess. The first two are acceptable. The third is what damages trust. Filling the gaps before go-live is cheaper than discovering them from callers.

Prices are the highest-risk fact

A price quoted on the phone is a price the caller expects to pay. Decide which prices the AI may state, which it may give as a range, and which it must refer to a person. Write the wording you want used.

Escalation rules protect the business

The AI needs a clear definition of urgent, a named person to transfer to, and a backup. It also needs to know what it must not do, such as give medical or legal advice, confirm a caller is a customer, or comment on a complaint.

How to Build the Knowledge Base

Five groups of facts. Gather them in this order, because later groups depend on decisions made in earlier ones.

1

Hours and location

Opening hours, closures, holiday hours, address, parking and the service area you cover. These answer the most common caller questions.

2

Services and prices

What you do, what you do not do, what the AI may quote, and how callers can pay. Decide the wording for each price.

3

Booking rules

How appointments or jobs are booked, how long they take, deposits, cancellations, and the difference between a new and an existing customer.

4

Caller questions and escalation

The questions callers ask most, the answers you want given, what counts as urgent, and who the AI transfers to.

5

What never to say

The lines the AI must not cross: advice it is not qualified to give, promises it cannot keep, and information it must not disclose.

Where Knowledge Bases Usually Fall Short

Four gaps that show up in the first week of live calls, and what to write down to close them.

Hours that are not the real hours

The hours on your website are often the hours you intended. The real hours include the Friday early close, the lunch break when the phone goes unanswered, the public holidays you observe and the two weeks over Christmas. The AI will state whatever it was told, so tell it the real ones.

List each day separately rather than writing weekdays 9 to 5
Include lunch closures and the last appointment time, which is not the closing time
Decide now what the AI says over Christmas, Easter and long weekends
Nominate who updates the AI when hours change, and how quickly

A service area nobody defined

Trades, mobile services and delivery businesses lose time on calls from suburbs they do not cover. The AI can decline those cleanly, but only if it has a list. Postcodes are more reliable than suburb names, and a radius from your base is better than nothing.

List suburbs or postcodes you cover, and any you cover for a travel fee
State what the AI should say to a caller outside the area
For clinics and offices, give the address, parking and public transport notes
For multi-site businesses, tell the AI which site handles which area

Booking rules that live in one person's head

The practice manager knows that new patients need a longer first appointment, that a particular practitioner does not take Friday bookings, and that a deposit applies to some services. The AI does not know any of that until it is written down.

Appointment types and their durations, including the longer first visit
Which staff or practitioners take which appointment types and on which days
Deposit, cancellation and no-show rules the caller must be told
What information to collect from a new customer before booking

Nothing written about what not to say

Most knowledge bases list what the AI should say and nothing about what it must avoid. Health, legal and financial businesses need clear lines around advice. Every business needs rules about complaints, competitors and personal information.

No clinical, legal or financial advice: take the details and refer to a person
No confirming whether someone is a customer, patient or client to a third party
No comments on competitors, and no guarantees of outcomes or timeframes
No reading back personal details to an unverified caller, in line with the Australian Privacy Principles

Next Steps

Phone Answering Script Template

Turn the facts into the greeting, questions and close the AI will use.

Build the script →

Phone Forwarding Setup Checklist

The other half of go-live: getting calls to the AI without changing your number.

Open the checklist →

AI Phone Appointment Booking

How booking rules are used on a live call and which calendars connect.

Read about booking →

Frequently Asked Questions

How much detail does the AI receptionist need?

Enough to answer the questions callers actually ask, and a clear instruction for everything else. Start with the twenty most common questions from a normal week and the answers you want given. Add hours, prices you are happy to quote, service area and booking rules. Then define what the AI should do when it does not know: take details for a callback, transfer to a person, or say it cannot help with that. A short, accurate knowledge base beats a long, stale one.

Should the AI quote prices?

Only the ones you decide it may. Fixed prices for standard services, such as a consultation fee or a call-out fee, are usually safe to state. Variable prices are better given as a range with a note that a firm quote follows. Anything that depends on inspection or scope should be referred to a person. Write the exact wording for each so the AI uses it consistently, and remember that a price quoted on the phone is a price the caller expects to pay.

What should the AI do with a caller it cannot help?

Take the caller's name, number and reason for calling, tell them who will follow up and roughly when, and pass the details to the right person. That is a good outcome for the caller and a safe one for the business. The knowledge base should say which person receives which type of unanswered question, so the follow-up is not left to whoever reads the inbox first.

How do we handle holiday hours?

Decide them in advance and give the AI dated exceptions rather than changing the main hours each time. For Christmas, Easter and long weekends, state the closed dates, the reopening date, and what an urgent caller should do in between. Nominate one person to update the knowledge base each year, and check the exceptions are loaded a fortnight before the holiday rather than the day before.

Which payment methods should the AI mention?

The ones a caller needs to know before they book or turn up. Whether you take card, cash and bank transfer, whether a deposit is required and how it is paid, whether you accept health fund claims on the spot, and any surcharges. The AI should not take card details over the phone unless your provider supports it securely and you have decided it should. If not, say so in the knowledge base.

What must the AI never say?

It depends on your industry, but the common rules are: no clinical, legal or financial advice; no guarantees of outcomes, timeframes or availability it cannot confirm; no comments on competitors; no confirming to a third party that someone is a customer; and no reading back personal details to a caller who has not been verified. Health, legal and financial services should add their own rules. Write the list and ask your provider to confirm each item is enforced.

Want Someone to Check the List Before Go-Live?

Send us your hours, services, prices and booking rules as they stand. We will tell you what is missing, what is ambiguous, and what we would change before the first live call.

Review my knowledge base with me Use the phone script template