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Use cases

Set up an AI receptionist for your phone line

Turn your bot into an AI receptionist that answers your business phone around the clock, answers common questions from your own content, takes messages and puts callers through to your team when they ask for a person.

What you'll build

A phone number (or your existing business line, forwarded) where callers get:

  • A friendly greeting in your business name, with a clear AI disclosure
  • Instant answers to the questions you get asked every day: opening hours, prices, services, directions, policies
  • A transfer to your mobile or office line when they ask for a person
  • A message taken when nobody can pick up, delivered to your inbox
  • A written transcript of every call in your Chat Thing conversations

Setup takes an afternoon and you can hear it working on the free test line before renting a number.

Step 1: Create your bot and add what it should know

If you already have a support bot, skip to step 2. Your receptionist uses the same knowledge.

  1. Go to your Chat Thing dashboard and click New bot. Name it after your business, for example "Acme Plumbing".
  2. Add a Website data source pointing at your site so the bot learns your services, prices and opening hours. Add a File or Manual data source for anything that is not on the site, such as a price list or your cancellation policy.
  3. Sync the data sources and ask the bot a few questions in the web chat to check it answers correctly.

The support bot guide covers data sources and prompt writing in more detail.

Step 2: Write a receptionist prompt

Go to General settings and set a system prompt that describes the receptionist's job. Phone calls work best when the bot keeps answers short and asks one thing at a time:

You are the receptionist for Acme Plumbing, a family plumbing business in Bristol.

Your job on a call:
- Greet callers warmly and find out what they need.
- Answer questions about our services, prices, coverage area and opening hours using the information provided.
- Keep answers to one or two sentences and ask one question at a time.
- For emergencies (leaks, no heating, no hot water) offer to put the caller through to the team straight away.
- If you cannot help, offer to take a message with the caller's name, number and what they need.
- Never make up prices or availability. If you do not know, say so and offer to take a message.

Step 3: Turn on the phone channel and try the test line

  1. Open the Channels tab and turn on the Phone card. The Phone channel is available on the Standard plan and above.
  2. In the Test line section, enter your mobile number and click Get a test PIN.
  3. Call the test line with your caller ID visible, enter the PIN, and talk to your receptionist. Every team gets 10 free test minutes a month, so you can iterate on the prompt and greeting before paying for anything.

Step 4: Set the greeting and voice

In Greeting and voice:

  1. Write a Spoken greeting such as "Thanks for calling Acme Plumbing. How can I help?" Chat Thing adds an AI disclosure automatically if your greeting does not include one.
  2. Pick a Call voice that suits your brand and region, and press play to hear it.
  3. Click Regenerate from system prompt to draft Voice instructions from the prompt you wrote in step 2, then adjust the tone if you like.
  4. Set Answer length to short or medium, and a Maximum call duration of around 5 minutes.

Step 5: Set up transfers and message taking

In Transfer to your team:

  1. Turn on Allow transfers and enter the phone number that should ring when a caller asks for a person, in international format (for example +447700900123).
  2. Set Ring for to how long your team should be given to answer, for example 25 seconds.
  3. Leave If nobody answers on "Return to the bot to take a message".

When a transfer comes through, whoever answers hears who is calling and presses any key to accept, so voicemail never takes the call by accident. If nobody accepts, the bot apologises and takes a message.

Step 6: Deliver messages with a power-up

Taking a message is only useful if it reaches you. Turn on a power-up so the bot can record messages during the call:

  • Send email - The simplest option. Have the bot email each message to your team inbox with the caller's name, number and request.
  • Notion or Zapier - Log messages as rows in a database or push them into your CRM or job-management tool.
  • Use API - Create a ticket or job in your own system.

Add a line to your system prompt telling the bot to use the power-up whenever it takes a message, for example: "When you take a message, use the Send email power-up to send it to office@acme.example with the caller's details."

Step 7: Get a number or forward your existing line

  1. In Phone number, choose your country and click Get a number. You need a voice subscription first; see voice calls and phone numbers.
  2. Either publish the new number, or keep your existing business number and forward it to your Chat Thing number from your phone provider's settings. Many businesses forward only unanswered or out-of-hours calls, so the receptionist steps in exactly when the team cannot.

Step 8: Review calls and improve

  • Check Recent calls on the phone settings page to see who called, how long they talked and whether they were transferred.
  • Open transcripts in My Chats to read what callers asked. Questions the bot could not answer are your to-do list: add the answer to a data source or your prompt.
  • Watch your minutes on the billing page. Packs come in 60-minute increments. Choose a call limit and monitor usage so you can plan the allowance for your next renewal.

Tips

  • Name the business in the greeting. Callers relax when they hear the name they expected.
  • Handle the top five questions first. Most inbound calls to a small business are about hours, location, prices, availability and "can you do X". Make sure the bot has crisp answers for those.
  • Say what happens next. Tell the bot to confirm what it has done: "I've passed your message to the team and they'll call you back today."
  • Keep the same bot on chat, WhatsApp and email. The receptionist knows everything your website chat knows, so an answer you fix once is fixed everywhere.

See the phone channel documentation for every setting, including call limits and blocked numbers.