Adding Frequently Asked Questions

The FAQs stage is the sixth step in Receptionist Setup.

This stage allows you to provide common questions that customers ask your business together with the correct answers.

Frequently Asked Questions are an important part of your company knowledge because they help your Cognivox receptionist answer routine enquiries quickly, accurately and consistently.

What should I include in FAQs?

Think about the questions your customers regularly ask when they telephone, contact your business or visit your website.

Useful FAQ subjects might include:

• Business opening hours
• Appointment booking
• Products and services
• Service availability
• Existing customer enquiries
• Telephone enquiries
• Locations or service areas
• Payment methods
• Delivery or collection
• Cancellations
• Customer support
• How to contact a particular department
• How to arrange a demonstration or consultation

The questions should reflect the enquiries your business actually receives.

Write questions from the customer's perspective

It can be useful to phrase questions naturally, in the same way a customer might ask them.

For example:

What time do you close?

Can I book an appointment?

Do you provide home visits?

Can I speak to someone in sales?

Do you open on Saturdays?

Can I change my appointment?

Cognivox does not require callers to use the exact wording stored in your FAQs.

The information provides knowledge that the AI receptionist can use when responding naturally to similar questions.

Provide clear answers

Each question should have a clear and accurate answer.

For example:

Do you open on Saturdays?

Yes. We are open from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM on Saturdays.

Avoid unnecessarily long answers.

The objective is to give Cognivox enough information to answer the customer's question accurately while keeping telephone conversations natural.

Avoid guessing

Only provide answers that you know are correct.

Do not include information based on assumptions.

This is particularly important for information such as:

• Prices
• Discounts
• Availability
• Delivery times
• Appointment availability
• Refund policies
• Guarantees
• Response times
• Service-level commitments
• Contractual terms

If the answer depends on circumstances or configuration, make that clear.

For example:

Appointment availability depends on the selected employee and their current calendar availability.

This is safer than suggesting that appointments are always available.

Questions about appointments

If your business accepts appointments, include useful general information about the appointment process.

For example:

Can I book an appointment?

Yes. Cognivox can check available appointment times where appointment scheduling has been configured.

Do not place fixed appointment availability in an FAQ if Cognivox can obtain real-time availability from a calendar.

The receptionist should check the appropriate calendar or appointment system before offering or confirming a specific time.

Questions about business hours

Your normal business hours are configured separately during the Hours stage.

You can still include FAQs explaining general opening arrangements where useful.

However, avoid maintaining conflicting versions of the same information.

If your opening hours change, make sure your Cognivox configuration remains accurate.

Questions about services

FAQs can answer common questions about your products and services.

Detailed descriptions of those products and services belong in the Services stage.

For example, the Services section might explain your different appointment types, while an FAQ could answer:

Do I need an appointment?

This keeps detailed business knowledge separate from common customer questions.

Questions requiring human assistance

Not every question needs a complete automated answer.

An appropriate FAQ can explain when someone from your business needs to become involved.

For example:

Can I discuss a problem with my account?

Cognivox can collect your contact details and information about your enquiry. Where necessary, a member of the business can follow up.

Do not tell Cognivox to promise a particular response time unless that commitment is explicitly defined by your business.

Sensitive information

Do not create FAQs that encourage callers to provide sensitive credentials.

Cognivox should never request information such as:

• Passwords
• Authentication codes
• API keys
• Secret keys
• Complete payment-card information

If an enquiry concerns sensitive account information, provide appropriate instructions about how the enquiry should be handled.

Your Information

Enter your existing questions, answers and other relevant information into the Your Information area.

You can provide:

• Complete questions and answers
• Notes about common customer enquiries
• Existing FAQ information
• Important facts customers regularly ask about

You do not need to format everything perfectly.

Cognivox can use this source information to create a structured FAQ section.

Generate with AI

When you have provided the relevant information, select Generate with AI.

Cognivox will use your information to produce structured Frequently Asked Questions and answers.

The result will appear in Generated Content.

Generated Content

The Generated Content contains the final FAQ information that will be saved as part of your company knowledge.

Review every generated question and answer carefully.

Check that:

• Questions are relevant to your business.
• Answers are factually correct.
• No products or services have been invented.
• No unsupported prices have been introduced.
• No guarantees have been added.
• Appointment information is accurate.
• Integration-dependent functionality is correctly qualified.
• Contact and business information is correct.

You can edit the Generated Content directly before continuing.

Your Information versus Generated Content

These areas serve different purposes.

Your Information

This is the source material you provide to Cognivox.

It is used by Generate with AI to prepare your FAQs.

Generated Content

This is the final structured FAQ knowledge.

The Generated Content is the information saved for use by your Cognivox receptionist.

If the generated answer differs from what your business actually provides, correct it before continuing.

How Cognivox uses FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions become part of the company knowledge available to your AI receptionist.

They can help Cognivox respond to questions during natural conversations without requiring the caller to ask the exact question stored in the FAQ.

For example, an FAQ containing:

Can I book an appointment online?

may also provide useful information when a caller asks:

How do I arrange an appointment?

The AI can use the available company knowledge to formulate an appropriate response.

Keep your FAQs current

Review your FAQs whenever important business information changes.

This is particularly important following changes to:

• Services
• Prices
• Business policies
• Appointment arrangements
• Contact procedures
• Opening arrangements
• Customer support processes

Outdated FAQs can cause your receptionist to provide outdated information.

Review your FAQs

Before continuing, check:

• Common customer questions are covered.
• Every answer is accurate.
• Answers are concise enough for customer conversations.
• Conditional information is clearly qualified.
• No unsupported claims or promises have been introduced.
• Sensitive information is handled appropriately.
• The Generated Content contains the final FAQ information you want Cognivox to use.

Continue to the next stage

When you are satisfied with the Generated Content, select Continue.

Your Frequently Asked Questions will be saved and you can proceed to the Services stage, where you will describe the products and services your business provides.