Setting Up Your Cognivox AI Receptionist
The Receptionist Setup wizard guides you through configuring your Cognivox AI receptionist and providing the business information it needs to communicate effectively with your customers.
During setup, you will choose how your receptionist sounds and behaves, configure your business hours and provide information about your company, products, services and frequently asked questions.
Cognivox uses this configuration and company knowledge when handling telephone calls and other supported customer interactions.
Before you begin
It is useful to have the following information available before starting:
- Your preferred receptionist name
- Your normal business opening hours
- Information about how calls and enquiries should be handled
- A description of your company
- Frequently asked customer questions
- Details of your products and services
- Any additional information the receptionist should know
You do not need to prepare everything perfectly in advance.
Several stages include Generate with AI, which can turn the information you provide into structured content suitable for your receptionist.
The Receptionist Setup stages
Receptionist Setup is divided into eight stages.
1. Call
Configure the basic identity and behaviour of your receptionist.
This includes:
- Receptionist name
- Voice
- Opening greeting
- Asking for the caller's name
- Asking the reason for the call
- Conversation behaviour
- Handling unknown information
- Closing a call
You can preview the selected voice before continuing.
2. Template
Choose the receptionist template that most closely matches your type of business.
Templates are organised into categories such as:
- Professional Services
- Healthcare
- Hospitality
- Property
- Retail
- Technology
- Trades & Services
The selected template provides an appropriate starting point for the remaining configuration.
3. Hours
Configure your normal business opening hours.
You can specify:
- Which days the business is open
- Opening times
- Closing times
- Closed days
- Scheduled breaks where applicable
Your AI receptionist can use this information to understand whether your business is currently open or closed.
4. Instructions
Provide business-specific instructions explaining how your receptionist should handle calls and enquiries.
For example:
- How different types of enquiries should be handled
- Information that should be collected from callers
- Escalation procedures
- Security requirements
- Important restrictions
- When human follow-up is required
Cognivox can provide suggestions based on your selected receptionist template.
5. Overview
Provide an overview of your company.
This helps the receptionist understand:
- What your business does
- Who your customers are
- The services or market you operate in
- Important background information about your organisation
6. FAQs
Provide frequently asked questions and their answers.
This helps Cognivox answer common customer enquiries accurately and consistently.
7. Services
Describe the products and services your business currently provides.
Include enough information for the receptionist to understand what you offer and answer common questions about those services.
8. Additional
Provide any other useful information that does not naturally belong in the previous sections.
This might include:
- Special operating rules
- Security requirements
- Customer-handling requirements
- Important restrictions
- Additional service information
- Escalation guidance
Your Information
Some setup stages contain a section called Your Information.
This is where you provide the source information that describes your business or explains how you want the receptionist to behave.
You can enter your own information and, where available, select suggested information to help build the content.
The information in this area can then be processed using Generate with AI.
Generate with AI
Select Generate with AI to create structured content from the information you have provided.
Cognivox uses your source information to prepare content suitable for use by the AI receptionist.
The generated result is displayed separately under Generated Content.
Generated Content
Generated Content is the final content that will be saved for use by your Cognivox receptionist.
Always review the generated content before continuing.
You can edit it to:
- Correct inaccurate information
- Remove information you do not want the receptionist to use
- Add missing details
- Improve wording
- Remove unsupported claims
- Clarify business-specific requirements
The information entered into Your Information is used to help generate this content.
The Generated Content is the important final result.
Keep your information accurate
Your AI receptionist relies on the information configured for your business.
You should not include information that is:
- Out of date
- Incorrect
- Speculative
- About products or services you do not currently provide
- A promise or guarantee your business cannot make
If Cognivox does not have the information required to answer a question, the receptionist should not invent an answer.
Completing setup
Work through each stage in order and select Continue when you are satisfied with the information on the current stage.
Once all stages have been completed, Cognivox will have the core configuration and company knowledge required to represent your business.
You can update your receptionist configuration and company information later as your business changes.