Receptionist settings

When a customer calls and nobody's free, you either send them to voicemail or lose them. This page is where you hand that call to an AI receptionist instead — one that answers in a real voice, books and changes appointments, and only ever does what you've told it it can. Set it up once and your phone gets answered while you're with a client, after hours, and on the days you're closed.

Everything you change here takes effect on the next incoming call — calls already in progress finish on the old settings.

Open in app: Receptionist settings

Turn the receptionist on for a shop (web app)

Open Receptionist. Under Phone receptionists, each shop is listed with its number. Use the switch beside a shop to turn its receptionist on or off, and select the shop to set up its voice, greeting and actions.

Choose when the receptionist answers

When the AI picks up is part of each shop's call handling in Seglo Phone, not this page. The receptionist page links there with Open call handling.

• Web app: Phone settings → Numbers → Call handling. Pick Staff first, AI receptionist first or Staff only, and what happens outside business hours.
• Seglo Phone app: More → Phone settings, then Call handling in the shop's section.

Each option is explained in Phone numbers and routing.

Give it a name, a voice, and the right greeting

AI disclosure is mandatory and cannot be turned off. At the start of every call the receptionist states its name, your business, and that it is an AI (for example: "Hi! Thanks for calling DuDu Grooming. I'm Sarah, the AI receptionist here. How can I help you today?"). This is a legal requirement. If you set a custom greeting, the disclosure is appended automatically — you do not need to include it yourself, and you cannot remove it.

Open the Voice & greeting tab. Under Name & tone, set the Name it answers with (for example, Sarah) and the Tone — Professional, Friendly, Enthusiastic, or Empathetic.

Under Voice, choose a voice from the list (each shows its accent), press the speaker button to hear a sample, and drag Speaking speed from 0.7x to 1.2x. The preview is close but not identical to a live call — after saving, ring your own number once to hear the real thing.

Greet new and returning callers

Under Greeting, write the opening line every caller hears, new or returning. The AI doesn't greet callers by the name on your client record, because that field often holds your own notes.

Use Instructions at the bottom for one-off rules in plain English, like "Always mention our current promotion" or "Prioritise morning appointments".

Hand it only the jobs you trust it with

Open the Actions tab, with one switch per action, so the AI only ever does what you've turned on:

• Book appointments: schedule new appointments.
• Look up appointments: check a caller's upcoming bookings.
• Check grooming status: let callers check how their pet's groom is going.
• Cancel bookings: cancel appointments.
• Reschedule: change appointment times, within your cancellation deadline.
• Request callbacks: ask your team to call a customer back.
• Recommend an add-on: suggest one suitable add-on during a new booking, at most once.
• End calls: hang up when the conversation is finished.

Start with just booking, then turn on more as your trust grows.

Save everything in one go

Make any change on either tab and an unsaved changes bar slides up at the bottom. Save writes the voice, greeting and actions together; reset throws the changes away.

Tips

• A caller can't move a booking? It's usually your cancellation deadline blocking it.
• Capability on but the AI still won't do it? It usually couldn't find the caller's booking. Open Receptionist conversations to see exactly what it tried.

Related

• Receptionist dashboard — call volume and bookings at a glance.
• Receptionist conversations — replay what was said on each call.
• AI agent settings — the wider AI behaviour these calls share.
• Phone numbers and routing — when the receptionist answers each shop's calls.
• Appointment calendar — see the bookings your receptionist creates.