An AI receptionist can only answer from the information you give it. In Sawy, that means the agent's business info, services and prices, hours and timezone, escalation rules and knowledge base FAQs. Preparing them is configuration, not model training: when a fact changes, you edit it and the next conversation uses the new version. Use the worksheet below, then test the result before customers call.
The worksheet
Gather these before you open the agent settings. Write short, factual sentences; the receptionist uses this text to answer, so anything vague here will be vague on the phone.
| Area | What to write | Example (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Business basics | Name, address, parking, service area | "We serve homes within 20 miles of Springfield. Street parking only." |
| Services and prices | One service per line, with a price or "quote" | `Drain cleaning |
| Hours and timezone | Opening hours per day and your timezone | Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, America/Chicago |
| Booking rules | Lead time, how appointments are confirmed | "We confirm every appointment by phone within one business day." |
| Policies | Cancellations, deposits, warranties, payment methods | "Cancel 24 hours ahead to avoid a $40 fee." |
| What you don't do | Services or areas you decline | "We don't service commercial buildings." |
| Escalation | Who takes calls that need a person, and when | billing dispute -> transfer to owner |
| Urgent requests | What callers should do in an emergency | "For gas smells, leave the building and call 911 and your gas company." |
| Unknown questions | What to say when the answer isn't configured | "I'll take your details and the team will call you back." |
Avoid putting anything in these fields that you would not want read to a caller, such as internal notes, staff phone numbers you don't want shared, or customer information.
Where each item goes in Sawy
- Business info: free text for basics, policies, service area and booking rules. The receptionist is told to answer from it and not invent details.
- Services: one per line in
name | priceformat; the price is optional. Without a price, the receptionist should offer to take details for a quote rather than guess; check this in testing. - Hours and timezone: set per day. The timezone is also used when your team schedules appointments.
- Escalation: a forward/escalation number plus rules written as
trigger -> action, one per line. - Knowledge base: question-and-answer pairs on the agent page for FAQs and edge cases the business info doesn't cover. Each question can be up to 1,000 characters and each answer up to 4,000.
If you start from the Salon, Home services or Professional services preset, replace every example service, price and note with your own before testing. See the salon and plumbing examples.
Import from your website, then review
Website import fetches the single public page you enter, takes its title and up to about 8,000 characters of visible text, and shows it as a preview. Nothing is applied until you review it. It does not crawl other pages or keep your website in sync, so:
- Import the page with the most complete business facts, often your services or contact page.
- Delete navigation text, marketing slogans and anything out of date.
- Rewrite prices and policies so they are explicit; a website often says "contact us for pricing" where you want a range or a rule.
- Re-import or edit manually whenever your website changes.
Fix conflicting or stale information
Contradictions produce inconsistent answers. Check for:
- The same price or policy written two ways in business info and an FAQ.
- Seasonal hours left in the text after the season ends.
- Services you no longer offer still listed in the services box.
Keep each fact in one place. For temporary changes such as a holiday closure, add a dated note and remove it afterwards.
Test the knowledge
Run these in Test chat after every significant change:
- Ask for each of your three most common prices.
- Ask about your hours on a day you are closed.
- Ask a question that is not in your information. The receptionist should say it doesn't know and offer to take a message rather than guess.
- Ask about a service you don't offer.
- Ask about your cancellation policy in different words than your FAQ uses.
Then follow the full test checklist, including real phone calls.
Keep it current
Review the information whenever prices, hours, staff or policies change, and read a sample of transcripts in Calls each week. A caller question that keeps getting "I'll take a message" is usually a missing FAQ.
Related: getting started, answering FAQs and what is an AI receptionist. Create an account or try the demo.