An AI receptionist, meaning software that answers your phone or website chat and talks to customers in plain language, is only as good as what you feed it. Out of the box it knows nothing about your business. It does not know that you stopped doing roof repairs two years ago, that you will not drive past Route 495, or that the deposit is non-refundable inside 48 hours.
Everything it should know lives in what most vendors call a knowledge pack: a document, usually just organized text, that the AI reads before every conversation. A thin knowledge pack produces vague, generic answers, and callers hang up on vague. A good one produces answers that sound like your best front-desk person on a good day.
This article is a worksheet. Work through the sections below, write real answers, and you will have a knowledge pack ready to hand to whoever sets up your system, whether that is a vendor, a consultant, or you on a Saturday morning.
Services: what you do, and the boundaries
Start with a plain list of the services you actually sell, in the words customers use, not industry jargon. A caller says my furnace is making a noise, not HVAC diagnostic service.
Then write the boundaries, which matter more than the list. For each service, note:
- What you do not do. If you install but do not repair, say so. If you do residential but not commercial, say so. The AI will otherwise cheerfully book work you have to cancel later.
- Seasonal limits. No exterior painting after October. Irrigation blowouts only from mid-September. In Massachusetts the calendar is half the business, and the AI does not know that unless you tell it.
- Job-size limits. Minimum job fees, or a ceiling above which the owner has to look at it first.
Prices: ranges, and when the AI may say them
This is the section owners get wrong most often, in both directions. Refuse to let the AI discuss money at all, and callers feel stonewalled and leave. Let it quote freely, and it will commit you to a number before anyone has seen the job.
The workable middle is ranges plus rules. Write down:
- Honest ranges for common jobs. Most water heater replacements land between X and Y depending on the unit. Ranges help serious callers self-qualify without binding you.
- Flat prices the AI may state outright. Service call fee, standard mowing rate, diagnostic charge. If it is printed on your truck, the AI can say it.
- A firm-quote rule. Something like: the AI may share ranges but must always say a firm price requires seeing the job, and offers to book an estimate. Write the exact sentence you want it to use.
Service area: name the towns
Greater Boston is not a service area; it is an argument waiting to happen. List the towns you cover, by name. If some towns carry a travel fee, list those separately with the fee. If you will go further for large jobs, write the condition down: outside these towns only for jobs over a certain size, owner decides.
Also tell the AI what to do about towns off the list. The graceful answer is a polite no plus a door left open: we do not usually work in that area, but leave your details and someone will confirm. That beats both a flat rejection and a false yes.
Policies: deposits, cancellations, emergencies
Policies are where a knowledge pack earns its keep, because policy questions come with feelings attached. Write each one as a short, plain statement the AI can repeat word for word:
- Deposits. How much, when it is due, when it is refundable. If the honest answer is it depends, write down what it depends on.
- Cancellations and rescheduling. How much notice, whether there is a fee, and what happens to the deposit.
- Weather. Who calls whom when a February storm buries the schedule, and how quickly you rebook.
- Emergencies. Define the word. A tripped breaker is not an emergency; sparks are. Then state exactly what happens: the emergency number, the after-hours fee if there is one, and the promise that a human calls back within a stated window. Emergencies are the one place the AI should always push toward a person, fast.
- Payment. What you accept, when payment is due, whether you offer financing.
Escalation: what the AI should never answer
The most important page in the pack is the list of things the AI must hand to a human instead of answering. Be explicit, because the software will otherwise try to be helpful about everything. A reasonable never-answer list for most trades:
- Firm quotes on anything not on the flat-price list.
- Complaints and refund requests. The AI should acknowledge, apologize once, take details, and promise a callback from the owner. It should never argue, explain, or offer money.
- Safety and legal questions. Is this pipe safe, is that mold dangerous, can I sue my old contractor. One wrong sentence here costs more than the whole system saves.
- Personnel matters. Anything about employees, hiring disputes, or why someone no longer works there.
- Discounts and negotiations. If a caller pushes on price, the AI takes a message. Haggling is an owner's job.
For each item, also write the handoff line, for example: that is a question for the owner, let me take your number and have him call you today. An escalation without a warm handoff just feels like a brush-off.
Keep it current, or it rots
A knowledge pack is a living document. Prices drift, crews change, you drop a service. Put a repeating reminder on the calendar, monthly is plenty for most shops, to read the pack and fix what changed. Ten minutes a month keeps the AI from confidently reciting last year's prices.
Worth doing this week
- Open a blank document with five headings: services, prices, towns, policies, never answer.
- Fill in the services and boundaries section from memory; it is the fastest win.
- Ask whoever answers your phone now for the ten questions they hear most, and make sure the pack answers each one.
- Write your never-answer list and the handoff sentence for each item.
- Put a monthly fifteen-minute review on the calendar before you forget.
If you want a second set of eyes on the draft, Massachusetts AI Agency builds and maintains knowledge packs like this for small businesses every week.