Tradesly · Guide
Train your receptionist — your first coaching conversation
Teach the AI how your business talks, in plain language.
The Agent step is where you teach your Receptionist how your business should sound on the phone. You do it in a coaching chat, using the same plain language you would use with a new front-desk hire.
Start with the parts a customer notices immediately: your greeting, your tone, and the next step you want offered. You do not need to cover every possible call before you finish setup. Give the Receptionist a solid starting point, place a test call, and keep coaching as your business changes.
1 What to tell it first
A useful first message includes two or three specific instructions. For example:
“Answer with 'Thanks for calling Miller Plumbing.' Keep the greeting warm and brief.”
“If someone asks for a full repair price, explain that we quote after an assessment and offer to book the estimate.”
Write instructions as outcomes, not vague goals. “Sound more professional” can mean many things. “Use the business name, keep the greeting to one sentence, and ask how you can help” is easier to hear and correct.
This is also a good time to add an important gap you noticed during the Website or Phone steps, such as a job you do not take or a rule about emergency calls. Keep the first round focused on facts that affect common callers.
2 The steps
Describe how your business talks.
In the Agent step, give the Receptionist your greeting, tone, and two or three rules for common calls.
Fill one important gap.
Add a service boundary, scheduling rule, or customer question that the earlier setup did not cover.
Read the response and correct it.
If it misses a boundary or sounds unlike your business, reply with one specific change and check the updated response.
Finish the initial setup.
When the “Your agent is ready” card appears, choose Finish Setup. You can choose Keep Refining if you want another coaching round; Finish setup also appears in the header when the step is ready.
Call your new line.
On the next screen, choose Call now or Copy number. Use Skip to dashboard if you need to test later.
3 Listen for the customer experience
On the first call, check the greeting, the business name, and one common request. Do not try to test every rule in a single conversation. If something sounds wrong, write down the exact sentence and bring it back to the coaching chat.
A test call can create a real booking or send a real text. Use your own contact information and remove anything you do not want to keep.
4 Keep coaching after setup
Finish Setup completes this onboarding step; it is not the end of training. Once your Receptionist is working, return to Your AI Team and press Coach whenever you want to change its customer-facing behavior.
For changes after launch, ask Tradesly for a test account if you do not already have one. Review the customer-facing result there, record what your team approved, and contact Tradesly before relying on the change in live work. This test-account option is available to any customer.
For future business facts, use the relevant Settings section when possible: Business Profile for company details, Business Hours for hours, and Service Areas for coverage. Use coaching to explain how the Receptionist should respond to those facts.
A good first setup is not a perfect script. It is a Receptionist that greets callers in your voice, handles one common request correctly, and gives you a clear starting point for the next coaching conversation.