> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.brilo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Set up an AI answering service

> A complete Brilo setup for answering every call: the instructions to copy, what to upload, which actions to switch on, and what to test before you go live.

This is the setup for having every call answered, day or night, with proper messages taken and urgent calls
passed straight to you. It takes an afternoon to build and about a week of listening to real calls to get right.
It is the job most businesses hire Brilo for first, because a missed call is usually a lost customer.

## What this setup does for you

Your agent answers every call, works out what the caller needs, answers the questions it can from your own
material, takes a proper message when it cannot, and puts urgent callers through to a person. You get a written
record and a summary of every call, so nothing depends on somebody remembering to write it down.

## What good looks like

* **Every call answered**, including the ones that arrive while you are with a customer.
* **Messages that are actually useful**: a name, a number, what they wanted, and when they need it by.
* **Urgent calls reaching you within a minute**, rather than sitting in a voicemail box.
* **No caller told something untrue.** An agent that says "let me take a message" is better than one that
  guesses at your prices.

## What to put in your instructions

Paste this into your agent's **Prompt** tab and change everything in square brackets. See
[Write what your agent says](/agents/write-what-your-agent-says).

```
You answer the phone for [business name], a [what you do] in [town or area].

Greeting: "Thanks for calling [business name], how can I help?"

What you are here to do, most common first:
1. Answer questions about our services, opening hours, and location.
2. Take a message when the caller needs somebody to ring them back.
3. Put urgent callers through to a person.

How to behave:
- Keep answers to one or two sentences unless the caller asks for detail.
- Use the caller's name once you have it.
- Never rush a caller who is explaining a problem.

When you cannot help:
- Say plainly that you do not have that information.
- Offer to take a message, and collect: their name, their phone number, what they need, and
  how urgent it is.
- Confirm the number back to them before ending the call.

Urgent calls:
- Treat it as urgent if the caller says [your definition of urgent, for example "emergency",
  "no heating", "flooding", "in pain"].
- For urgent calls, transfer straight away and do not take a message first.

Never:
- Never quote a price for anything not in your knowledge.
- Never promise a specific time or date for a visit or a callback.
- Never say you are a person if the caller asks directly.

Ending the call: confirm what will happen next, then thank them for calling.
```

The two lines that matter most are your definition of urgent and the instruction never to quote a price that is
not in your knowledge. Those two prevent most of what goes wrong.

## What your agent needs to know

Upload these, in this order. See
[Add a document or website](/knowledge/add-a-document-or-website).

1. **Your services and what each involves.** In the words your customers use, not your internal names.
2. **Your prices**, or how pricing works when it varies. If you cannot publish prices, upload the explanation
   your team gives on the phone.
3. **Your opening hours**, including holidays.
4. **Your existing FAQs**, which are already written and already in customer language. See
   [Use your existing FAQs](/knowledge/use-your-existing-faqs).
5. **Your location and directions**, including parking, which people ring about more than you would expect.

## What to let your agent do

| Action                                                          | Why                                                                               |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Pass the call to a person](/actions/pass-the-call-to-a-person) | The single most valuable action in this setup. Use a warm transfer with a summary |
| [Send a text](/actions/send-a-text-or-email)                    | So the caller has your address, a link, or a confirmation in writing              |
| [Schedule a callback](/actions/schedule-a-callback)             | The fallback when a transfer is not answered                                      |

Do not add more than these to begin with. Every extra action is another decision your agent makes mid call.

## What to test before you go live

Call your own agent and run these six. See
[Test your agent yourself](/go-live/test-your-agent-yourself).

1. **Your most common question.** Does it answer from your material, correctly?
2. **A price question.** Does it give your real price, or refuse cleanly?
3. **"Can I speak to someone?"** Does the transfer happen, and does your phone actually ring?
4. **A question it cannot possibly know.** Does it take a message instead of inventing an answer?
5. **An urgent call**, in the words a real customer would use. Does it skip the message and transfer?
6. **A caller who mumbles or talks over it.** Does it cope, or interrupt?

Then check the message it took. If you would not be able to act on it, the message instructions need work.

## Rules to know

* **Recording.** Some places require you to tell callers a call is recorded. See
  [Telling callers they are recorded](/compliance/telling-callers-they-are-recorded).
* **Saying it is an AI.** You control what your agent says about itself, and some places require disclosure.
  The agents that go down best do not pretend when asked directly.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can Brilo replace my answering service?">
    For answering calls, taking messages, and putting urgent callers through, yes, and it does it every hour of
    the day rather than only when your service is staffed. What a human service still does better is handling a
    caller who is upset and needs judgement, which is why the transfer action matters in this setup.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What does my agent do with a message it takes?">
    The message is on the call record with a summary, and you can have it texted or emailed to you as the call
    ends, or written into your CRM. Set that up rather than relying on somebody checking the dashboard.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can it answer every call, even at 3am?">
    Yes. Your agent does not have hours of its own, so it answers whenever a call arrives. You can also have it
    behave differently out of hours. See
    [Business hours and after hours](/calls/business-hours-and-after-hours).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What happens when two people call at the same time?">
    Both are answered. Your agent holds several conversations at once, 15 on paid self serve plans, so a burst
    of calls does not produce an engaged tone. See [Limits](/supported/limits).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can it tell urgent calls from ordinary ones?">
    Only as well as you define urgent. Write the actual words your customers use, for example "no heating" or
    "flooding" or "in pain", rather than the word "urgent". That single instruction does most of the work in
    this setup.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can it text me a summary after each call?">
    Yes, using a message action that runs once the call has ended, so the caller never waits for it. See
    [Send a text or email](/actions/send-a-text-or-email).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How much does an AI answering service cost per month?">
    Your plan plus any minutes beyond it. A business taking 200 calls of about three minutes fits inside Pro at
    \$149 a month with nothing extra. See
    [What will this cost me](/account/what-will-this-cost-me).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Will callers be annoyed that it is not a person?">
    Some will, and the two things that decide it are whether your agent actually helps and whether it puts them
    through when they ask. An agent that answers the question beats a voicemail box. An agent that refuses to
    fetch a human annoys everyone.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I still answer calls myself when I am free?">
    Yes. A common arrangement is forwarding your business number to Brilo only when nobody picks up, which your
    phone provider can usually do. See
    [Use your existing number](/phone-numbers/use-your-existing-number).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How long does this take to set up?">
    An afternoon to build and test, then about a week of listening to real calls and fixing what you hear. The
    listening is what turns a working agent into a good one. See
    [Your first week](/start/your-first-week).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Answer your first call](/quickstart) if you have not built an agent yet
* [Pass the call to a person](/actions/pass-the-call-to-a-person), the key action here
* [After hours cover](/recipes/after-hours-cover) if you only need nights and weekends
* [Use your existing FAQs](/knowledge/use-your-existing-faqs) for the fastest quality win
* [Go live checklist](/go-live/go-live-checklist) before your main number points at Brilo