Receptionist settings
Everything about how the receptionist sounds lives in Settings → AI Receptionist; everything it knows about your business lives in Settings → Business Profile. Both feed the same call.
Business Profile
Section titled “Business Profile”The AI reads this on every call, so keep it honest and current.
- Business name — used in the greeting and in every outbound text.
- Trade type — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, general contractor, handyman, pest control, vacation rental, property management, golf course, real estate, auto repair, restaurant, and others. This is not cosmetic: it selects the safety scripts the AI runs for emergencies in your trade.
- Owner name, email, phone — where notifications go and who the AI names when it promises a callback.
- Address — used for directions and for judging whether a job is nearby.
- Business hours and timezone — the backbone of availability. The AI will not offer a time you aren’t open.
- Service area — a plain-English description of where you work. The AI reads it out when a caller is outside the area and suggests they find someone local, while still offering to take a message. This is separate from zones, which steer which day is offered rather than whether you’ll come at all.
Your own phone number on this screen matters twice: it’s where notifications default to, and calls from it are treated as yours rather than a customer’s.
Greeting message
Section titled “Greeting message”The first sentence every caller hears. Two rules that matter more than wording:
- Say the business name. It’s the difference between “did I call the right place?” and “great, they picked up.”
- Keep it short. A long greeting gets talked over.
A greeting shorter than a few characters counts as unset, and the Setup Status checklist will keep flagging it.
Five voices are available:
| Voice | Character |
|---|---|
| Ara | Warm, friendly |
| Eve | Energetic, upbeat |
| Rex | Confident, clear |
| Sal | Smooth, balanced |
| Leo | Authoritative, strong |
Pick by what your customers expect from your trade, then call and listen. It’s a one-click change; there’s no cost to trying a different one for a week.
Custom instructions
Section titled “Custom instructions”Free-text guidance the AI follows on every call. This is the highest-leverage field in the whole product, and the right way to use it is reactively: read transcripts in Calls, find the thing you wish it had said, and add that.
Good instructions are specific and situational:
- “If someone asks about warranty work, tell them I’ll call them back personally — don’t book it.”
- “We don’t service anything north of the bridge.”
- “If they mention a home warranty company, get the claim number.”
Call recording
Section titled “Call recording”Record Calls is off by default. Turn it on and StrandCalls keeps the audio of each call alongside the transcript.
Transcripts, summaries, and lead quality do not depend on it — those come from the conversation itself and are always there. Recording adds the audio, which is worth having if you ever need to hear tone rather than read words. Check your state’s rules on recording before you enable it, and see Recording and consent.
Hold experience
Section titled “Hold experience”What a caller hears while they wait to be handed to a person: background music (MP3, up to 5 MB) and a spoken hold message, mixed together automatically. Leave both empty for the default. This plays during a transfer, so it only matters once you’ve set a transfer contact.
Contacts and transfer
Section titled “Contacts and transfer”Also on this screen: your contacts — name, phone, and role — and which one the AI can transfer a live caller to. The same list supplies the backup contact for emergency dispatch. See Transfers and contacts.
Recognized phones and owner mode
Section titled “Recognized phones and owner mode”And: the phone numbers the AI should recognize as you, and the voice PIN that gates owner mode. Covered in Owner assistant.
Testing changes
Section titled “Testing changes”Settings apply to the next call — there’s no publish step. After any meaningful change, call your line from a phone that is not your business number and not on the recognized list, and listen to the result.