AI Receptionist Setup — Nexwin Help

Overview

How AI Setup works

AI Setup uses an accordion layout with sections for each aspect of your AI configuration. Changes are saved as a draft until you explicitly Publish — this means you can make updates safely without affecting your live AI until you're ready.

Draft vs Published Your live AI uses the last published configuration. Unsaved edits show a "Changes not saved" indicator. Published changes take effect within seconds.

Knowledge Base is a separate page Uploading documents, URLs, and text to your AI's knowledge is managed on the dedicated Knowledge Base page — accessible from the sidebar. It is not part of AI Setup.

Chat-only accounts If your plan doesn't include Nexwin AI Receptionist (phone calls), the phone number badge and Provision Number button in the page header are hidden — there's no number to provision. Voice-only sections (Personality & Accent, Call Forwarding, OTP Verification) are hidden too; the handbook section is relabelled "How to Handle Website Visitors."

Section 1

Business Essentials

The foundational information your AI uses to introduce itself and answer basic questions. This section has three collapsible sub-sections.

Sub-section 1 — About Your Business/Service

Field	Description
Website URL	Your business website. Use the Analyse Website button to automatically extract and prefill fields below.	Optional
Business name	The name your AI uses when greeting callers. E.g. "Hello, you've reached Nexwin Technologies."	Required
Greeting for new callers	The opening line on every call. A recognised phone number is not proof of identity, so this greeting is used whether or not the caller has rung before.
Returning callers (voice only)	The opening greeting when a caller rings from a number already in your Customers list. Use `{{customer_first_name}}` to greet them by name. The AI also remembers their last calls, notes and address, so it doesn’t ask again for details it already has. Cancelling or moving a booking still needs the usual identity check. Does not apply to website chat.
Business type	Select your industry (e.g. Dental Clinic, Law Firm, Hair Salon). Determines the default handbook template and booking terminology.	Optional
About your business	A short description (up to 500 characters) of what your business does. Included in the AI's core knowledge.	Required
Business address	Your primary physical location, used when customers ask for directions or your address.	Optional

Analyse Website Enter your website URL then click Analyse Website. The AI will crawl your site, extract business details, hours, services, and appointment types, and prefill all fields automatically. A page-selection modal lets you pick which pages to add to your Knowledge Base. Review and edit all prefilled values before saving.

Sub-section 2 — Appointment Scheduling

Control whether the AI books appointments and what kinds it offers. Use the toggle to enable or disable appointment scheduling entirely.

Setting / Type	Description
Enable Appointment Scheduling	Toggle on to let the AI book, reschedule, and cancel appointments. Toggle off if the agent handles other tasks like order-taking or general support. On hotel, accommodation and rental accounts this is labelled Enable Bookings and controls asset bookings instead.
Default Duration	The default booking length suggested to customers (15 min – 4 hours). Auto-set from your business type but fully adjustable.
Online	Virtual appointments via video call. A Zoom meeting link is automatically generated and sent after booking (requires Zoom Connect).
Customers visit us	Customers come to your location. The AI confirms your address and directs them to you.
We visit the customer	Your team travels to the customer. The AI asks the caller for their address when booking. Enabling this reveals the Service Area selector below.

Hotel, accommodation and rental accounts book assets instead Setting the Business Type to one of these switches the account to bookable assets — rooms, sites, vehicles, equipment — and adds a My Assets page to the sidebar. Staff appointment scheduling is switched off for these business types, so the duration and meeting-type options above do not apply; the asset's own check-in and check-out times are used instead.

Service Area (when "We visit the customer" is on)

Define where your team can travel to. The AI uses this to decide whether a caller's address is in your service area before booking, and to apply your out-of-area policy (e.g. flag for review, decline).

Mode	What it does
All Australia	You service the entire country. No further selection needed.
States	Select one or more Australian states or territories (e.g. NSW, VIC, QLD).
Council	Select whole councils. Every suburb in the council is covered.
Suburbs	Pick individual suburbs by name, or import them in bulk by postcode (see below).
From knowledge base	Service area is defined in your Knowledge Base file. The AI checks the caller's suburb or postcode against the KB content directly. Use this when you have a large or complex coverage list already documented in your KB.

States, Council and Suburbs add to one shared list, so you can mix them — for example all of Victoria, a few NSW suburbs near the border, and a council in Adelaide. Switching between these tabs keeps everything you picked, and each tab shows how many areas it holds. Only All Australia and From knowledge base replace the list, and they ask before clearing it. A suburb or council already inside a state you picked is marked "in Victoria" (for example), since the state covers it anyway.

Search by suburb name Type a suburb to see matches. Click to add it to your service area; selected suburbs appear on the map.
Search by postcode Type a 4-digit postcode (e.g. 2000) to list all suburbs in that postcode area. Add them individually or all at once.
Bulk import by postcode Paste or type a list of postcodes (comma- or space-separated, or one per line). The AI imports every suburb that falls inside any of those postcodes in one click. Anything that isn't a 4-digit postcode is ignored.
Out-of-area policy Choose what the AI does when a caller's address is outside your service area: flag the booking for review, or politely decline and offer alternatives.
Clear all selections A confirmation prompt appears before clearing every state, council and suburb in the list — to prevent accidental loss of large lists.

Tip — postcode bulk import Have a list of postcodes you service from your old call sheet or website? Paste them straight into the bulk import box. Postcodes are matched against the Australian Bureau of Statistics boundary data so the suburb list is always accurate.

Address checking for on-site visits When your team visits the customer, the AI checks the address against the real streets in its postcode before booking. A misheard street or suburb is corrected ("Root Street" becomes Ruth Street) and read back to the caller, and the booking, calendar and call summary all use the corrected address. If an address can't be matched, it is saved as heard and marked Address not verified in the Calendar so your team can check it. Street data incorporates or is developed using G-NAF © Geoscape Australia, licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under the Open Geo-coded National Address File (G-NAF) End User Licence Agreement.

Sub-section 3 — Business Hours

Define when your AI receptionist is active. Outside these hours, the AI can inform callers and take messages rather than booking appointments.

Select your timezone (defaults to your account region). This applies to the whole account's business hours schedule.
Enable Same hours for all weekdays to set Mon–Fri hours in one step, or set each day individually.
Toggle Open on weekends to include Saturday and Sunday.
Set start and end times per day (e.g. Monday 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM).

Per-member timezone Individual team members can have their own timezone set independently. This overrides the account timezone when the AI checks that member's availability for appointments. Manage this in My Team → Edit Settings.

Section 2

How to Handle Calls

Write a handbook for your AI receptionist — like instructions you'd give a new hire on their first day. This is free-form text describing how to handle specific situations your business encounters.

Click the handbook preview card to open the full-screen rich text editor. Use headings, bullet points, bold, and dividers to organise your instructions.
Use the suggestion chips at the top of the editor to quickly add pre-written sections tailored to your industry (e.g. "New patient intake", "Price enquiries", "After-hours protocol").
Maximum 3,000 characters. A character counter is shown in the editor footer.
Greeting, caller name confirmation, appointment booking/rescheduling/cancellation, message taking, and call closing are handled automatically — you do not need to write instructions for those.

Business type drives the template When you select a Business Type in Business Essentials and this field is empty, a starter handbook is automatically generated for your industry. You can edit or replace it at any time.

Section 3

Personality & Accent

Define how your AI introduces itself, how it communicates, what voice it uses, and the words it needs to say and hear correctly. This section has five collapsible sub-sections, all closed when the page opens — click a heading to open it.

Sub-section 1 — Assistant Identity

Setting	Description
Assistant Name	The name the AI uses to introduce itself (e.g. "Sarah", "Nexwin AI"). Shown to callers and chat visitors.
Personality traits	Choose traits like Friendly, Professional, Concise, Empathetic, Proactive, Welcoming, Efficient, or Caring. These shape the AI's language and tone throughout calls.

Sub-section 2 — Conversation Style

Setting	Description
Response Length	Concise (1–2 sentences), Moderate (2–3 sentences), or Detailed (longer with explanations). Controls how much the AI says in each turn.
Maximum Questions Per Response	1 (recommended for natural flow) or 2 (for related questions). This is a maximum for voice and chat; the AI can answer without asking a question.
Use caller's name	When enabled, the AI addresses the caller by name once it has been provided.
Ask follow-up questions	The AI asks for clarification when a caller's answer is unclear or incomplete.
Avoid repetition	The AI varies its phrasing rather than repeating the same sentences.
Inform callers calls are recorded	The AI states "This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes" at the start of each call. If a caller objects, it offers a callback. Applies to voice calls only, not chat.

Recording disclosure is on by default Under Australian law, callers should be informed when a call is recorded. Disabling this setting means you accept responsibility for compliance with local recording and privacy laws.

Sub-section 3 — Voice & Accent

Choose the voice your AI speaks in and fine-tune its delivery. The Voice & Accent section opens its own accordion within Personality & Accent.

Voice Personality (Persona)

Three persona cards are shown at the top. Selecting a persona sets a matching voice style profile automatically — you can still customise individual settings below.

Persona	Character
Professional	Formal, clear, detailed. Suited to law firms, accountants, and corporate services.
Quick	Fast, direct, efficient. Suited to high-volume trade and service businesses.
Warm	Friendly, empathetic, energetic. Suited to health, wellness, and hospitality businesses. Recommended

Voice Selection

Setting	Description
Accent	Filter available voices by accent (e.g. Australian, American, British). Australian is recommended for local businesses.
Voice	Choose a specific AI voice within the selected accent. Click Play Preview to hear a sample before committing.
Voice Model	Faster — high quality, multilingual, accent-stable (recommended for custom voices). Modern — emotional and expressive (recommended for designed voices).
Max Call Duration	The maximum length of any single call: 15, 20, or 30 minutes. Calls end gracefully when the limit is reached.

Advanced Settings

Expand the Advanced Settings section for fine-grained control. These are grouped into three sub-sections:

Setting	Description
LLM Configuration
LLM Model	The AI model powering your assistant's responses (Claude is recommended).
Response Creativity	0–1 scale. Higher values produce more varied responses; lower values keep responses consistent and predictable.
Who Speaks First	Agent — AI greets the caller immediately. User — AI waits for the caller to speak first.
Allow AI to end calls	When enabled, the AI can decide to end a call (e.g. after completing a task or long silence).
Allow AI to transfer calls	Enables the AI to transfer calls. Also requires Call Transfer to Human to be on in the Call Transfer section. Unticking it stops all transfers, including direct callers.
Voice Settings
Voice Expressiveness	0–2 scale. Higher values make the voice more emotionally expressive.
Voice Speed	0.5–2 scale. 1.0 is natural speed. Increase for faster delivery, decrease for slower, clearer speech.
Responsiveness	How quickly the AI responds after the caller stops talking (0–1 scale).
Interruption Sensitivity	How easily the caller can interrupt the AI mid-sentence (0–1 scale).
Enable backchannel	Natural acknowledgement phrases (e.g. "uh-huh", "I see") to show the AI is listening.
Backchannel Frequency	How often those acknowledgements are inserted (0–1 scale). Only shown when backchannel is enabled. 0.3–0.5 is recommended — higher values talk over short caller replies and interfere with turn-taking.
Ambient Sound	Background ambience mixed into the AI's own audio for realism (call centre, coffee shop, convention hall, outdoor, static noise) or None. It does not affect what the caller's microphone picks up.
Ambient Sound Volume	How loud the ambience sits under the AI's voice (0–1 scale). Only shown when an ambient sound is selected. Keep at or below 0.2 so it stays subtle.
End Call After Silence	Seconds of caller silence before the AI ends the call (10 s, 20 s, 30 s, or 1 minute).
Conversation Style
Questions per response	1 (recommended) or 2 related questions. This is a maximum, not a requirement to ask a question in every response.
Response length	Concise, Moderate, or Detailed. Controls how much the AI says in each turn.
Use caller's name	The AI addresses the caller by name once it has been provided.
Ask follow-up questions	The AI asks for clarification when a caller's answer is unclear or incomplete.
Avoid repetition	The AI varies its phrasing rather than repeating the same sentences.
Recording disclosure	The AI states "This call may be recorded" at the start of each call. On by default — disabling it means you accept responsibility for local recording and privacy compliance.

Sub-section 4 — Pronunciation Guide

Tell the AI how to say words it tends to get wrong — brand names, local places, model names and acronyms. The heading shows how many words you have, e.g. "Pronunciation Guide (53)". The AI's replies are read out exactly as written, so whenever it speaks one of these words it writes your "Say as" version instead. Bookings and messages keep the normal spelling.

Setting	Description
Word	The word as it's normally spelled, e.g. Valente or AMG.
Say as	The word spelled the way it should sound, in plain English — syllables with the stressed one in capitals, letters written out. For example Va-LEN-tay, or ay em gee for AMG.
IPA (optional)	A phonetic spelling, for advanced use. Most words only need "Say as".

Add a word — click + Add pronunciation, fill in the row, then click the check mark or press Enter. A new row left blank is not saved.
Paste a list — paste one word per line: two columns copied from a spreadsheet work directly, or type Word = Say as (add a second = for IPA).
Edit or remove — use the pencil or × on a row.
Find a word — a search box appears once you have more than 8 words. The list shows 10 words per page, with Previous and Next once it runs past one page.

Sub-section 5 — Boosted Keywords

Words callers say that the AI must hear correctly — product and model names, part names, suburbs, staff names and trade jargon. They're given to the speech recogniser so it favours these words when it transcribes the caller. They change what the AI hears, not what it says, so a word can belong in both lists — for example a model name that callers say and the AI repeats back.

Add keywords — type a keyword and press Enter or type a comma. You can also paste a comma-separated list to add them all at once. Repeats are skipped, ignoring capitals.
Remove a keyword — click the × on its badge.
Reading the list — keywords are shown as badges sorted A–Z and grouped by first letter, with keywords that start with a number under #. Each letter group has its own colour so long lists are easy to scan. The heading shows how many keywords you have.

Ask Nexie to help With Personality & Accent open, Nexie can review both lists for typos and gaps, add or remove keywords, and add, change or remove pronunciations — e.g. "Add Sprinter to my boosted keywords" or "Change Valente to Va-LEN-teh". Changes to either list go live when you click Save & Go Live.

Privacy and natural conversation

The AI answers general questions without requesting contact details. It uses details supplied in the current conversation, asks only for missing information, and accepts corrections or an explicit goodbye without restarting the intake.

A recognised phone number or matching chat identifier does not prove who is speaking. Stored names, addresses, notes, and previous conversations are not automatically disclosed. Cancellation and rescheduling require verification even when the caller uses the number on the booking. Booking details are available only after verification. If required verification cannot be completed, the AI offers staff assistance rather than bypassing the check.

Section 4 — Voice only

Call Transfer

Configure whether and how the AI transfers calls to a real person. This section is only shown for voice (Nexwin AI Receptionist) accounts — chat-only accounts skip it.

The section opens with the Call Transfer to Human toggle. When it is off, the AI never transfers a call. Turn it on and four numbered steps appear underneath. Each step is a card you click to expand; a closed card shows a one-line summary of its settings (for example "Rings 0412 345 678" or "Mum and Jess skip the AI").

Step 1 — Transfer All Calls to the Same Number

Setting	Description
Transfer Number	The phone that rings when a caller needs a real person. Accepts 04XX XXX XXX, +614XXXXXXXX, or 4XXXXXXXX. Required unless you add departments (step 2) or direct callers (step 3). Once departments exist, the field is renamed Main Number and becomes optional — it catches every transfer that doesn't match a department. If it is left blank, the AI takes a message instead.
Transfer When	The situations that trigger a transfer: customer explicitly requests a human, shows anger or frustration, asks for a discount or special pricing, has a complex matter needing a specialist, asks for a specific staff member, has an urgent matter, or has a technical issue beyond the AI. You can also type your own custom conditions and click + Add. At least one condition is required.

Step 2 — Transfer by Department

Optional — for teams where different people handle different calls. There is no separate mode to switch on: adding a department turns department routing on, and removing them all turns it off.

Add up to 10 departments. Each has a Department name, a Phone number, and a Route here when the caller… condition (e.g. "asks about billing, invoices, or payments").
When a transfer is triggered, the AI sends the call to the department whose condition matches. Every other transfer goes to the number in step 1.
Departments can be edited or removed inline, and a Routing flow summary lists them in order.

Step 3 — Direct Callers

Let special callers skip the AI and ring you directly. Calls from these numbers are put straight through to the number you choose, before the AI answers — any time of day, including after hours and holidays. Business hours and handover style don't apply.

Field	Description
Name	A label for the caller, e.g. "My wife", "Mum", "VIP client".
When the call is from	The caller's phone number. It must match exactly — calls from a withheld number never match. Each number can only have one rule.
Forward to	The number that rings for this caller.

Add up to 20 direct callers. The caller hears normal ringing until the call is answered. Forwarded calls appear in Call History and count toward your usage, but no post-call notification is sent — whoever answered took the call themselves.

Step 4 — Handover & After Hours

Applies to transfers from steps 1 and 2. Direct callers always ring straight through.

Setting	Description
Transfer Type	Warm Transfer (recommended) — the AI stays on the line after connecting, detects whether a human answered, and gives a brief handoff summary before stepping away. Cold Transfer — the call is sent to your number immediately with no AI involvement.
Talk while waiting	Warm transfers only. The AI says a message to the caller while your phone rings, so there is no dead air. On by default; the message is editable and defaults to "One moment, I'll just put you through."
Outside Business Hours	What the AI does when someone calls outside business hours and needs a human: Take a message and promise callback, Offer to schedule a callback, or Direct to voicemail. If your business hours are set to 24/7 or after-hours service, transfers are allowed at any hour and this setting doesn't apply until you switch back to standard hours.

Everything follows the toggle Direct callers are only forwarded while Call Transfer to Human is on and Allow AI to transfer calls (Personality & Accent) is ticked. Turning either off stops all transfers, including direct callers. Phone numbers are checked when you click Save & Go Live, and at least one transfer condition must be selected.

Section 5

Notifications

Get notified on the Nexwin AI iOS or Android app after every call or website chat — so you always know what your AI handled, even when you're on the tools. App push notifications are the primary channel; SMS is a legacy option kept only for accounts that already had numbers configured.

Setting	Description
Notify me after every call and chat	Master toggle for push notifications. Covers both phone calls and website chat sessions.
SMS numbers	Only shown if your account already has mobile numbers configured from before the app existed. Up to 5 Australian mobile numbers, each receiving the same SMS as the push notification. Remove them to switch fully to app notifications.
Notify me for — Every call and chat	See everything the AI handled, including routine ones.
Notify me for — Only when I need to act	Only ping when something needs your attention. Reveals a checklist of conditions below.
What counts as needing your attention	Six preset conditions, all ticked by default: customer wants a callback; AI couldn't help and a team member needs to follow up; customer asked something the AI couldn't answer; a booking was made, rescheduled, or cancelled; customer left an urgent message; customer asked for a quote or pricing. Untick any you don't need, or add your own free-text condition.

Don't have the app yet? If your account isn't linked to an installed Nexwin AI app, a banner with iOS/Android download badges appears above the toggle. Push notifications include the caller's name, contact details, and a link to the full conversation.

Section 6 — Pro (when appointments enabled)

OTP Verification

Send a one-time passcode via SMS or email to verify the caller's identity before completing sensitive actions like cancellations or changes.

Setting	Description
SMS verification	Send a 4-digit code to the caller's mobile before confirming a sensitive action. Requires the caller to read the code back.
Email verification	Send a verification code to the caller's email address instead of (or in addition to) SMS.
When the booking has no contact for the enabled OTP channels	Ask staff to help (default) leaves the booking unchanged and offers a message or callback request. Allow identity questions instead of OTP permits the weaker check of full name plus last four phone digits or full email. Applies to cancellations/rescheduling only when none of the enabled OTP channels has a stored contact. Incorrect codes and delivery errors do not trigger this fallback.

Existing accounts without this setting default to staff assistance. Callback requests do not guarantee a response or callback time. This setting also governs website-chat booking tools when OTP is configured.

Pro feature OTP Verification is only available on active paid subscriptions. The section is visible but locked on free trials and inactive accounts.

Section 7 (always visible)

Chatbot Settings

Configure the embeddable Nexwin AI Chatbot widget for your website. When set up, visitors can chat with your AI directly on your site.

Setting	Description
Logo	The logo shown in the chat bubble launcher. Picked up from your website automatically; change it to use a different one (PNG/JPG/WebP/GIF/SVG, any size — resized automatically). Falls back to the default Nexwin icon.
Colour	The colour of the chat bubble and header bar (hex colour picker).
Position	Bottom-right or bottom-left of the page.
Title	The heading shown in the chat window.
Subtitle	A short tagline shown below the title (e.g. "We reply instantly").
Welcome message	The greeting shown when a visitor first opens the chat (e.g. "Hi! How can I help you today?"). It is a static opener — the visitor replies straight to it with their question, and the AI answers that directly rather than greeting again. Keep it short and inviting. If left blank, a personalised default is generated from the assistant name and business name.
Allowed domains	Comma-separated list of domains allowed to embed the widget. Restricts unauthorised use.

Get the embed snippet After publishing, your embed code snippet is shown in the AI Setup page. Copy and paste the <script> tag into the </body> of your website.

Saving & Publishing

Going live with your configuration

Edits remain unsaved until you click Save Draft or Save & Go Live. Saving a draft does not publish it. A sticky action bar at the bottom of the page shows your current status and publish button.

1

Make your changes

Edit any section. The status pill at the top shows "Changes made" when you have unsaved edits. The leave-page confirmation appears only for genuine unsaved edits. Opening How to Handle Calls and clicking Done without editing does not create a change; undoing an edit back to its saved value clears the warning.

2

Save as draft (optional)

Click Save Draft to preserve your changes without going live. The status shows Draft saved: “Changes saved in draft. Click Save & Go Live to apply them.” You can leave the page without a warning after saving.

3

Save & Go Live

When ready, click Save & Go Live. A confirmation dialog appears — confirm to push the configuration to your live AI immediately. After a successful publication, the status shows the live version and no leave-page warning appears unless you edit again.

4

The Knowledge Base finishes in the background

If you changed your Knowledge Base, Go Live does not wait for it. Your agent publishes straight away, then a toast reads "Updating your knowledge base in the background…" while the rebuild runs.

You can leave the page during a Knowledge Base rebuild Indexing a large site takes Retell several minutes, so the rebuild is deliberately decoupled from publishing. Your live agent is relinked to the finished Knowledge Base by the server, not the browser — so it ends up correct even if you close the tab. You'll see "Knowledge base updated — your agent is using it now" if the page is still open when it lands. If the rebuild fails, the toast tells you your agent is live but the Knowledge Base didn't finish; rebuild it from the Knowledge Base page.

Publishing is immediate Once published, the new configuration applies to the next call or chat session. Test major changes during off-hours if your business receives constant call volume.

Version History

Reviewing and restoring previous versions

Every time you publish a configuration, a snapshot is saved automatically. You can view past configurations and restore them if needed.

Click Version History in the action bar to open the history drawer.
Each version shows its publish date and a preview of the configuration.
Click Restore on any past version to load it as your current draft, then publish it to go live.

← All Help Topics Knowledge Base → Open AI Setup →