The third step in setting up your AI Receptionist is creating your contacts. Contacts are the people on your team who will accept transfers or receive messages. Setting this up ensures the AI always knows who to reach when callers ask for someone directly or when a call needs to be routed.
Adding a New Contact
To add someone, click Add New Contact. You’ll be able to enter their salutation (Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc.), pronouns (so the AI can address them correctly), title, name, email, and phone number.
The “Ok to give out email address” checkbox controls whether the AI can provide this person’s email address to callers.
Titles can be used for general requests. For example, if a caller says, “Can I talk with the billing team?” and a contact’s title includes “Billing,” the AI can respond, “I can connect you with [contact name].”
The Mask checkbox allows you to hide a person’s real name. For instance, instead of saying “John Smith,” the AI can refer to them as “Service Technician.”
Call Handling Settings
Each contact has a Call Handling menu, where you can control how the AI manages their calls. Here you can set:
Which phone number the AI should call for transfers
Where notifications go (email, text, or both)
Whether to transfer if requested by name, or just take a message
Availability and status details
Transfers can be configured in two ways:
Supervised transfer (warm transfer): The AI Receptionist announces the caller and reason for the call, then asks if you want to accept or decline before connecting you.
Blind transfer: The AI connects the caller directly, and the call is concluded on our end. If you're unavailable, the caller can leave a voicemail with you. This is good for large contact lists, where the AI is utilized as more of a directory.
Message Notifications
You can also add emails and phone numbers that should receive notifications about this person’s calls. Phone numbers will receive the call details via SMS.
Schedules and Statuses
By default, each contact's availability reflects the business hours you set earlier. If you want someone to be available 24/7 for transfers, you can remove their scheduled status. You’ll also see options for Recurring Scheduled Statuses and Upcoming Statuses, which let you set future availability in advance.
Avoiding Call Loops
It’s important to make sure your contacts’ transfer numbers are set correctly. Using the wrong number can cause problems with call routing.
⚠️ Very Important: Never set a contact’s transfer number to the same line that is forwarding calls to the AI. Doing so will create a call loop—when the AI tries to transfer a caller to your team, it will reach itself and start over. Always use a unique number for transfers, such as a contact’s cell phone.
Example: if your company’s main line is forwarding to the AI Receptionist, do not also list that line as a contact’s transfer number.
Once your contacts are set up, the AI Receptionist knows exactly who can accept calls and messages. The next step is to fine-tune your call handling diagram, which controls how calls are routed between the AI Receptionist and your team.