A clear path to getting started.
You do not need to know AI. Start with a trial, choose one task, then adjust the instructions and tools that help your business.
Prepare your first trial
Start with your email. A website is optional, and you can try add-ons that suit your business.
- Your first call with an AI receptionistWhat happens between the first ring and the summary you receive: question order, four caller types, and what a receptionist does not say.
- Writing your business instructionsEight things will be asked of you, and you already know all of them. Here is the list, in order, with what actually changes your results.
Keep your way of working
Decide when to forward your calls and how to use your existing software.
- Keeping your number, or taking another oneYou do not have to change your number to get your calls answered. Here are the three ways to plug Zenvox into your line, and what each one changes for your customers.
- Connect your software, or use oursThree modes exist, and each promises something different. One system stays master of your calendar, and Zenvox does not build a second one behind your back.
Understand your plan
Understand the base plan, add-ons and usage before making your choice.
- Understanding credits and voiceWhat gets counted, what does not, and why meters stay separate. One answered conversation is one call, however long it runs.
- What an AI receptionist costs in QuebecFour different products share this name, and no two bill the same unit. Here is how to read a price grid before comparing it to another.
Where do you start?
With your line. Until calls actually reach a receptionist, everything else is theory: you keep your number and ask your carrier to forward calls, either all of them or only those you do not pick up.
Then your instructions: services and how each should be handled, service area, hours, which questions come first, what must alert you immediately, and what must stay unsaid. A preset for your trade already exists; you correct it rather than starting from a blank page.
Finally two decisions taken once: what gets counted in a month, and who owns an appointment — management software, a calendar, or Zenvox. Five guides below cover those four steps, in order.
What it asks of you
About an hour, in one or two sittings, and no technical skill. You write no technical prompt, build no interface key, wire no webhook. You answer questions about your business, listen to a sample, and correct whatever rings false.
The longest part is neither forwarding nor configuration: it is deciding what a receptionist may say. It is also the part that moves your results most, which is why a whole guide covers it.
Step 1 — your number and forwarding
You do not have to change your number. Three setups exist: conditional forwarding, which sends only calls you do not pick up; permanent forwarding, which sends every call; and an extra local number included in a base, useful for measuring where calls come from.
Forwarding belongs to your carrier. This guide explains what each setup changes for your customers, and setup hands you carrier codes with the date they were checked on its official page.
Step 2 — your instructions
Services, and how each is handled: one that gets booked, one that needs an on-site estimate, one where a message is simply taken. Service area. Hours, and what happens outside them.
Then question order, what triggers an immediate alert, what a receptionist does not say, and who receives a transfer depending on hour and call type. This guide walks those fields one by one, with trade examples.
Step 3 — what gets counted
An answered conversation counts as one call, however long it runs. A base includes 50 Standard calls and one local number, with no setup fee.
Other meters stay separate and do not borrow from each other: questions you ask your own assistant, replies sent to customers on written channels, text segments, transactional emails. This guide explains each, and where to watch it in an app.
Step 4 — connect or replace
If software already holds customers, work orders or appointments, it stays master: Zenvox reads and writes there, within limits qualified for that particular product.
If you have nothing, a native tool is enough to start: contacts, requests, tasks, availability, simple follow-up. This guide sets out three possible modes, and why some actions stay a recorded request rather than a direct write.
And afterwards
Once those four steps are done, what remains is tuning: adding booking into a calendar, turning on follow-up for a quote you sent, connecting an email inbox, opening a written channel, asking for a review after a confirmed job.
A help centre covers tuning screen by screen. Guides exist to make a decision understandable before you take it.
The five guides
In the order they become useful.
Frequently asked questions
Which guide should you start with?
The one on numbers and forwarding, because nothing else matters until the calls arrive. Then writing the instructions, which decides what gets said, then reading what is counted in a month, and finally the software question: connect yours, or use the one that is included.
Do you need to know anything about artificial intelligence?
No, and the product is built so that holds. There is no technical prompt to write, no access key to obtain, no automation to program in the normal path. What is asked of you are facts about your business: your services, your hours, your service area, what is urgent, who to alert.
How long before the first call comes in?
As long as it takes to fill your screens, listen to the voice and set the forward with your carrier. There is no prior consultation, no queue and no setup fee. The longest part is often the call to your carrier to check that your plan allows forwarding.
Can we try before paying?
Yes. A trial starts with an email, with no card, and add-ons are included during the trial. It is not a recorded demonstration: it is your own receptionist, on your own instructions, answering when you call your number.
What should you prepare before starting?
Your list of services, your opening hours, the towns you cover, what counts as an emergency for you, and the name of the person to alert. If you already have a paper script or an instruction given to an assistant, they work perfectly well as a starting point.
Do these guides apply to every industry?
The four decisions are the same everywhere; what changes are the examples and the guardrails. Each industry section has its own trade pages, with the questions and limits of that field — what a roofer must ask is not what a clinic must ask.
What if an answer is missing from these guides?
Write to us describing the situation. We answer in writing, and when a question recurs it ends up in a guide rather than in a private conversation. That is how this section grows: from real owners' questions, not from an imagined list.