AI Voice Agent Setup Checklist: What to Prepare Before Your Call

Your onboarding call is where your AI voice agent actually gets built — and how fast (and how well) that happens depends almost entirely on how much of this information you already have on hand. Nothing here is complicated. Most of it is stuff you already know off the top of your head. But pulling it together before the call, rather than fumbling for it during the call, is the single biggest difference between an onboarding session that wraps up in 30 minutes and one that drags into a second call.

Print this out, fill in the blanks, and bring it with you. You don't need polished answers — rough notes are fine, and it's fine to write "not sure yet" next to anything you want to talk through live. The goal isn't a perfect document; it's giving our team a running start instead of a blank page. Here's exactly what to have ready, organized in the order we'll actually walk through it.

1. Business Basics

• Your hours of operation, including any days you're closed (weekends, specific weekdays)
• Whether your hours change seasonally (e.g., shorter winter hours, extended summer hours)
• Upcoming holiday closures for the next few months, and how far in advance you usually confirm them
• Your service area — cities, towns, neighbourhoods, or a radius from your shop
• Whether you serve any areas only under certain conditions (extra travel fee, longer wait, referral only)
• Your business address, if customers ever ask for it or need directions

2. Services & Pricing

• A list of everything you offer — even a rough bullet list is enough to start from
• Approximate pricing or price ranges for your most commonly requested services
• Anything you explicitly don't offer, so the agent can say so clearly instead of guessing
• Whether pricing depends on factors the agent should ask about (square footage, vehicle type, property size, number of rooms)
• Any current promotions, seasonal pricing, or new-customer offers worth mentioning
• Deposit or minimum charge policies, if you have them

3. Common Questions

Think about the calls your team answers every single day. Write down the 5 to 10 questions that come up most — the agent needs accurate, in-your-words answers to these before anything else. Typical examples:

• "Do you offer free estimates / consultations?"
• "How soon can someone come out / how far out are you booking?"
• "Do you take walk-ins, or is it appointment only?"
• "Do you accept [insurance / warranty / specific payment method]?"
• "What's included in the price you quoted me?"
• "Are you licensed / insured / certified?"
• Any question specific to your industry that a general script wouldn't anticipate

4. Booking Logic

• Should the agent book appointments directly onto your calendar, or collect the request and hold it for your team to confirm?
• Typical length of a standard appointment or job, by service type if it varies
• Buffer time you need between appointments (travel time, setup, cleanup)
• How far in advance you're willing to book, and how last-minute is too last-minute
• Whether certain services or staff need to be booked separately from others
• Your cancellation or rescheduling policy, so the agent can quote it consistently

5. Escalation Rules

• What counts as urgent or an emergency in your business, specifically (a burst pipe is not the same as a dripping tap)
• Who should be alerted immediately for an urgent call — by text, call, or both — and what number to reach them at
• Whether after-hours emergencies should be handled differently than daytime ones
• What can safely wait for a callback during normal business hours
• How to handle an upset or frustrated caller — transfer immediately, or let the agent attempt to help first?
• Any existing customers or accounts that should always be routed to a specific person

6. Phone Number & Call Forwarding

• Whether you want to keep your existing business number and simply forward it, or port the number entirely
• Who your current phone provider is (needed if porting a number)
• Whether all calls should route to the agent, or only calls that go unanswered after a set number of rings
• Whether you want after-hours calls handled differently than business-hours calls
• If you use a multi-line or call-tree system today, a quick description of how it currently works
• Whether staff also answer this line directly during the day, or whether the agent should be the first point of contact for every call

7. Calendar & CRM Access

• What booking, calendar, or scheduling system you currently use (Google Calendar, Jobber, Calendly, a paper book — whatever it is)
• What CRM or customer database you use, if any
• Login or admin access details for whoever will be granting integration permissions (this doesn't need to be shared before the call — just know who holds it)
• If you use no system at all today, that's fine — say so, and we'll plan around it
• Whether multiple staff members currently manage bookings, and who should be the point of contact for integration questions

8. Tone & Brand Voice

• How formal or casual you want the agent to sound — buttoned-up and professional, or warm and conversational?
• Whether you want the agent introduced by your business name, your name, or both
• Whether you want the agent to proactively disclose that it's an AI assistant, or simply answer naturally as your receptionist
• Any words, phrases, or slogans your business always uses (or specifically avoids)
• Whether you serve customers in French as well as English, if relevant to your region

You don't need every answer perfected before your call — that's what the call itself is for. But showing up with rough notes on each of these eight areas means your onboarding conversation spends its time refining details instead of digging up basic facts from scratch. Most businesses that come prepared this way have a working agent script the same day, and a live agent within the following week.