Steer Your AI Receptionist During a Conversation
Tell the AI receptionist what to do next while it is texting or on a call with a client, keep it from answering while you write, and teach it the rules you give it again and again.
Sometimes you can see where a conversation should go before the receptionist does: the client would take the 3 PM if it were offered, a regular always adds a beard trim, a call has gone on long enough. Steering lets you tell the receptionist privately, while the conversation is happening, without taking it over. The client never sees what you write.
Guide the receptionistCopy a link to this section
- Open the conversation in Messaging.
- Above the composer, switch from Reply to Guide AI. The box turns violet so a note for the receptionist never looks like a message to the client.
- Write what it should do next, the way you would tell a colleague: "Offer her the 3 PM instead", "Ask if he wants a beard trim too", "Wrap it up politely".
- Press Send to AI.
What happens next depends on the conversation:
- On a text conversation the receptionist writes to the client straight away, following your note, even if it was the last one to speak. If a reply of its own was already on its way, that reply follows the note instead.
- During a live AI call the receptionist follows the note on its very next answer. It never reads the note out or says a colleague told it anything; it says it in its own words, as if it were its own idea.
Your note stays in force for the rest of the conversation (six hours on texts, two hours from a call), so later replies keep following it. The newest note wins where two disagree. A note never overrides your prices, policies, availability or anything the receptionist must never do.
Every note you or a colleague gave shows above the box with who wrote it, how long ago, and Followed once a reply has used it (Not used yet until then). The X beside a note withdraws it: the receptionist stops reading it from its next turn.
On the phone app it works the same way: the Reply and Guide AI tabs sit above the composer at the bottom of the conversation.
Teach it for next timeCopy a link to this section
If a note is how your shop always wants things done, turn on Teach It before you press Send to AI. Besides steering this conversation, Perceny drafts a standing note from it, written for every client, and puts it in the AI receptionist's settings under Activity & Improvements for the owner to accept, edit or dismiss.
Once a week Perceny also reads all the guidance your team gave, finds the rules you kept repeating ("always offer a beard trim with a haircut") and suggests those too, leaving out one-off notes about a single client. Nothing changes until the owner accepts a suggestion; an accepted one becomes an ordinary note the receptionist reads in every conversation.
Writing a reply holds the receptionistCopy a link to this section
When you start typing a reply in a text conversation, the receptionist holds its own reply so it does not talk over you. A line above the composer says so and counts down: it answers 30 seconds after you stop typing, or never, if you send your reply first. Everyone else with the conversation open sees that you are typing and that the receptionist is waiting.
Need longer? Press Extend to hold it two more minutes. Clearing your draft ends the hold at once.
Calls are never held: a caller cannot be left in silence while someone types. Use Guide AI to steer a call instead.
Whether your reply pauses the receptionist afterwards is up to the AI Stays On toggle in the composer. See The Two-Way Inbox.